the BYLC blog

I thank Star Campus for that day tremendously when it introduced me with Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC). It was a run of the quick glance at one of the Star Campus issues back in August 2009 where I had first seen a little of what these four words incorporated within them. Disgruntled as I was to see that I was not eligible then, I decided that I would participate in its Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) programme as soon as I finish my Ordinary Level Examinations.

It was during my vacation after my exams when I heard that BYLC was going to organize its fourth BBLT programme in Chittagong! For the first round of selections, I had to submit three essays. Amongst roughly 500 applicants, 180 were chosen for a second round of testing which involved assessing their analytical abilities. Out of these 180 examinees, 80 were selected for a round of interviews with finally 38 making it to the much anticipated training sessions.

But before sharing anymore, first let me share a bit about BYLC. BYLC is a non-profit organization, the vision of which is to enliven the leadership qualities already possessed by the students and make them work together to build a poverty-free Bangladesh. It was developed in 2008 by Ejaj Ahmad who studied at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and in 2009 was profiled as one of Asia’s most promising young leaders; and Shammi Shawkat Quddus, then an undergraduate at MIT. BYLC has won the 2008 Kathryn Davis Projects for Peace Prize and was a finalist in the 2008 YSEI Social Entrepreneurship Competition. It believes that to exercise proper leadership, bringing together the different mediums of education of Bangladesh is imperative. That is why it tries to build a connection between the students of Madrassa, Bengali and English medium students by selectively choosing equal numbers of students from all three educational mediums.

Our month long training programme began on the 10th of July at the Regional Public Administration Training Center (RPATC), Chittagong. For the first two weeks, we were given captivating lectures that opened doors towards a whole new outlook on leadership. The lectures not only influenced the entire class, but it also brought them together in a way so overwhelming that we are now left astounded discovering how much we can actually achieve when all the three mediums known to have never communicated before, come together in unison. We all realised how wrong we were when we thought that leadership was just a sort of authority that a person has over others. We comprehended that leadership not only involves mobilising people but also mobilising them for creating a positive impact on peoples’ lives. We understood that judgments could be made only after a thorough analysis of the many aspects of a person’s work. Everyone was given a chance to share a personal leadership failure story in small groups where our stories were profoundly analyzed by the rest of the team members based on the learning acquired from our preceding classes. The investigation helped each one of us to fully identify why we failed and what we could have done instead to be successful.

The training session was followed by a team-building retreat to the Marine Boat Club where acquaintances became friends and friends became even closer friends. A poetry session took place where the students who volunteered had to recite the poems closest to their hearts with charisma and grace. To wrap up the two weeks, a session on public speaking was held, after which the students had to give two speeches – one persuasive and one informative where they were judged by their facilitators and their fellow classmates on the basis of their credibility, logic and emotional appeal. After the Public Speaking portion of the training, it was time to put our learning to action. All that we had learnt on efficacious leadership was put to a test after we started the third part of the programme – community service. Effectual leadership involves doing something good for your people. So, after two days of surveying the Motijharna Slum in Lal Khan Bazar, each of the six groups chose the project that they felt was a major problem in their community, and started working on that. The pilot version of our community service project ended on the seventh of this month, and we are now going to work on weekends till November 5th this year, expanding our activities to improve life in Motijharna in every attainable way we can. Bangladesh is in dire need of valiant, compassionate and able leadership – and BYLC hopes to give Bangladesh just that. BYLC has made us believe that you do not need to bear authority to lead, and more importantly, that leadership is NOT authority. It has taught us that very small things can actually make a lot of difference. We hope that we can implement all that we have learnt here and actually make Bangladesh a better place – for everyone.

Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) fund raising event in Chittagong

What started off as a simple thought in a room in Khulshi ended up as an unforgettable memory today on the 4th of September. While working till 11 30 pm last night, all that we could think of was “Is everything going to fall into place?” “How are we going to manage the crowd?” In such an encumbrance of fearful thoughts it was hard to think that the show might turn out to be a huge success.

With faltering feet we stepped into Blossom Garden today at 11 30 am to find that many people had already started coming. It was a good start.

I will not deny that today was arduous, and it demanded all of us to be pushed to our limits. But I will also not deny that we are proud of BBLT 4 participants to have pulled it off. In fact, pulled it off would be an understatement when it comes to the deafening adulation that the crowd gave after each performance; it would be an understatement when it comes to the massive effort each and every participant put to make sure everyone gets a proper seat, and that everything remains organized and under control.

The most excellent part about today was that it brought out the best in everyone. They worked tremendously hard for a cause extremely noble. All of us want to do something to help the impoverished inhabitants of Motijharna. It matters to us not because all of us want to “make a mark” but because all of us care.

BBLT 4 participants amalgamated in an incredible way today to do something good for the community, for THEIR people. All of their hard work paid off from the moment the first guest stepped in to the moment the earsplitting applause from the audience reverberated in the auditorium. We have done our facilitators proud; we have done our mentors proud; we have done each other proud and most importantly, we have done the people of Motijharna proud.

