The Story of a Tide

Photos courtesy: Jaago Foundation

Over the years, Jaago Foundation and their volunteer wing VBD (Volunteer for Bangladesh) established their work, philosophy and work across the country. What started out as just a school for slum children, became one of the most popular and active youth organisations in the country.  One of the reasons behind this popularity was their UCD campaign. Campaigning for quality education for all children, Jaago and VBD will be celebrating Universal Children's Day for seven years, on 28^th November, 2015. The friendly yellow army will be seen creating awareness and collecting donations for this cause. This year, the organisation finally reached their goal, when the United Nations declared quality education as the fourth Sustainable Development Goals. And everything began in a little corner located in Rayer Bazar, Dhaka.

Universal Children's Day was first declared on December 14, 1954 by the United Nations. By the resolution 836(IX), the UN declared November 20 to be observed as a day to promote child welfare. Though this day would be celebrated all over the world, Bangladesh had very little knowledge about it, until 2009. "Children's day was limited to a couple of corporate heads holding a press conference in our country," says Korvi Rakhshand, Founder and Chairman of Jaago Foundation. "There was never a celebration or involvement of children. So in 2009, just a couple of months before the day, we came up with the UCD campaign."  The aim was to take the street children on a fun filled day while the teenage volunteers worked as their replacement to raise awareness and funds for quality education. "More than a thousand volunteers showed up for the event and without any struggle we raised 3,75,000 takas," he adds.

With the enormous response from 2009, Jaago again organised the campaign in 2010, only this time the response was way more than they have ever hoped for. Thousands of youngsters started lining up to register for the UCD campaign. "This was when volunteering for Jaago started to become a trend. Every young individual in the city took it as something they have to do before they graduate high school," says Korvi Rakhshand. He also adds, "These volunteers all came from a very privileged background. We are talking about sons and daughters of ministers and officers. The fact that they wanted to get their hands dirty and work in the streets, even if they took it as a trend, had a huge impact on Dhaka city."  That year Jaago collected more than 24,00,000 takas in donations. "I think that year's campaign put us on the mark and UCD became the flagship campaign of Jaago Foundation."

Though the organisation achieved much popularity, it came at a price. In 2011, Jaago Foundation came across great hurdles, and even questioned themselves as to whether they should continue or not. "That year we were going to celebrate UCD in 7 districts and VBD was also collaborating with us for the first time. None of us had any idea that something could go wrong," says the founder. On the day of UCD, for some untold reason the police refused to let the volunteers work in the streets. For this incident UCD was on a hold for several hours. Though they overcame this incident, what happened next was even worse. At the end of the day, the volunteers were accused of money laundering which led to a lot of negative social media attention. "We were devastated and were thinking if putting an end to this yearly celebration. However, some of our seniors told us to continue and thank God that we listened," says Korvi. Eventually, Jaago and VBD recovered from this incident and continued towards their goal. "This incident taught me that any PR is good PR. This event got us a lot of coverage and people actually wanted to know what we do. I think that was the time when we started to have visitors from all over the country and also from abroad. Everyone wanted to know what we do, and we were all ready to tell them our story."

Photo: Prabir Das

After 7 years, UCD is considered as more of a celebration then a campaign. Youngsters clear out their schedules to take part in this movement. Several months of preparations and workshops take place for the making of UCD. "The most exciting day is the day before UCD," says Tahmeed Sadab, Volunteer and media officer at Jaago. "We at the office call it 'Chand Raat'! The core volunteers and employees stay up all night and gather flowers from different stores. The last minute preparations take place for the next day."

Photo: Akhter Taslima

This year, the UCD celebrations by Jaago Foundation and VBD are going to be bigger than ever -- with more than eight thousand volunteers participating in 32 districts. "We will be observing and celebrating Children's Day in many parts of Bangladesh," says Korvi Rakhshand. This year the Daily Star has collaborated with Jaago as their strategic partner, providing the volunteers and donors with special caps and booklets. With the hash tag #JoinTheJourney, donors were asked to write down their pledge for quality education for all in the booklets provided by the volunteers, and upload the photo to https://goo.gl/XY7b7j.  Companies such as Rahimafrooz Solar, Pizza Hut, KFC,  Beximco Pharma will also show their support in the event. While K Nasif partnered with Jaago for photography, Prito Reza are taking over visuals and videography.

The carnival, to be held at the Banani field, will be filled with young enthusiasts. Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortoza with his team Comilla Victorians are to attend the event to show support for quality education for all. Other celebrities such as superstar Ananta Jalil, will also take part in the affair to show their support. A theme song for UCD has been composed by music director Khayam Sanu Sandhi and will be performed by Kona, Elita, Emil (Shunno) and Mahadi.

Photo: Prabir Das

"This year will be the last year we do our flagship campaign. As the UN has already declared quality education as an SDG goal and the government is also working intensively to achieve it, we think it's time we concentrate on some other child related issues," says Korvi Rakhshand. He also adds, "Our aim from the beginning was to point out this issue and after seven years of screaming our lungs out for quality education, we have achieved it." The announcement also came as a shock for all the volunteers, who have been working for the UCD for the last seven years. "It's a mixed feeling for me. Obviously I am sad that UCD is ending but our team is also very excited to take on the next big challenge," says Korvi Rakhshand. "Fighting for quality education was an idea of a young mind and we want our next idea to come from them as well. Us who administer the foundation are getting old. We want the volunteers to take charge the next time."

Even though there will no more be a tide of the yellow sweeping the streets of Bangladesh, Universal Children's Day will hopefully be celebrated by all in the country. This campaign was definitely a flagship campaign for Jaago Foundation, and the organisation will always be remembered for being taking the idea of celebrating children and education to the next level. However, the question does arise. What's next for the army in yellow? We will just have to wait and see.  For now, let's gear up for the last and final UCD!