Marking the International Volunteer Day, observed every year on 5 December, a coordinated initiative has been taken to recognize and celebrate the selfless effort of the volunteers and their contribution towards community development, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inspired by the late social activist Polan Sarkar, who was also known as “Alor Ferrywala”, Harun ur Rashid and his 14-year-old son Arifur Rahman Apon go around house to house, delivering books for free.

Syed Sadia Hossain is the first Bangladeshi to receive the Inspiring Women in Engineering Student Member of the Year Award by the Global Committee of Women in Engineering. 

Talented theatre actress and dancer Umma Habiba delivered a brilliant performance in “Marx in Soho”, a recent play by prominent theatre troupe BotTola, in association with Jatrik.

With two days left to apply for the Joy Bangla Youth Award (JBYA), youth organisations working for religious and ethnic minorities, transgenders, dalits, and other disadvantaged communities have been encouraged to apply for the award.

Ten Bangladeshi youths have made it to the Top 100 Young Talent of Asia list this year.

Eleven-year-old Toky Yasar Ayman has impressed one and all with his melodious voice.  He recently partnered up with renowned singer and lyricist Shafiq Tuhin for the duet song, “Sheikh Russeler Kanna”.

Netherlands (EKN) to Bangladesh signed an agreement on Tuesday, October 19, for phase 2 of BYLC’s Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) and Building Bridges through Leadership Junior (BBLTJ) programmes. Under the partnership, BYLC will train 3,000 youths from diverse backgrounds, instill in them values of inclusiveness and pluralism, and engage them in active citizenship.

Fairooz Faizah Beether of Bangladesh is a recipient of the 2021 Goalkeepers Global Goals Changemaker Award by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She received the award for her work in promoting good health and well-being under SDG-3. She is a student of Business Administration from Khulna University.

A year ago, the youth-led platform Beyond Candid was formed with the intention of bringing stories about social injustices and gender-based violence to the forefront through candid lenses. For co-founder Masud Parvez, the platform is a means of getting to his dream of building a better tomorrow while ensuring a safer world for future generations. He received the National Debate Foundation Bangladesh’s Youth Icon Award from 2017 to 2019. We caught up with him to find out more about his work.

Did you know that a group of visually impaired people from Bangladesh and India have been collaborating on audio plays using technology?  The cultural group, Ganga Padma Shilpigushthi, set high hopes for visually impaired people to nurture their talents through this initiative.

Psycure Organization and BYLC jointly organised a webinar on October 10, in observance of World Mental Health Day, with the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World.”

Sadia Jafrin Khan, founder, Grow your Reader, has been selected for the Top 100 Leaders in Education Award. This prestigious award recognises people all around the world for their significant contributions to the field of education based on their overall reach, industry impact and spirit of innovation, along with future readiness and market demand.

Briddhi, a non-profit youth organisation that works on the needs of children, was officially launched in Pairabandh Farmer Center, Mithapukur, Rangpur, on September 28.

We all remember Mount Kilimanjaro from our general education books as Africa’s tallest peak, and the world’s tallest free standing mountain. For Mrittika Barua, however, it proved to be much more.

Rafeed Elahi Chowdhury is the Lead of Content and Product Growth at The Business Standard. He won the title for Rising Star, under the Content category in the Global Media Industry 2021 at 30 under 30 Awards by International News Media Association (INMA).  Star Youth, The Daily Star recently caught up with him to learn more about his journey.

Robinhood Animal Rescuers organised a press conference celebrating World Animal Day on October 4, 2021. Afzal Khan, the founder of Robinhood Animal Rescuers, hopes to spread awareness for all animals that live side by side with us in our society through World Animal Day.

The European Rover Challenge (ERC) is a prestigious space and robotics event combining international competitions of mobile robots with scientific and technological shows. Regarded as the biggest robotics and space event in Europe, ERC is also the meeting place for representatives of the European world of science and business interested in the use of space and robotic technologies.

Mobin Sikder, a student of Chemistry at Jahangirnagar University, is the founder of Science Bee, an online platform that aims to educate youngsters about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The National Newspaper Olympiad (NNO), a platform founded by Labby Ahsan in 2018, intends to encourage young people to develop the habit of reading printed newspapers to acquire knowledge. It strives to establish a positive journalism ecosystem by encouraging the youth to play an active role in this field.