[Not sure if this is appropriate for the blog... This was last edited on January 6, before I even graduated, lol.]

I’ve said a lot of things in my blogs, some fun, some informative, and some simply unloaded junk from my mind. I’ve said enough, for now. If a picture is worth a thousand words then these will be worth millions!

Read the rest of this entry »

I am loyal to my company and always closely adhere to its interests. It is also important of being judge of your own life, so that you can adjudicate over your own life! You obviously need to adjudicate the disagreement between you and your life, cause life tries to make a different decision for you! I will be adjured to always learn what my life shows me but no, I have to make my adjuration to uphold my interests at first, obviously the positive one! I always adjured to my Lord for mercy.

Our life admonish us in many ways to change our wicked ways. One more thing about me, I always admonished my authority for not being in time . But I am trying to change my way of living. All should be admonished to take the best possible care of their life, cause life is so delicate and sensitive.

An adroit person who is successful in his life completes even the most difficult obstacle course with ease. You also can be an adroit person to you and to others as well by doing the right thing at the right place, which is a great quality. And then you will be thrived on the adulation of your people. Many of the works done by you can give the adumbration of you and your future. My deeds adumbrates my intention.

We all want to defeat our adversary but can’t we make friendship instead? Maybe…We must learn to meet adversity gracefully. We need to advocate freedom for our own life rather than depending on others. Advocating means not only supporting a cause but also defending on behalf of another! But it could be you defending on behalf of your humanity!

Birds like eagle make sure of their safety life by their aerie; we should also learn from them and make an aerie for us!

Sameera Saleh

This is my first time at bylc blog and i m glad to be here..;-)
For me  BYLC  is a place where our those dreams comes true that we see for our future Bangladesh!;-)

We don’t believe in or support celebrating a day for something specific, but when something good comes out of it, which is rare, we can embrace it. International Youth Day 2010 was one such rare occasion. Around 22 people came together for a roundtable discussion at The Daily Star office under the banner ‘New Directions for Youth Leadership Development’ organized by the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) and Star Campus.

The roundtable meeting was moderated by Shahnoor Wahid, Editor, Star Campus. Yamin Jahangir, Sub Editor, and Sameeha Suraiya, Assistant Sub Editor, represented Star Campus, while BYLC’s President, Ejaj Ahmad, and Project Manager, Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish, along with 13 Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) graduates, BYLC’s signature program, participated from BYLC. The three most important components of BBLT are: Building Bridges, Leadership Training, and Community Service.

Special guests of the event were Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, Cofounder and Advisor, One Degree Initiative, Zubair Idris, Founding Member, One Degree Initiative and CommunityAction, Nabila Idris, Founder President, CommunityAction, and Korvi Rakshand, Founder Chairman, JAAGO Foundation. Each of these special guests have contributed remarkably to encourage youth and have influenced and initiated substantial community service activities around the country. It was great to have them all to discuss the future of youth leadership in Bangladesh.

Three areas came up prominently in the discussion: quality of public leadership, multi-tiered education system and youth engagement in the community. Before we began discussing public leadership, Shahnoor Wahid asked us our views on the current political system. Needless to say, gross inadequacies were found. Unlike any other occasion, we diagnosed the real issue instead of simply criticizing. Nabila brought up an excellent point, “One definition of leadership is ’service’, but we don’t see it being implemented.” She suggested a person from a privileged background should rather develop his/her own community, promote and exercise grassroots leadership to build credibility before entering politics.

One of the most important qualities we want in a leader is a strong educational background, regardless of his/her status. It was clarified that “education” here not only means academic training on a certain subject, but a diverse and concrete background on many different aspects — economics, public relations, community service etc, so that a leader can diagnose the problems of a community and understand ways to adapt in a rapidly changing world. It was acknowledged once again how dynastic politics is systematically hindering our most brilliant minds from gaining access into politics. The participants unanimously pointed out that politicians usually have to spend so much money during the elections that after getting elected, they spend much of their time salvaging the election cost, indicating public service as not the primary goal. Transparency should be built in the system to prevent such unethical practices.

Public leadership is all about commitment. To instill commitment among youth, involvement in their community is necessary and to increase involvement, we need people from different backgrounds to come and work together, so that they learn to respect each other’s values. On that note, BYLC participants positively shared their views on the importance of building bridges.

Next, we moved on to the topic of education system in Bangladesh. The most conspicuous fact about our schooling system is that we have three different schooling mediums: English medium, Bengali medium and Madrassas. Unfortunately, our society tends to view Madrassa students as incompetent and potential militants, and even in the field of higher education, a qualified Madrassa student faces blatant discrimination. However, any BBLT student who has worked with Madrassa students will testify that they are as aspiring, enthusiastic and educated as we are.

The discussion gave a wonderful opportunity for the BBLT Madrassa participants to get their voices heard. They expressed their offence at not having full freedom to apply to universities, and even if they do get accepted, Madrassa students are barred from taking several important subjects. Although, many Madrassas may offer education below standard, there are some which are simply outstanding.

