RAJSHAHI, June 10, 2019 (BSS)- More than 180 youths, half of them are female, have come together towards enhancing their level of confidence for ensuring equitable, inclusive and sustainable development in an effort to playing effective role as social watchdog.
The organized youths ranging from 18 to 30 years mainly coming from the poor and marginalised communities have acquired knowledge on how to find out their community level existing problems.
Apart from, most of them are students in different institutions, are now capable of sharing those among all the people and stakeholders including the local government institution people.
To this end, they are implementing the Social Action Project with their self-management.
Prior to this, they were imparted training on various need-based issues like transparency, accountability, inclusivity, basic citizens’ rights, leadership, primary healthcare, grants management, project design and community needs assessment.
The training included several individual and group presentations on social issues through which participants demonstrated their creativity and communication skills. It focused on founding fundamental leadership attributes among the participants.
More than 347 other like-minded youths have joined their hands to them supplementing the efforts of ensuring awareness on right to information, effective ward meeting, social harmony, quality education in primary schools, preventing violence against women and children and citizen charter for better services.
The youths have reached the messages related to the basic social needs to more than 10,000 grassroots people including 4,340 females on how they can get the civic services easily.
As a whole, the youths established platforms creating a shared understanding among community citizens side by side with enhancing the capacity of local leaders and social cohesion and creating safe spaces for productive dialogues and discussions on issues fundamental to a pluralistic society.
With intervention of a project, the life-skill development and capacity building activities were implemented in Ward – 5 of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) and Bakshimoil, Dhurail, Jahanabad and Mougachhi Unions under Mohanpur Upazila of the district, said Advocate Abdus Salam, Chairman of Mohanpur Upazila.
The Hunger Project Bangladesh has implemented the 21-months project styled “Promoting Democratic Inclusion and Governance through Youth (PRODIGY)” with financial support of British Council.
Project Field Coordinator Subrata Kumar Pal says the scheme has given utmost importance on financial management, citizenship, governance and local governance and good governance sector.
Sharing their respective working experience with the program Nurun Laboni, 26, and Mehedi Hasan, 23 in RCC, Mahfuzul Haque, 24, and Tania Khatu, 24, in Baksimoil union, Nargis Ara, 24, and Mamun Al Mahmud, 24, in Jahanabad union, Nasrin Khatun, 25, and Rokibul Islam, 23, in Mougachi union and Firoz Al Mahmud, 21, and Gulnahar Begum, 23, in Dhurail union unanimously opined that they have got a new platform of doing something better for the society.
Talking to BSS on the issue, Md Kamruzzaman, Councilor of RCC’s Ward No. 5, says the benevolent activities of the youths are directly supplementing the government efforts of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Highlighting its salient features Subrata Kumar Pal says PRODIGY program is intended to build the capacity of young people to ensure good governance in local government activities and they can lead people participation.
The present society needs such type of more works, he added. It also works to promote civic participation and advocate the principles of integrity, accountability, transparency and inclusive at the heart of good governance.