PM joins 'Young Bangla', a big boost for country’s largest youth platform

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has become a member of the country's largest youth platform "Young Bangla".

Radwan Mujib Siddiq, grandson of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and also the trustee of the Awami League's Centre for Research and Information (CRI), made the disclosure in a Facebook post on Saturday.

He posted a selfie in which Sheikh Hasina was seen wearing a mask of Young Bangla and her sister Sheikh Rehana also was present there. 

Activists of the youth platform, comprising over 12,500 volunteers, are overwhelmed to get the prime minister as their latest member. 

Launched in 2014, Young Bangla has been acting as a flexible space for the youths to come together into a network and collectively strive for achieving personal and national goals through sharing and cooperation. 

Under one of its flagship initiative "Joy Bangla Youth Award", named after the historic pro-liberation wartime slogan "Joy Bangla", the platform has so far recognised, groomed and showcased as many as 135 youth-led organisations.

Through the award, Young Bangla is not just recognising the efforts of youths in transforming society, but also enhancing the impact of the services they are already doing to their local communities.

Joy Bangla Youth Award is the first of its kind in Bangladesh to offer a platform to the country's young changemakers, even from remote areas, so that they are exposed to the climate that best harnesses their talents.

The youth organisations that were previously working on individual levels are now united through Young Bangla and their points are placed across to the policymakers, according to media reports. 

Young Bangla has set the precedence of portraying the history and advancing the spirit of the Liberation War through creative forms of storytelling such as Joy Bangla Concert, a remarkable music extravaganza in celebration of the historic March 7 speech. 

Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended Joy Bangla Concert, paying tribute to the father of the nation's 7th March speech.

Young Bangla members, numbering around 200,000, are elated and proud to have Sheikh Hasina supporting their cause, which is evident in their social media posts.