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Shawn Mendes picks Bangladesh’s Footsteps for safe water grant

23 Apr 2021 16:58:23 | Update: 23 Apr 2021 20:32:52
Shawn Mendes picks Bangladesh’s Footsteps for safe water grant
Shawn Mendes and Shah Rafayat Chowdhury (Photo collage)

Shakirul Islam

Shawn Mendes Foundation, founded by Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes, has selected Bangladeshi non-profit organisation Footsteps as its partner to ensure safe drinking water for school children in Bangladesh.

Footsteps has been selected by the Shawn Mendes Foundation for a grant under its “Wonder Grants: Sustainability-Water” category to install safe water facilities in schools here.

The Foundation made the announcement on its official Twitter page marking the Earth Day on April 22.

Asked about his reaction, Shah Rafayat Chowdhury, co-founder and president of Footsteps, told The Business Post: “It’s obviously a great feeling. We can put forward our initiatives if more personalities like him join hands with us. The matter of safe water is very challenging in Bangladesh.”

Rafayat co-founded Footsteps in 2013 intending to empower communities by integrating the right set of skills and technologies to overcome their social challenges which are currently limiting their development.

It received the Shawn Mendes Foundation grant for a project called Project Trishna, a social venture run by Footsteps since 2015 for addressing the challenge of safe water and sanitation access in marginalised communities.

After receiving the grant Rafayet said they will now start installing filtered water stations in some schools of Sylhet region at first, under a pilot programme.

Venezuelan water conservationist Hasler Iglesias, Canadian clean water activist Autumn Peltier and a youth organisation of Los Angeles "The Thirst Project" are the three other organisations to have been selected by The Shawn Mendes Foundation for a grant in the same cycle announced on April 22.

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