Mahmuda Begum, 52, was groaning at a city hospital, where she ended up after being diagnosed with dengue fever recently. She needed four bags of A negative blood. Her relatives were frantically looking for blood here and there.
That was when her son Ashraful Islam came to know about Bloodman, the first digital blood donor matchmaking platform in Bangladesh. He requested its Founder and Chairman Md Sahariar Hasan Jiisun to collect blood for his mother.
Jiisun called some Bloodman members and quickly managed the required blood. Mahmuda survived dengue, thanks to Bloodman.
The Bloodman chairman told The Business Post he had received lots of requests from friends and relatives to arrange blood like the Mahmuda incident when he was a student of the University of Dhaka. Driven by that, he founded the non-profit youth organisation in 2014.
He built a database of the members’ names, blood groups, and contact numbers so that he could communicate with them quickly when necessary. The database has now grown to contain information of over one lakh people.
Jiisun said Bloodman had saved many lives by arranging blood donors for over four lakh people across the country in the last seven years. The organisation has also collaborated with many others, including the ICT Division and Facebook, to promote the use of technology for better access to safe blood for saving lives.
“We have 6,000 dedicated volunteers and over one lakh blood donors in the country. We arranged programmes in 100 hospitals to teach people the blood collection process. We will organise such programmes in 1,000 hospitals,” he added.
Like Bloodman, there are a lot of volunteer organisations in the country working for ensuring the rights of street and differently abled people, transgender communities, slum dwellers, and the extreme poor. Thousands of youngsters, mostly students, are working for these organisations to build a better society.
As youths are the powerhouse of a nation, experts have suggested their increased participation in the society’s mainstream activities so that they can play a significant role in setting the tone for the future growth of Bangladesh.
They also said the youth society should be analysed in greater depth for engaging them in socioeconomic activities for the sake of social transformation that will help Bangladesh achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Talking to The Business Post, General Secretary of Brihonnola, a university-based non-profit youth organisation, Md Asif Mia said they had been working for the transgender community’s overall development in Bangladesh.
He said there is no exact data on the number of transgender people in the country.
“Some 200 transgender youths are working with us. Unofficial estimates say there are around five lakh transgender people in Bangladesh,” he said.
His organisation received the Joy Bangla Youth Award in 2018 for contributing to positive social transformations. Brihonnola also built an emergency team of 15 members to serve Covid-19 patients last year. The team would be on standby at Dhaka Medical College Hospital from morning to evening with auto-rickshaws and cars to carry patients free of cost.
Asif said his organisation had planted a lot of trees this week and had distributed masks to tackle the virus.
The government should carry out a survey on transgender people to include them in the mainstream society, he added.
Bangladesh Youth Initiative President Jaber Ubaed said they had served more than one lakh people across the country between 2017 and September this year by distributing personal protective equipment, education materials, and meals, and also arranging skill development programmes.
He said they want to build a decent society by engaging the youth that would help the nation achieve the SDGs by 2030.
“A country cannot be developed without youths’ contribution. They should be engaged in all development programmes. Now we have 1,000 young people working for our organisation,” he said.
He further said they had taken up several projects to bring a big change in society, including Odommo, Reboot Schooling, and Sabolombi.
“Now we are working with children and youths in disaster-prone areas and Haor regions to encourage them to participate in social activities. We also teach youngsters skills that they will need in different job sectors,” he added.
He urged the government to provide proper support for the youth and reform the National Youth Policy to accelerate youth development.
Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh Convener Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya told The Business Post the youth are a large part of the population.
“When we think about the future of Bangladesh, we have to think about the youth. They will lead the implementations of global development programmes,” he said.
He said there are confusions in how the government defines the youth society.
“If the age limit for young people is 29, about 40 per cent of the population are below it. Of them, 30 per cent do not have proper training,” he said.
He also said the youth have a lot of achievements and are playing significant roles in various fields.
But the power of a significant part of the youth is not being utilised as they have been cut off from the mainstream society, he said.
The noted economist emphasised skill development and bringing the disengaged youth community to the mainstream society.
Deputy Director (training) of the Department of Youth Development Farhet Nur told The Business Post they had registered 4,000 youth organisations till June this year to build a developed society.
The department’s 2018-19 annual report said 18,352 youth organisations had been listed till June 2017. Not all those listed were registered.
The report also said the department provided 11,641 youth organisations with financial assistance of Tk16.63 crore from 1985 to 2019.
“We need greater youth participation to build a developed country. We are training them to solve unemployment problems,” Farhet said.
The department trained up to 63.61 lakh people across the country till June this year in different fields, including ICT, freelancing, handicrafts, and animal husbandry. If anyone wants to be an entrepreneur, it provides loans between Tk 20,000 and Tk 3.5 lakh at a 5 per cent interest.
Farhet urged the youth to participate in the department’s training, engage more in social development activities, and gain the skills required to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
He said national development mostly depends on utilising the youth in the right ways.
There is no alternative but to utilise the youth to achieve the SDGs by 2030 and become a developed country by 2041, he further said.
The department defines people in the 18-35 age group as youths and they constitute one-third of the population. But the Labour Force Survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics says those between 15 and 29 are youths.
On the other hand, the United Nations defines youths as people aged between 15 and 24.
International Youth Day is celebrated on August 12 every year to encourage the youth in participating in development activities and economic dynamism.
