It was an opportunity for me to join the Active Citizens Youth Leadership Training organised by the British Council and Democracy Watch in 2017. I feel honoured to get the opportunity to participate at the International Study Visit (ISV). Only two were selected to represent Bangladesh at the ISV among 7000. There were 29 more participants from 15 different countries who joined us at the ISV. We stayed there for a week and shared our views about global, social and political issues that we are facing worldwide. The four day long training was a life changing experience for us. We also enjoyed the chance to meet NGO workers, volunteers and influential social leaders. It was an honour to meet Baroness Manzila Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin of the House of Lords. There were other prestigious opportunities like visiting the House of Lords, House of Commons and meeting Mayor of the town of Rotherham town Cllr. Eve Rose Kennan. On the last day of the training, we took part in a Social Action Project (SAP). All the participants gave one idea each. To my amazement, my idea BoiBodol (Book Exchange) became the highest voted project! I never knew that this very idea would have taken me to places!
BoiBodol works with the students of the University of Dhaka. It is a book sharing and exchanging platform. We use basic technological tools and elements, such as - Google Sheet and social media page etc. With a simple Gmail account one can get an access to our online database for free. However, the starting was not as simple as it sounds. It took more than a month to figure out the most feasible solution. It was a learning process for us. Initially we had a perception that since BoiBodol is based on exchanging academic books it probably won’t be popular one of the students. However, we were surprised to notice the increasing number of users on our site. The demand of the project was visible. And at the same time, we were approached by book donors and recipients. Now there are more than thousand active followers for BoiBodol.
Our primary intention is to help students. Generally, after every semester, students do not use their used books anymore. We collect those books from donors and enlist them in our database. As we don’t have any official set up and or library to keep our books, we keep those books at our residential dormitories.
It gives me immense pleasure and hope when I see, inspired by our project, many similar projects have been taken up around Bangladesh in different university campuses by youth. We became enthusiastic observing the eagerness of the younger minds. We started to broaden our approach. Now, we organise small meetings with our volunteers and general students to discuss different social issues. We are also working to develop their skills by hosting workshops and experience-sharing sessions on various topics. At Savar, 40 KM away from Dhaka, we have formed a school branch of BoiBodol. We have organised the Hult Prize at the University of Dhaka for the first time which is a student idea competition where most of the universities of Bangladesh participated.
In my short career, taking part in the ISV has been a unique experience. I have learnt a lot from the social activities that people are doing at that part of the world. Social workers and volunteers are active not only in solving social problems but also in education, vocational knowledge, art and culture etc. Participants from other countries are also trying to overcome the hurdles that they face in their communities. Language and culture are never a limitation at ISV. We interacted a lot, had fun and also heard from our friends from foreign countries. At the end of the long training sessions, we all would gather, sing, dance and shared what we had in our own cultures. But the most significant memory for me was to go live on ‘Redroad FM’, a community radio based in Rotherham, and talk about my country and project and to dedicate the famous Bangla song “Ore Neel Dariya” for the audience.
I am always a backbencher. Most of my time is spent by chatting with friends. I am working with different clubs at my university. My university life is nearly at its eleventh hour. I was never serious about my study, but ISV has taught me that if I want to change the world, then I should change myself first, like what Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in this world.”
I love to read non-academic books, to travel plenty and to make new friends. I have a plan to go for higher study abroad and then come back to Bangladesh so that I can disseminate the learning that I’ve learnt from there. I believe if we all work together, we’ll soon get a “Shonar Bangla”.