By Shomy Hasan Chowdhury (YES 2011-2012, Bangladesh, hosted by PAX in Cheboygan, MI)

My name is Shomy Hasan Chowdhury. Thanks to my year on the YES program, I am a tiny, but confident and strong woman from Bangladesh. YES helped me discover my potential to bring positive change to this sometimes messy world and taught me to embrace diversity. After receiving the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for more than 100 hours of community service at the end of my exchange year, I was very motivated to give back to my own country upon my return. 

In Bangladesh, topics such as democracy, human rights, food safety and security, and personal hygiene practices are not covered in our high school curriculum. As our country’s future leaders, who will be voting in just a few years, high schoolers need to know about democracy and human rights in order to be responsible citizens. And they need to know about issues such as food security and hygiene so that they can work on solving the problems our country faces. To address these issues, I applied for and received a YES alumni grant to implement the project Say YES to Change.

The Say YES to Change workshop was held in November 2016, and 25 seventh- to ninth-graders from five schools were trained by expert facilitators on the topics of democracy, human rights, hygiene, food safety and security, leadership, social media campaigning, documentation and reporting, and the importance of community service. The expert facilitators included leaders of non-profits and foundations, government, international organizations, and universities. 

Facilitator G. Sumdany Don, Chief Inspirational Officer at Don Sumdany Facilitation Center and former Facilitator at TEDxDhaka, said, "I’ve always wanted to work with school kids, because although I often speak to university students or to corporate employees, I sometimes feel that the change should come from the bottom and the mindset needs to be adjusted from the [high] school level. We need to instigate confidence, a sense of accountability and responsibility, the value of managing time, and the importance of developing life skills from the school levels." 

After the workshop, the participants teamed up to conduct similar workshops at their respective schools and presented their work at the closing ceremony on November 24, 2016. The participants also used social media to campaign about good hygiene practices and food safety methods. The participants shared their workshop experience in an online story competition, and Subyeta Haque from Cardiff International School Dhaka won the best story award. The closing ceremony was telecast by the Amra Korbo Joy Show on the popular TV Channel ATN Bangla on November 26, 2016.

During the second phase of the project, the participant teams from two schools went to Bhangnahati Village in Sreepur, Gazipur on November 27, 2016 to speak to the students of two local madrasa schools and the general public about democracy, human rights, food safety and security, and good hygiene practices. To an assembly of about 150 students and villagers, participants shared the knowledge they had gained from the three-day Say YES to Change workshop. The madrasa students do not have access to as many opportunities as students from the city. The number of male students exceeds the number of female students in this village, which demonstrates the necessity of discussing gender discrimination and female empowerment. The madrasa students were inspired to see students of the same age perform in leadership roles and were motivated to engage in community service. The TV Channel ATN Bangla covered the event. The project was also covered in popular magazine Kishor Alo in its December edition.

This project unleashed the hidden leadership potential of the participants and inspired them to be responsible citizens. Over 4,000 people have been reached through this project. The participants, teachers, school staff, volunteers, village attendees, parents, and facilitators gave very positive feedback about the project and wishes for its continuation. Working with my team was absolutely remarkable. This project has helped me develop my leadership and communications skills as I had to work with people of various age and backgrounds. I also learned that I should always have a back-up plan. 

My long term hope for this project is that the 25 participants will go on to do 25 more Say YES to Change projects addressing other pressing issues in our country. For some, it was the very first community service project they had participated in, and I hope that all 25 continue to serve their communities. I have created a Facebook group where we keep in touch with each other, share ideas, and give feedback. I also intend to visit Bhangnahati village every summer to follow up with the village kids.

I would not have been able to coordinate this project without my amazing YES alumni team. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to EMK Center for hosting our workshop, the Bangladesh YES Alumni Association, iEARN-Bangladesh, and American Councils. Last but not least, I would like to extend my thanks to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for sponsoring the Kennedy Lugar YES Program and this alumni grant.

Recently, Shomy was recognized and invited to speak at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City late September for her commendable efforts to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene – a global movement known as WASH. Due to the alarming rate of illnesses and deaths around the world related to unclean water and sanitation, Shomy launched a WASH awareness campaign in Bangladesh to educate over 3,000 community members about healthy sanitation and hygiene. The campaign, a combination of educational workshops and awareness activities, has proven to be an international contribution to this global issue.  

"My day-long sanitary awareness workshop teaches people, among other things, how to properly wash their hands. The seven-step technique ensures that all parts of the hands and fingers are cleaned thoroughly. We also discuss how to filtrate water at home, and I explain the significance of cleanliness and hygiene maintenance." (Shomy on MSNBC Global Citizen) 

Shomy implemented her campaign in 30 schools, teaching students proper sanitation techniques. As of today, Shomy's WASH campaign has traveled to 128 countries, with her WASH workshop being replicated in several high schools.