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

Inception of HOV at MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March

2008

OSCEP First Pilot Project

On Opens Source Computer Education Program (OSCEP) in Comilla

2009

Registration

‘House of Volunteers’ registered as Non-profit in Bangladesh

BUET Chapter

First formal student chapter at BUET in Bangladesh

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

2015

First formal AGM

Annual General Meeting of House of Volunteers (HOV) held in Jan, 2015

SJWP Launched

organized Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) Natural Competition in Bangladesh (May, 2015)

2016

SJWP 2nd Season

Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) Natural Competition in Bangladesh

2017

Award of Merit

in the Main Competition

SJWP 3rd Season

organized and Bangladesh Team won

2018

Newsletter Launched

January 2018

SJWP 4th Season

organized