Just like the Madrassa faction, other mediums feel that they are discriminated too. English medium students complained that to get into a public university in Bangladesh, an English medium student has to memorize the HSC syllabus in four months. This gives HSC examinees an advantage because they have already studied this curriculum for two years, but for the English medium students, to learn all the material in four months is an insurmountable task. Yamin of the Star Campus team defended those who pursue higher education abroad by asserting the lack of better options. To reduce the effects of brain drain, Zubair said that these students should be motivated to come back to Bangladesh by creating adequate job opportunities. Moreover, Diya pointed out that these students will have to change the mindset of being overvalued in the market as the real scenario often turns out to be different.

Shahnoor Wahid wrapped up the topic by emphasizing on improving the quality of teachers. He also stated that higher education should only be for the brightest of minds, everyone else should opt for technical and vocational training, so that they can quickly enter the job market and earn a living while the best minds should be fostered to conduct research and build new ideas.

Finally, we moved to the topic of community leadership. Public leadership refers to playing the a role that affects people in general, while community leadership is exercised within one’s own community. We strongly urge the youth to explore the area of community service before considering taking up the role of a public leader.

It was brought up that the parents and school authorities see community service as a distraction, and whenever a student tries to approach a problem, he/she faces a lot of resistance. The group urged the youth not to back down due to these small hurdles, but rather continue working on issues that they are passionate about. Korvi suggested that community service clubs like JAAGO provides a platform for youngsters to get involved to develop a compassionate mindset among them.

Zubair explained that One Degree Initiative has two goals: community service and youth-led development. Through their projects, the youth is trained to work in different environments, adjust to different people and eventually lead their own projects. This not only makes them efficient, but also changes their mindset towards the work they do and towards life itself. Zubair beautifully phrased the notion by saying, “Even a one degree change is just as necessary to affect a community as it is necessary to turn ice into water.” Nabila gave three wonderful examples of active community leaders working with the CommunityAction.

So how exactly do we take the first step? Either we contact an organisation of our liking and join one of their current projects, or we simply start at home. Leadership begins at home just like charity. Helping to educate your domestic help can be one form of leadership. That can be the first step to make a difference in our community. And it is not a difficult proposition at all if we nurture compassion. As Ejaj Ahmad aptly puts it, “At the heart of leadership is compassion and organisations like JAAGO Foundation, One Degree Initiative and CommunityAction are all doing impressive work to develop a more compassionate young generation. A bright future awaits Bangladesh if more such initiatives are taken by the young generation.” The time is ripe for us, the young generation, to step up and exercise leadership in our community. We need to stop blaming authorities and start looking at ourselves and ask: What can I do for my society?

Tonima Tasnim & Amiya Atahar

(Graduates of BYLC’s signature Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) program)

Outcome is exponentially proportional to output.  Confused? Allow me to elaborate.

In a world of chaos, peril, envy, and predicament, there is a pressing need for a collective and courageous leadership. Sadly, the paucity of leadership paved the way for the dire problems to persist. Unless we have competent people in the society attempting to address these vicious maladies, I’m afraid to even spell what consequences we may just be staring at.

And so the need for a leadership development center was urgent; thanks to E.A. (quoting Amiya) for setting up BYLC. BYLC’s motto is to empower youth to lead social change. We try to bridge the gap among a divided young generation, instill values of leadership, and ask them to translate their learning to action by serving an unprivileged community. Now, although I have joined E.A.’s army since last October, I have had the good privilege of getting to know most of the graduates starting from season 1 through one way or another. And I hope that you guys have learned a lot from these programs. But the question is: are you following up?

Before you begin to dwell or reflect on that previous incisive intervention, let me summarize the above paragraph through a model. An unsorted BBLT batch is the input; the four-month long training phase (previously month-long) resembles the process; the confident, empowered students are the output; and the outcome is what the output delivers after the program. So, coming back to the bitter reality, what is the tangible outcome of our outputs?

On a positive note, I’m sure you all are trying to do your bit based on the learning you have received at BYLC. Some of you have excelled even beyond our expectations in terms of attempting to bring an affirmative change in the society. But many of you may still be looking for opportunities to exercise leadership. I  don’t mean to sound too demanding, but as a leadership institution that exerts so much effort to equip the outputs, is it too much to ask to receive a greater outcome in return? I mean the success of BYLC can be measured through the idealism, commitment, and action of our participants, who are expected to be the movers and shakers. If not you, then who? Deep down, you know that it is your responsibility to take matters in your own shoulders; to mobilize a group of people; to uplift the standard of an impoverished family, if not community. It’s time for you to lead social change and prove that you were worth the training.

Hence, measurement of the impact the output is creating in the society is important, at the very least, to highlight the gravity of the program’s success. Not only from BYLC’s perspective, but also from any perspective, outcome is what matters. And the equation is in equilibrium only when outcome > output (exponentially since with more graduates operating, the degree of impact is likely to be bigger).  Little wonder, how important it is to have the equation pivoted at this crucial juncture if we are to drive away the vicious cycle of social maladies. Take the hint fellows. So long!

Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish