
House of Volunteers was co-founded at MIT in 2007 by a then-PhD student, Sudipta Sarkar. Along with community members Aminul Haque, Ashirul Amin and Adnan Yusuf as non-MIT members, HOV was established to devise low cost, high impact educational solutions for Bangladesh. Almost at inception, a fourth contributor signed on enthusiastically from Bangladesh: Muhammad Ahsanullah Khan Faisal. As a recent graduate from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, he had contacts within the student body at his alma mater, thus providing HoV with its first group of volunteers.
HOV was and is all about volunteerism. The core premise was that students have boundless energy: if channelled properly, it could be harnessed to do immense good in society while imparting a sense of accomplishment to contributors. As well, by cutting down on overhead this way, a majority of the funds collected for community work could be used for just that.
Through Md Abu Hasan and Muhammad Ahsanullah Khan Faisal, the BUET chapter of HOV was formally established in March 2009. The first project undertaken by the then-fledgling organization straddling continents was the Open Source Computer Education Project (OSCEP) — the first such project was opened at Joynagar in Comilla in November of 2008.
2007
Where all the things begin
2008
OSCEP First Pilot Project
On Opens Source Computer Education Program (OSCEP) in Comilla
2009
Registration
BUET Chapter
2010
Book Drive Project Initiated
First container of books shipped in October
2011
Partnership with Chevron
In OSCEP projects at Sylhet and Moulvibazar
DU Chapter
House of Volunteers – Dhaka University started its journey
2012
EAP Initiated
Pilot project of Earthquake Awareness Program (EAP) at 2 schools that covered 2000 students
Book Drive Project Completed (Sept. 2012)
2013
Partnership with the EMK Center for EAP
2014
EAP Completed
Full phase project on EAP Completed (Sep, 2014)
AUST Chapter
at Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology started
Orientation Program
Launched HOV orientation program at 25 December