Yeasha Sobhan, vice-chairman of Safwan Bashundhara Global and a director of Bashundhara Group, has received the Mother Teresa International Peace Award 2026 for her work supporting children with autism and other special needs.
The SAARC Cultural Forum presented the award at a ceremony at a Dhaka hotel on Saturday, August 29, according to a press release.
Sobhan is also chairman of the Bashundhara Special Children Foundation, established in 2017, which currently supports more than 600 students with special needs through education, care, guidance and development programmes.
The award recognised her work "to increase awareness of autism and other special needs and promote greater inclusion and opportunities for children in Bangladesh."
Sobhan has also been involved with initiatives linked to the Thalassemia Foundation and interest-free microcredit programmes aimed at providing financial and livelihood support to disadvantaged families.
However, publicly available information about the specific award presented by the SAARC Cultural Forum remains limited.
The organisers have not publicly detailed, in readily accessible sources, the award's selection process, judging panel or whether it carries any monetary prize.
There are also several different awards carrying Mother Teresa's name, organised by separate organisations, making comparisons between their recipients difficult.
Former Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni, for example, received a Mother Teresa International Award in Kolkata in 2012 for contributions to social welfare and administrative work.
That award was presented by a separate Mother Teresa International Award Committee headed by Anthony Arun Biswas.
Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir also received a Mother Teresa International Award in Kolkata in 2022. Reports at the time said previous Bangladeshi recipients included then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Dipu Moni and Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan.
Separately, Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain, who was killed in the 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka, was posthumously given the Mother Teresa International Award for Social Justice by Mumbai-based Harmony Foundation. That is another distinct award programme.
Harmony Foundation's award, launched in 2005, has had internationally prominent recipients including the Dalai Lama, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and Médecins Sans Frontières.
Yet another organisation, the All India Minorities and Weaker Sections Council, operates what it calls the Mother Teresa International Awards and lists its own recipients.
The press release announcing Sobhan's award did not mention a cash component, and no reliable publicly available information reviewed for this report establishes that the SAARC Cultural Forum award carries prize money.
The release said the recognition underscored the importance of sustained education, therapy, care and skills development for children with special needs and creating opportunities for them to lead more independent lives.
It also credited Sobhan's leadership at Safwan Bashundhara Global with contributing to business expansion and employment generation.
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