Youth Policy Forum (YPF) launched its landmark "Road to Reforms" series on 18th July 2020 with a focus on the reforms required for Bangladesh in different pressing areas. The inaugural webinar was titled "Bangladesh's foreign policy priorities in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic" and was organised in partnership with Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) and The Daily Star.

Painted Thoughts, founded in 2017 by Samiha Tahsin, is an online platform that promotes creative work by young artists. Samiha is currently studying Computer Science and Engineering at BRAC University. She started her journey with Painted Thoughts shortly after completing her A-Level examinations. She has been an ardent artist since a young age. “My main breakthrough was when I worked with Nerd Community’s Tech Club for creating my page’s website,” she shared. Her peers were very supportive of her work. “They started motivating me and also bought some of my previous paintings,” she added.

CTG stands for Committed To Good. With an ethical approach at the heart of all that they do, it is a description that makes us proud. Respect for the fundamental human rights of their staff, and those their staff encounter, is a cornerstone of their values.

Reasat Islam Khaton, 31, was born in Dhaka and later moved to Germany, where he began his football career. He played in the Welsh Premier League for Llanelli Town AFC, making him the first Bangladeshi to ever play in the top division for a European country.

Cartoon People Comics

Founded in September 2019, AHC - Arise Help for Child Foundation enables underprivileged children in Bangladesh, in different ways.

The Obama Foundation recently announced that Shazeeb M Khairul Islam has to join their third cohort of Obama Scholars. Eleven rising leaders from around the world have been selected after a rigorous process to study at Columbia University for the 2020-2021 academic year, which will begin virtually. Shazeeb, the first Bangladeshi to be selected as an Obama Foundation Columbia University Scholar, is the Founder and Managing Director of YY Ventures, a company founded in Bangladesh to invest in social businesses that are moving towards a world of zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero carbon emission.

The five co-founders of Porikolpona Foundation formed their non-profit organisation once the nationwide shutdown began. They were determined to educate disadvantaged communities about COVID-19. Some of the members are studying abroad, whilst two of them are students of IUT and through their reach, they were able to accumulate more than sufficient funds to work towards their goals.

Ekhoni is a social welfare organisation founded by a group of students from Sunbeams, in 2019. Twelve graders Avita Farhanaz, Fayizah Rahman and Tashfia Bari, wanted to support underprivileged communities, and hence, decided to ‘act now’, leading to the name of their organisation, ‘Ekhoni’.

Cartoon People Comics

Ever since the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, Shakir was concerned about the spread of the virus. For precautions, he thought of using the ultraviolet type C light that has been used for many years for sterilisations in developed countries.

The Facebook Fellowship Program is designed to encourage and support promising doctoral students who are engaged in innovative and relevant research in areas related to computer science and engineering at an accredited university.

Ribana started Bunon with only an investment of BDT 500 and a pair of crochet sticks without any concreate planning. She had to visit the Dhaka Geneva Camp to conduct a survey for academic purposes.

Resource Co-ordination Network Bangladesh (RCNB) is an initiative by co-founders Mahia Rahman and Juneyna Frances Kabir to help underprivileged communities, through crowdfunding. It is a Facebook group, involving people who are invested in facilitating existing successful grassroot NGOs like Garbageman, Leaping Boundaries, Pashe Achi Initiative, Uttaran, We for Them, Alokitto Shishu and BEACON.

World Photography Day (August 19), is celebrated with exhibitions across the globe. However, owing to the ongoing pandemic, organisers have shifted events online, providing greater opportunities to photographers across borders. Beginner photographers are encouraged to share a slice of their lives through photos on this day, using #WorldPhotographyDay, on social media. While the pandemic has provided us ample time to develop new hobbies, mobile photography is a popular choice among many. Here are some recommendations from the freelance photographers of Star Youth, to develop your mobile photography skills.

With the class of 2020 striding into one of the worst recessions of all time, the agitation about unemployment only seems to be increasing. As a final year student of North South University (NSU), I relate to their anxieties regarding internship and job opportunities, the changes a post COVID-19 world will bring to the recruitment process and the resumption of interviews and standardised tests for graduates, among other things. After the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the country back in March, educational institutions were shut, and soon, the offline classes were shifted online. I decided to speak to a few of my classmates and teachers from NSU, alongside HR professionals, about their predictions regarding the future, and the changes we should prepare for.

Learning new languages has proven to improve analytical, listening, understanding, creative, and problem-solving abilities, among other things. From a societal aspect, understanding a different culture profoundly brushes up our knowledge about our own customs and traditions, including cuisine, music, fashion and so on.

There is a desk calendar on my wardrobe. It shows the month of May. It has been like that for a while now – but it is August now. Much like my calendar, the world has come to a pause. The global pandemic has brought our lives to a standstill. It all started with a distant whisper of a foreign disease that had been wiping out lives on the other side of the globe. But here’s the thing about people - unless it affects them, they don’t realise the magnitude of the situation.

To celebrate International Youth Day 2020, Shongjog recently hosted the second episode of ‘Youth Shongjog: Bangladesh in Climate, Water & Sustainability’. Sohanur Rahman, CEO of Bangladesh Model Youth Parliament and coordinator of YouthNet for Climate Justice and Sharnila Kabir, youth activist and environmentalist, participated in the live discussion hosted by Saraf Nawar, Co-founder of Shongjog and the Dutch National Sustainability Coordinator.

Young researcher Mohsinul Bari Shakir has built a ultraviolet (UV) janitor to combat COVID-19 in Bangladesh. He is also the shareholder and Chief Operating Officer at the IT-based company, Aqualink BD. Born in Dhaka, Shakir’s hometown is in Sylhet. He completed his BSc in Computer Science from BRAC University in 2018. As his father is a government official, Shakir had to travel a lot and attend different schools at different points of his life. He has three internationally published researches, and is currently working on two more journals.