Success story of an unemployed youth

Shahzada Khan, 26, could not continue his studies after completing higher secondary as he had to take the helm of his family to overcome financial hardship.

With his meagre academic qualification, Shahzada, eldest among four siblings, aggressively looked for a job but got no suitable one. A hopeless Shahzada then came to know of a project titled Empower Youth for Work run by non-governmental organisation Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service.

There he got training on life skills and soft skills that inspired him to be self-dependent and initiate his own venture to make livelihoods.

Borrowing Tk 15,000, Shahzada established a nursery on the 30 decimal of land his family had and started growing saplings of varieties of flowers, vegetables, and other fruit and woody.

The training at the NGO helped him getting better output as he passionately took care of the plants. The quality of saplings from his nursery created a huge demand among local hobbyist gardeners and green enthusiasts.

Now Shahzada earns at least Tk 30,000 a month from selling saplings.

The EYW project of RDRS also appointed him as a trainer of an entrepreneurship programme on small businesses for his success in the nursery and he became a source of inspiration for many of the youths in the remote village Jumma Khan in Ranipukur union of Mithapukur in Rangpur.

Talking to The Business Post, Shahzada said it was really tough and challenging to overcome the hardships of life. “Skills and dedication are very important to become successful in any work. I was determined and involved all my engagements to acquire skills,” he said.

The EYW project of RDRS is funded by Oxfam Bangladesh and it is working to impart entrepreneurship skills among the unemployed youths for their sustainable development, said the project coordinator Dipok Chandra Nath.

“We provide the youths with training on life and soft skills including nursery, livestock, IT, and report writing,” Dipok said.