With a call to make the government’s initiatives more youth friendly, Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy extolled stream efforts led by the youths on their own to change the course of national progress.

“I feel proud of our youths-instead of only banking on public jobs, the way they have stepped in, with tenacity and dedication, to fight out the social vices is really worth mentionable”, said Joy in reference to the contributions of young achievers and entrepreneurs of the country.

He made the call in his address to a group of youths at Youth on Politics, a session of Young Bangla with Sajeeb Wazed, an event organised by the Centre for Research and Information or CRI at a city hotel yesterday.

He also called upon the guardians to allow their children to make their own career plan so that they can learn to stand on their own feet.

“I urge the guardians to let their children stand on their own feet, you don’t need to get everything done for them,” he said while addressing an interactive event titled “Young Bangla with Sajeeb Wazed”.

Joy said that there were cases where a youth of 25-26 years even did not know how to open a bank account which was very unfortunate and added, “Let (youths) them make mistakes. Let them (youths) learn from their own mistakes”. The prime minister’s ICT affairs advisor highlighted the possibilities of the IT sector as the government is focusing on its “Digital Bangladesh” initiative.

“Please don’t focus only on getting jobs. Our economy is expanding. Become entrepreneurs and stand on your own feet,” Joy said.

“Don’t depend on others, the government or any organisation or company,” he added.

“Simultaneously I would like to tell the youths – listen to your parents, but don’t do everything what they tell you to do,” said the premier’s adviser.

Leading youth platform-Young Bangla-under CRI arranged the function, moderated by Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Barrister Shah Ali Farhad.

As many as 250 youths associated with Young Bangla, the country’s largest youth network, joined the event and many took up this opportunity to raise a host of issues before him.

With the motto “Connecting the Dots”, Young Bangla has become a launching pad for thousands of individuals and youth-led organizations, supporting them with resources, capacity enhancement trainings and encouragement, so that they can add all their game-changing ideas to the welfare of the nation.

Launched in 2014, the platform has opened up a number of initiatives for the youths, drawing over 500000 youths and more than 300 organizations from different parts of the country.

Joy Bangla Youth Award:

In addition to this initiative, Young Bangla also launched two separate schemes-Joy Bangla Youth Award, a move to identify, recognise, showcase, connect and support the champions of change through a comprehensive search.

Launched in 2015, a total of 30 Young Bangla members got the award. Out of a staggering 1,500 applications, another 170 were given special recognition and certificates for their contribution.

This year, Young Bangla is planning to organise the second edition of the Award and the process for inviting applications from Young Bangla members will start very soon.

Vision 2021 internship

Under another scheme, Vision 2021 internship, for the first time, in the country’s history, opportunities are opened up for youths to do internship at different ministries for achieving real governmental experiences.

Since the inception in June 2016, Young Bangla has so far arranged internships for nearly 3,500 of its members.

Joy Bangla Concert

To commemorate the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s iconic speech of March 7, 1971, Young Bangla has organized four installments of Joy Bangla Concert with Bangladesh’s most prominent bands playing songs for thousands of youths at the Army Stadium.