the BYLC blog

Farah Kabir:

Shared her background as a media person. Her father was a journalist who was taken away by the Pakistani army during the war. Her family were in anxiety, but  some of his international friends, who were also journalists, helped to rescue him. She had access to the biggest media personalities in Bangladesh from her childhood. She has experienced the war from very close.

She told a story about a journalist who was not afraid to sacrifice his life of the love of journalism. He said “Even if I die, the footage will last forever”, this inspired her to become a journalist. Working in the media requires a lot of courage. One has to face a lot of resistance and criticisms as well as pressure from influential people. She talked about how well Munni Shaha is doing in ATN Bangla. She talked about the importance of media which relays the news from all the nook and corners of the country to the general people. Farah Kabir is an optimist, she believes nothing is impossible, she wants us to be proud Bangladeshis and believe that we can can win the world. That’s the attitude which is required. She said, do whatever you can do for the country. Each and every samall contribution matters. The first step in your journey is a step towards your destiny.
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When one faces a crisis, his immediate reaction is to hand over the work to someone else. And so, when Ejaj Ahmad faces a crisis, he turns to his right hand man. With that opening statement, Ejaj Bhaiya gave up the stage to none other than Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish.

Ivdad Bhaiya began by asking the delegates how yesterday’s sessions were, which generated various responses from the audience. He then asked us if we’d observed how we had responded to the previous question. Our lack of coordination was brought to our attention first; everyone had spoken out without regarding the rest of the room. Through every question from then on, he addressed such issues and their roles in leadership. The importance of communication and presence, for example. If the people can’t hear what you are saying, they won’t be able to support. And so he continued an interactive session, discussing different aspects of leadership, focusing on the very theme of this Summit: the role of courage in leadership.

He then ended his speech by calling Ejaj Bhaiya to the stage once more. Ejaj Bhaiya took a different approach; he began with a tale of a crisis he had faced. His mother had a very high blood pressure, and needed immediate medical attention. As he shared his story, he told us that at times of crises, it is more important to find an immediate, temporary solution – a technical fix – to bring the temperature down, which in his case was getting his mother medical care.. And only then do we move on to considering a long-term solution, focusing on the adaptive aspects, which would be changing his mother’s lifestyle in order to keep a normal blood pressure.

He also told us about how we react in times of crises: we look towards the authority for an answer. It is more important that we find the answers ourselves, though. In order to do so, we would have to get out of our comfort zones and change the way we think – the way people think. It may sound easy, but is in fact extremely difficult, as Ejaj Bhaiya found out through practice. It is difficult to break out of our habit of doing thinpgs simply to satisfy others, for example, and find and pursue our own interests. He had found his, and was struggling to pursue it.

He then shared his experience of getting BYLC up and running, the challenges he faced, and still faces. It is important to focus on our goal, especially when faced with a challenge. Ejaj Bhaiya aspires to turn BYLC into the best leadership institute in Asia in ten years. Even through all the past hurdles, BYLC made it to this Summit, and will no doubt reach it’s goal and much more.

He reminded us of the importance of reflecting; that is, to think about our goals and to focus on our purpose, and with that he concluded his speech.

Amiya Atahar

Delegate

BYLC Youth Leadership Summit 2011

P.S. Although I am a BBLT graduate, I gained a lot from this session. It definitely gave me something to think about!

It started with silence.

Then there was the big bang. “Lets start the Work.” Confusion, chaos, as forty-two heads scrambled to think of something useful to say. All the while we were being watched by twelve beady eyes- the facilitators, confident that we’d eventually come up with something.

It was nerve-wracking, having so many eyes on us while we thought. The silence was thick, suffocating. We wanted to break out of it, but didn’t know how. In the end, when we couldn’t take it anymore, one of us would crack. Others would eagerly join in, relieved at not having to sit in silence any longer.

That was when the chaos began. Opinions would be voiced faster than they were formed. The replies came like bullets. Hands were raised and so were voices. Some were ignored, some were noticed. It didn’t really matter anymore if anyone was listening or not. We would just keep the discussion going, no matter how absolutely pointless it was. One thing spiralled to another, and led us to God-only-knows-where.

At that stage of the discussion, the facilitators were completely forgotten. Even if our topic was completely random  and totally off-the-point, it became like a life-or-death matter for us. We HAD to make our point, no matter what.

At that moment, one of our long-forgotten facilitators, or sometimes Ivdad bhaiya himself would step in.                                                                                         ”What were we talking about again?”, he would say.

“Ooohhhh, right!”, we would all go at once. And with that one question, he would make us scratch our collective head once again.

*

Slowly, we learnt when to ask ourselves the same question. We learnt how to focus on our purpose, instead of the unimportant details. Out of chaos, we emerged as leaders-in-the-making. And now, when you put us together in a room, we will no longer sit and scratch our heads. We’ll try and figure something out. Maybe we won’t have the brightest idea, but we’ll definitely do more than sit in silence.

And maybe, just maybe… if things go right, this could be the be the beginning of something called leadership.

Felicitations fellows!

We have finally found our desired batch of BBLT 3 – with 14 students from each medium, we jumped onto a leadership express and started a month-long journey of self discovery. Even though the express was programmed to stop after a finite time, the moments, the experiences and the teachings from the compartments were designed to last for a lifetime…

The weather was chilly out there. I tugged the collar of my shirt upward,  pumped my hands and blew air into the gap between my clasped fists to keep me warm. I don’t remember for how long I was waiting but my subconscious state of mind tells me that it wasn’t too long. Within what seemed like minutes, a round distant glow racked my nerves and the thundering din of the wheels all but confirmed that the rail has arrived. It’s time, thought I.

