2018 is a year of achievement for me and my organisation as I have recieved the Commonwealth Point of Light Award, offered to me by Her Majesty the Queen as the Head of Commonwealth for our project "Let's Fight Against Thalassaemia". I am honoured to receive such a prestigious award. The award shines a light not just on my own volunteer work but the wider work of young volunteers across Bangladesh. The journey started in 2013 when I along with my friends joined the Active Citizen Youth Leadership Training. My life changed on the very first day. I knew I was here to bring a positive change in the society.
The roads were not smooth at the beginning; after month-long training, our team was not able to initiate an idea together, and we disbanded. I was alone, and I had no Social Action Project (SAP). Even then I didn't lose hope and was motivated to start something. Few months later, I inspired some of my friends to join the Active Citizen Leadership Training. Together we formed the Youth Club of Bangladesh. Through this activity, I was selected for Active Citizen Facilitator Training. This was a seven-day long residential training, after which I was able to start a new journey as a Facilitator. Since 2014, I have facilitated more than 30 training sessions.
In October 2014, I designed a Social Action Project named “Lets Fight against Thalassaemia” a project raising awareness of the fatal hereditary blood disorder which affects the production of red blood cells and is common amongst individuals of South Asian origin. For last four years I along with my team is running this project and this is said to be one of the longest SAP in the Active Citizen Program. Initially we faced a lot of diffculties beacuse of the lack of awareness around Thalassaemia in our community. Therefore, our first step was to create awareness and exceptability regaridng the disease with in the community. We partnered up with Bangladesh Thalassaemia Samity and started a pilot project of six months. We organised more than 15 campaigns during these timeline, including a Blood Donation Camp, roundtable and panel discussions, awareness seminar in different universities etc. After six months’ success with these activities, we organised Bangladesh’s first day-long conference on Thalassaemia for both medical and non medical professional as well as for the general citizens. This conference was titled Thalassaemia: Treatment and Beyond. 24 speakers joined the day long conference and discussed Thalassaemia in six different panels. Following the conference we agreed on a year long partnership with Bangladesh Thalassaemia Samity and recieved funds from Bangladesh Bank for our further work. More than 40 Thalassaemia carrier detection projects were launched and 4600 blood samples were collected. We also received funds from Major Khalak and Salak Trust for carrier detection, through which we collected 1100 more samples. Over the last four years, we have successfully organised more than 185 awareness campaigns, carrier detection projects, seminars, and celebrated International Thalassaemia Day with rallies, poster campaigns and patient-parents gatherings.
To overcome the misconceptions around Thalaseamia and initiate a holistic approach we designed and started the Bangladesh’s first Thalassaemia- based Android application named ABC of Thalassaemia. We also worked on the first Government Thalassaemia Research Project, which was funded by Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and co-implemented by Bangladesh Thalassaemia Samity and Center for Research and Development Studies. During these four years I was selected by the British Council at the Project Showcasing programme and the International Study Visit programme at the United Kingdom. These two programme gave me experience of life time and helped me to exchange my ideas and project with peer groups.
Thalassaemia is an important disease that we must be aware of, and I hope the work of our platform Youth Club of Bangladesh inspires others to bring positive change to their local community and society as a whole. My deepest gratitude to the British Council for giving me the opportunity to participate in the Active Citizens programme which has undoubtedly supported me to grow as a volunteer leader.
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