Making an earning in a fun way

Villagers of Purandar, a remote village in Pabna's Faridpur upazila, quickly finish their household activities and rush to the field, hoping to participate in a game show where they can win various prizes.

SS Food Challenge, a YouTube channel, organises various game shows in rural areas, where villagers get an opportunity to participate in various competitions to win prizes in the form of food support.

"If anybody participates, they will get rice, flour, lentils, edible oil, sugar, noodles and various other food items as prizes," said Omar Sunny Somrat, founder and owner of SS Food Challenge.

Somrat, an entrepreneur from Faridpur upazila of Pabna, created the SS Food Challenge channel in 2021, with the innovative idea of creating a game show for subscribers' entertainment. He also wanted to give an opportunity to villagers to win prizes and find entertainment.

"We organise game shows twice a week in different villages. We have already organised these competitions in 30-40 villages in Faridpur and adjoining upazilas in last two years," he said.

We change traditional games to make new ones to attract viewers. All the games are made by our creative team. Participants are not hired, rather villagers themselves participate for prizes and for the fun of it, he added.

The villagers shared that this type of game show not only helps them earn prizes, but also brings them joy.

"We are typical rural people, who don't get to do new things that often. These different types of game shows brings entertainment to our lives," Abdur Rahman, a farmer of Purandar village who won one of the games, told The Daily Star.

Rahman won 5kg of flour and 2 litres of edible oil.

Nasrin Begum, a housewife in the village, said, "Alongside enjoyment, we are getting food support by participating in the game show, which helps poor families."

Speaking to The Daily Star, Rashedul Hasan Bappi, creative director of SS Food Challenge, said, "In order to get the attention of viewers, we make different types of content."

"Using balls, baskets and other traditional sports items, we introduce new kind of games by researching."

Bappi, creative director of the channel, said they have already introduced more than 700 different games.

"We use to organise game shows in remote villages of Faridpur upazila and few other adjoining villages. But we have a dream to spread our game show to different areas around the district and outside the district as well," said Debashish Karmakar, GM of SS Food Challenge.