An array of facial expressions greeted me as I made my way through the cozy corridor. Among others, Amiya looked frenetic, Toufiq smirked mischievously, Akif cared less and joked around, Gofran sloshed around in two worlds and Ovick seemed overtly serious. Wow, what a ride this was going to be! With such a diverse group of characters, 5 other facilitators, and the leadership guru, we embarked on the monumental expedition and quite honestly, a ride that had no turning points.

The first stop was at BIAM’s Multipurpose hall for the grand opening ceremony. As we were halting down, memories of countless hours at press, nilkhet, in front of pcs and laptops scrolled sideways by the windows. Uh, those times hurts! BBLT 3, you guys made sure to give me a hard time indeed.  Once the train settled down, flashbacks of the opening ceremony lit up my mind. I could clearly picture running around in jeans and slippers to organize the stage banners, help out with moving and cleaning the chairs, frantically ensuring the refreshments’ setting,  and all the while checking back on my illuminated laptop to prepare the admissions presentation. Sigh!

It wasn’t until 2:30 I realized that I was still on my casual attire – the result: a mad dash for my car to fetch the formal dress. In a jiffy, my change was complete, save my forsaken tie! (Oh did I mention how I hate tying ties!) Anyways, with the aid of Khairul, my good friend, it was taken care of and I was on my way to usher and receive the guests. People started filing in numbers and soon enough the articulate speakers were up and delivering encouraging words to the audience (I’ll be honest, I actually could not make time/have patience to listen to the speeches which I regret badly since those were awesome; but hey, I have the complete videos, courtesy of Apel bhai!), but not before I made a mess of myself on the stage while presenting my part. Oh how sally, jazz and kobama taunted me afterwards…hahaha! can’t help curling my lips in a nostalgic smile. Bigger sigh!

As the formal program drew to a close, I got busy attending to the guests. In particular among the BBLT 3 circle, I distinctly remember speaking to Prema’s and Fahim’s fathers and deeply appreciated the support they promised to extend after the orientation. Catching up with external volunteers,  BBLT 2 students, and not to mention my co-workers (read facilitators) was also on my successful list of agenda!  Boy was I glad to see through the hectic week  with a satisfied smug or what!

Just when I thought I’d go over the many other untold stories in this phase, the swirling, honking sirens caught me up from my daze in a flash and the sudden forward jolt of the express marked the beginning of departure from this station. Through hazy eyes, I managed to take a peek at the sign stating the next destination: Leadership Training at BIAM.

(to be continued)

Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish

About eight months ago, if I was dropped in a room with a couple of Madrassa or Bengali medium students, I can barely imagine how alienated I would feel. You must have felt the same way at some point of your life as well. Today, if I am brought to the same situation, I would get along with them pretty easily. This is a huge improvisation in a person. And I have to give full credit to Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) for bringing this wonderful change in me.

In our country, three different schooling systems exist – Bangla, Madrassa and English mediums. From a very early age, students of each background are divided. Due to their preconceived mindset, there is a tendency among them to have a lack of mutual respect among each other. BYLC has stepped in, as the first institution in Bangladesh, to bring together the most talented and bright students from different backgrounds in order to build bridges between them through leadership training.

BBLT Junior (BBLT–J) is a condensed form of BYLC’s signature leadership training program, Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT). BBLT-J was started with a mission to sow the seeds of compassion and respect for others in the youth of the nation at their developing stage. When I was selected for the first BBLT-J program back in June 2010, I got a firsthand experience of interacting with a student from Madrassa for the first time. I tried to learn more about his background and understand him, and vice versa. I met several other people from Madrassa and Bangla medium in the BBLT-Junior program and I, eventually, discovered that they were some of the most talented and brilliant students I have ever come across! Being with them is as much fun as is with my English medium friends. Together, we learned about leadership and various tools of applying it.

Our lessons and practices included large class lectures as well as small group activities, such as, art competitions, scavenger hunt and other fun teamwork based activities. Our communication skills were developed through interaction and exciting sessions like – public speaking and poetry. For the final component of the program, we were engaged in community service where, we applied our newly learned skills to give something back to the community, which has given us a sense of joy unlike any other. We were taken to a slum for an observation session where we closely connected with some underprivileged kids. We spoke to them to find out their major problems and subsequently developed projects on hygiene and basic children’s rights. After working for three long days, we developed plans and presented them to the kids on the final day. The children connected very well to our presentations and we received a remarkable response. This was an amazing realization made by me and my fellow mates that day.

BBLT-J has opened for me the horizons of a greater world; now I have the ability to walk up to a person who is very different from me and be friends with him/her. It has also equipped me with certain tools of leadership that I can use to support my ideas and actions – for the betterment of our society. BYLC’s vision is to create a poverty-free Bangladesh, driven by the next generation of home-grown leaders. BBLT-J has been an extra-ordinary journey and as a graduate of BBLT-J 1, I can proudly say, that this is a program worth doing! This will add great value to one’s life and future. If you want to help your society and learn how to connect with the world around you, here’s a great opportunity for you!

BYLC is now inviting applications for BBLT-J 2. Students from 6th to 10th grade are eligible to apply. For more information, online applications and program details, please visit www.bylc.org/apply.

Monoshita Ayurani
BBLT-J  1 Graduate

BBLT-J 2 admission is now open!