Nurul Islam, 46, teaches chemistry at Faridpur Government Girls' High School. But he is known not only as a teacher but also as a kind-hearted man: teaching may be his profession, but social service has become his passion.

Nurul Islam shops for the poor and helps beggars and people in need, all with his own money. Many people at home and abroad have offered financial help, but he has not accepted it.

Since childhood he has practised doing at least one good deed every month, something he learned from his parents. From 2019 he began carrying out his social initiatives more regularly.

Over the past eight years he has planted at least 60,000 saplings at his own expense beside schools, roads and railway lines, including krishnachura, radhachura, shimul, coconut, betel nut, palm and various fruit and flower trees. Of these, 25,000 were palm seeds. He also sets aside part of his salary to distribute food among the poor and give new clothes to underprivileged children at Eid.

Nurul Islam completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 2000 and his master's in 2001, and joined Faridpur Government Girls' High School in 2006. He lives in Kamalapur mohalla of Faridpur town. His father, Abdur Rahman Fakir, is a freedom fighter and health assistant; his mother, Nur Begum, was a housewife.

He is the eldest of six siblings. His wife, Shamima Nasrin, is a housewife, and they have a son (12) and a daughter (14).

Raima Akter, a seventh-grade student at the school, said: "Sir once told us in class that if you can become a good person, that is real education. I always remember this. It is the biggest lesson of my life. Sir does not just teach chemistry; he also teaches how to be a good person."

Nurul Islam said: "I do not just plant trees, I take care of them too. Alongside that I do social work with my own money. It gives me satisfaction. If, after I retire or even after I die, people say he lived for others, that will be my greatest achievement."

The social organisation "Ora Egaro Jon" honoured him in 2023 and gave him the title "Brikkhobondhu" (friend of trees). Its president, Mahbub Hossain Pial, told Jagonews: "We have seen Nurul Islam bhai since we were children. He is more than a teacher; he is a guardian of this community."

Probir Kanti Panna Bala, general secretary of Faridpur Nagorik Mancha, told Jagonews: "The number of selfless people in society is shrinking. In that light, teacher Nurul Islam is an enlightened and rare person."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.