the BYLC blog

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.

Being very new to the whole concept of fund raising, the participants of Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center’s fourth BBLT program were quite skeptical about their chances of success. The idea of fund raising is not yet popular enough in Chittagong, but all the students believed in their hearts that it was all for a good cause, and hoped that eventually, it would all work out. Four days of late nighters, rushing from place to place to stick posters, going to distant markets to buy paints, and spending hours on the phone with different people had finally paid off when extra seats had to be brought in to accommodate the large groups of people that were coming.

The main attractions on our programme were a magic show, a fire spinning display and a violin and harmonium duet. The first two were done by two adept friends while the third was done by one of our talented facilitators. The show also had a yo-yo trick demonstration done by one of our friends. Proven to be a major attention drawer was a game of “sponge throw” where the BBLT 4 participants volunteered to stick their heads out of a wooden board while the interested audience members would aim and throw soap-drenched sponges at them. Many school time revenges and grudges were taken out here, while most played it just for the fun of it.

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.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 1:09 AM and is filed under News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.