Shorif Zakir Hossain Hira volunteers his time to help women in distress. He has quit his job with the government to become a full time social worker even though he has two sons to support. He is a member of the Madhya Balubari Welfare Society in Dinajpur and has been actively involved in campaigns to prevent family violence. He is also involved with various awareness-raising activities in the municipality as a member of the Community Resource Management Committee (CRMC) formed under the aegis of the UNICEF Slum Development Project.

Madhya Balubari Welfare Society works in an area that is predominantly inhabited by horijans. It helps in organising social programmes so that people can come together. It also makes attempts to rehabilitate youth who have become addicted to drugs. As a chief patron of the club, Hira ensures that the young people seek recreational activities so that the temptation to abuse drugs is curtailed. His initiatives have helped close down drug dens where police efforts have failed.

To help the youth of the locality find employment, Hira trains them in automobile driving. Five women are now being trained in driving as a part of the CRMC Vocational Training programme. Training women has not been easy. There was stiff resistance from the community members in the beginning. People argued that these efforts would corrupt the women. But the CRMC persisted and went from door-to-door to persuade the people to allow them to do this. The fallout is that many families are now willing to send their daughters to learn driving.

Hira also works to curb violence against women. "To make men aware of the negative impacts of family violence, we convince them to set good precedents in their own homes so that their daughters can lead happy lives in their husband’s homes. The men’s behaviour could help their daughters gain knowledge of their rights and stand up to violence against them, “ says Hira.