Date 07-12-2018
YES Alumni Bangladesh held the closing ceremony to their project, 3.5 Billion Reasons
28th April, 2017, Dhaka - In November, 2015, twenty brave teenage girls from different rural to less-developed parts of Bangladesh came together for something brilliant. With the guidance of 10 university-going “Big Sisters”, these girls attended a two-day workshop on identifying women’s problems all over Bangladesh, recognizing the vitality of higher education, and developing leadership skills to empower women and girls in their own communities. Last Friday marked the end of this remarkable journey. At BRAC Learning Center on 28th April, 2017, YES Alumni Bangladesh held the closing ceremony to their project, 3.5 Billion Reasons, with certificates, sharing of experiences, and a photo exhibition. YES Alumni Bangladesh is the community of alumni of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program, which is a ten-month-long exchange program for high school teenagers funded by the United States Department of State. The students who successfully complete the exchange program then come home to join the YES Alumni Association in Bangladesh, which has a focus on conducting community-service and voluntary projects. 3.5 Billion Reasons was one such project led by member YES Alumnus Mustahsin Islam. From the workshop that was conducted in November, the participant girls went home to do their own projects to bring what they learned from the workshop into life. Five months later, the participants, the mentors, the organizers and honorable guests gathered to mark the closure of the project and reflect on what was learned through it. Many participants shared their stories of having to defy traditional gender roles set by their own teachers and elders in the community to participate in the project, and reported to go back home do workshops of their own - on standing against child marriage, continuing higher education, and leadership. Many even started their own educational and extracurricular clubs. The project was marked as a success in teaching young girls leadership and growing awareness of women’s problems in society and how to fight them.
Organised to observe International Day of the Girl for the American Center Girls’ Club members.
A leadership training program for young women that addresses the urgency of pursuing higher education
Students were trained on Democracy & Human Rights, Safe Hygiene Practice, Food Safety and Security, etc.
Female students from outside Dhaka attended a day-long workshop and seminar sessions
YES Alumni Bangladesh extend their hands to a local youth organization working for the betterment of the community
To offer basic knowledge and skills to school-going female students on how to defend themselves
To empower India's youth to combat gender-based violence prevailing in the society
Creating awareness, cooperation and inclusivity, and spreading of the light of volunteerism
An annual music festival that brings together musicians and world leaders
To promote discourse about social issues through Public Speaking, Writing, Art, Film-making and Photography
A 2 month-long project empowering female students of the community with free Basic computer
To give high school students of Chittagong a fairly basic understanding of self-defence
To collect information from the kids, as well as to have a friendly conversation with them.
Small Steps Towards English aims to give underprivileged children a chance at English education
The workshop was held to observe the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign program
To gather the stakeholders of Girls' club such as YES Alumni, SAYS organization and BYLC
Established with the prime objective of improving global competence among students and educators
Why knowing defence techniques are necessary for everyone and how it can help to avoid dangerous situations
The US Embassy Dhaka invited Mustahsin Islam to talk about the everlasting bridges that are formed between two cultures
Online competition for high school students to employ their critical thinking ability and creativity