After military service and a successful career in retailing, Fred was drawn to the Indian Sub Continent region. This is where he became involved in children’s charity work and started looking after an orphanage-farm run by an Australian aid agency.
This life-changing experience gave him a special insight into the needs of a child on Bhola Island in Bangladesh. and sparked off an idea – to provide basic education such as reading, writing and maths, for as many local children as possible.
After years of laying the ground work, he established the CO-ID charity for children in 1991 on Bhola Island in Bangladesh, still considered to be one of the developing world’s poorest countries.