Fighting for women: Amimul Ehsan Khan’s journey as a young changemaker

The Diana Award is a prestigious accolade, supported by Princess Diana's sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. It is given out to nominees aged between 9 and 25, who are carrying out humanitarian activities for at least a year.   This year, eight young changemakers from Bangladesh received the award. Amimul Ehsan Khan was one of these recipients. After knowing Amimul in a professional capacity for over three years, Shomy Hasan Chowdhury, the co-chair of Awareness 360, nominated Amimul for the Diana Award.   Awareness 360 is a youth-led, non-profit organisation that empowers youngsters around the globe to do community service projects in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).   Over its short tenure, the organisation has been recognised by international platforms like Forbes, The Diana Award, Global Citizen, Global Changemakers, United Nations, Samsung Global, The US State Department, The Commonwealth Youth Programme, and many more.   This year, Amimul Ehsan Khan received The Diana Award as Senior Regional Officer of Awareness 360.  

Growing up in a male-dominated society and having experienced patriarchal oppression first-hand, Amimul started questioning the discriminatory social norms. After losing his mother in the 5th grade, he started noticing the struggles of women in society even more. His changemaking concepts began when he started sharing these things with his home tutor. But it became official when he joined Awareness 360 in 2018.

Over this period, Amimul has organised over 30 women's empowerment workshops, menstrual equity projects, and WASH awareness campaigns, overcoming initial distrust from both men and women in his community to directly benefit more than 2,500 people.

Amimul got to know about Awareness 360 from an Instagram story of Priyanka Chopra, where she introduced the co-founder, Shomy Hasan Chowdhury. This sparked his interest in the organisation and he started looking for opportunities. Later on, he joined Awareness 360 as a volunteer and after reaching certain milestones, he has now been promoted as senior regional officer.

Over this period, Amimul has organised over 30 women's empowerment workshops, menstrual equity projects, and WASH awareness campaigns, overcoming initial distrust from both men and women in his community to directly benefit more than 2,500 people.

Amimul started off with water, sanitation, and hygiene, later on, he took over other SDGs. Some of his projects with Awareness 360 are Project Pads for Her, WASH Project, Menstrual Hygiene Awareness Project, Global Handwashing Day 2022, Introduction of SDGs 2022. Among these, the last two projects were implemented in Japan.

Currently, Amimul is pursuing his undergrad in IR from Tokyo International University. "As a feminist and an advocate in gender equality, I want to pursue my studies in development studies after undergrad. And I want to bring changes in the world going forward as a part of the Awareness 360 team."

The author is a freelance journalist. Reach her at labibakabir99@gmail.com.