Kazi Fouzia Awarded for Community Organizing
Kazi Fouzia has been honored for his work on behalf of the immigrant community in the United States for more than a decade. She is the organizing director of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM). Shahana Hanif, a New York City Council member, gave Kazi Fouzia a signed proclamation at a small event in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening.
In a tweet post council member Shahana Hanif mentioned that “I was so proud yesterday to give a proclamation to kazi Fouzia, one of lead organizers for @DesisRisngUp! I have worked and organized with kazi for many years now and am happy to able to give her the recognition she deserves. Our city is better place because of her!”
Kazi Fouzia said in a response to Muslim News Network, "council member Shahana Hanif don’t announce that she is giving me proclamation, it’s quite surprise situation for me. I can say I don’t work for award! I work for immigrant community and make this city safe and better place for immigrant like me and my fellow DRUM members."
Kazi Fouzia comes from a long history of struggles for justice. In Bangladesh, Kazi was a community organizer involved with a street vendors union, free community health clinics, and free education for slum children. She worked with several community and women’s organizations such as Women Watch Bangladesh, a national union of the small and cottage industry. She also participated in women’s leadership and capacity building training and community theater for social justice. In 2007 she was selected, along with 13 other South Asian women, for the State Department International Visitor Leadership Program, through which she met unions and community organizers in Los Angeles, Texas, Washington D.C., and New York City. Kazi immigrated from Bangladesh to the U.S. in 2008 and became a designer and seamstress at retail sari shops in Jamaica and Jackson Heights, Queens. She was introduced to DRUM in 2009 through a ‘Know your Rights’ workshop for workers. For the past few years, Kazi has been involved with DRUM as a member, leader, Community Organizer, and now as the Director of Organizing. In 2010 Kazi trained with the Center for Third World Organizing and the School of Unity and Liberation. In 2013, she received the Immigrant Heritage Award from the office of Councilmember Daniel Dromm. She regularly writes in the Bangla media about DRUM’s work and regarding workers, immigrant rights, and racial profiling, as part of her commitment to fighting for the rights of low-income South Asians”.
