Countdown to Joy Bangla Youth Awards 2018

Countdown to Joy Bangla Youth Awards 2018

The wait is almost over. It is just a matter of couple of days now. After a nearly four-month long process of registration, activation, and scrutiny of over 2,500 applications, Young Bangla has finally come down to a list of 50 finalists for the Joy Bangla Youth Award 2018. Young Bangla, the largest national platform for Bangladeshi youth, is all set to host the Joy Bangla Youth Award 2018 on October 28 at the Sheikh Hasina National Youth Development Institute (SHNYDI), Savar. This is going to be the third edition of the prestigious award after the previous two editions of 2017 and 2015. The award, a flagship program of Young Bangla, recognizes promising innovators, initiators and change-makers from our youth group who are working for their respective communities and the nation. This time, 50 youth-led organizations will be selected on day one (October 27) and on day two, the name of the top 30 organizations will be declared (October 28) who will receive the award. Sajeeb Wajed, ICT adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh will hand over the award to the best 10 youth-led organizations. The ceremony will be attended by government officials, political figures, business persons, youth icons and representatives of the creative and civil society.

Activation Campaigns
During the process, the divisional coordination teams of Young Bangla, led by the winners of Joy Bangla Youth Award 2015 and 2017, played a key role in making sure that the best organizations from the grassroots applied for the award. The media and Young Bangla’s network partners also extended a praiseworthy helping hand in disseminating messages throughout the registration process.

Prior to the application call, there was a pre-call network meeting with the winners of JBYA-2015 & 2017, coordinators of Sheikh Russel Digital Labs (SRDLs), all of whom are Young Bangla members. During that meeting at Dhaka in May, the roadmap for the next phases of town hall and district activations and the evaluation and scrutiny process were laid. A nationwide activation process initiated soon after the pre-call network meeting through divisional, town hall and campus activations.

The events organized include District Level Multi Stakeholders, Upazila Level Town Hall Activations, University Campus Activations and District Level Activations. The Multi Stakeholders’ Meetings were organized by the Activation Teams made by the CRI-Young Bangla Secretariat. So far, 34 Multi Stakeholders’ Meetings were organized across the nation. 140 Town Hall Activations have taken place at the Upazila (sub-district) Level and Campus Activations were organized in 18 university campuses across the nation.

Evaluation Phase:
Initial evaluation began with the primary sorting of 200 organizations from out of the 2,500 applications received from all the eight divisions in the country with the assistance of the existing Young Bangla network. The second phase of sorting through form evaluation and phone interview cut down the number to 100. Preparations are underway for ceremony of Joy Bangla Youth Award 2018. Through a comprehensive search over three and a half months, Young Bangla has found out 50 new youth led organizations after field-level assessment.

Joy Bangla Youth Awards Fringe Events
All the 50 finalists have been invited at the venue which has residential facilities. Two representatives from each of the 50 finalist organizations will take part in a two-day grooming and networking program before the main award function.

The award ceremony will be alive when representatives of selected organizations assemble at the venue form the noon of October 26. There will be an orientation session at that night when participants will get to know each other.

The power-pack award event will kick-off from October 27. The morning will be marked with a session called “Career Talk” participated by 200 youths including previous 60 awardees. The participants will get a platform to share success stories as entrepreneurs, about barriers and challenges and ways to overcome challenges. Also, interactive discussion will take place on recruitment process, human resource development, etc in the session. Representatives from Joy Bangla Youth Awards 2018 partner organisation: Sol Share, Priyo Shop, Sheba XYZ, Audmedix, Microsoft, Kormo, E-Village, Gemcon, Bangla Cat, Aamra Group of Companies, Beximco, Square and Summit Group, will share their enterprising journey and give orientation about the challenges related with hiring fresh entrants to business entities.

Next on the roster is Young Bangla secretariat, Centre for Research and Information (CRI)’s signature program “Let’s Talk” on 27th October (Saturday) from 3.00 pm – 5.00pm. The topic of discussion is Tarunner Joy Bangla, (Joy Bangla of Youth) with an all youth panellists working in different sector, namely 3 Joy Bangla Youth Awardees (2015 & 2017) from culture, community and micro entrepreneurship and 3 renowned persons from sports, adventure, and entrepreneurship (SME). The session will be moderated by CRI Senior Policy Analyst, Barrister Shah Ali Farhad. The panel includes Nishat Majumder- First Everest Bangladeshi Climber, Bhasani Akter- Women Entrepreneur, Mahfuza Khatun Shila- Swimmer along with previous Joy Bangla Youth Winners Umme Syema Joya, Anis Morshed, and Kumar Bishwajit. Diverse topics ranging from mental and physical health, education-skill and employment to civic responsibility and future Bangladesh are going to be discussed.

A Gender Training session titled “#BE BRAVE End Violence Against Women and Girls” on 28th October (Sunday) from 09.15 am – 11.15 am. The 2-hour gender session will be conducted on 28th October morning by Dr Syed Md Saikh Imtiaz, Associate Professor at the Women and Gender Studies Department of Dhaka University. The participants will include members of the 50 selected organisations for the JBYA 2018 along with other selected Young Bangla members. The session consists of a series of co-curricular community centric activities aimed at developing a positive mind set among the youth, especially men regarding the rights of women and girls. Every participant has to reflects on how he interacts with and treats the members of the opposite gender, discuss their perspectives and stigma surrounding gender stereotypes and address issues surrounding gender based violence in the local and national level.

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