“You will always be part of the problem if you do not decide to be part of the solution”- I learnt this by heart when I joined Active Citizen Youth Leadership Training (ACYLT) in 2013. 'Youth Voice' was my first social action project as an Active citizen. It was a weekly live radio program where young people could talk about their problems and interact with the public. Over the time, this show became popular among the youth. It raised social awareness as well as made the youth confident to share their thoughts. I was selected by the British Council to represent this project at an International Study Visit in the UK. I started sharing my learning from this visit online which was greatly appreciated. I was awarded the ‘Best Digital International Study Visit Candidate’ at the Active Citizens Achievers Summit 2014, but I became happier when my project was acknowledged as one of the Best Social Action Projects on that very summit. This motivated me to do more for my community by engaging young people in the development process. I started facilitating ACYLT from June 2014.
The involvement of girls was however not as much as I had expected. I realised they were scared because they became victims of gender-based violence and harassment every day. They were not even safe in the university campus. The girls needed to learn to raise their voice against this. I initiated an online campaign with more than 20,000 followers to protest against sexual harassment in 2015. This protest later took the shape of a series of protests in different educational institutions in Bangladesh. I started raising public support for this issue through my radio program ‘Break the Silence’ where real harassment stories were shared along with their psychological condition.
I started receiving heart-wrenching stories and I could see that most of the stories were about children getting sexually abused when they were only a child and they had no idea about what was happening to them. This is mainly because, in Bangladesh, children are not taught about good touch, bad touch and their sexual wellbeing thus their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) are often violated even when they have grown up. This was a call for action for me. After receiving a capacity building training on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights by Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), I am now facilitating workshops and training for adolescents and youth in collaboration with Durbin Foundation.
I have been privileged to represent Bangladesh at United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum at the United Nations Head Quarter in New York in 2015. I suggested the inclusion of the political study in the school curriculum in order to stimulate meaningful youth participation in policy making.
I never imagined that I could become inspirational for young people of Bangladesh if it was not for the British Council’s Active Citizens Project. They always gave me chance to share my good work by inviting me to meet important people. The opportunities that I was provided by the British Council strengthened my sense of responsibility towards the community. When young people express their interest in community development, I ask them to join the British Council’s Active Citizens programme, to begin with, because no other training inspired me as much as this one.