YPSA has celebrated the International Youth Day’2017 with the joint efforts of Government, NGOs, community people and youth in YPSA’s working areas including Dhaka, Chittagong, Feni, Khagrachari, Rangamati and Cox’s Bazar. The theme of International Youth Day’2017 is “Youth Building Peace” which focusing on young people’s contributions to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace.
Colorful rallies, discussion meetings, radio program and tree plantation were organized to mark the day at different working areas of YPSA. These processions were great success with almost 1200 participants were spontaneously participated at different areas with different professionals as Government Officials, NGO representatives, civil society, teacher, student, youth and media people. In Chittagong, YPSA brought out the colorful rally at morning. The rally paraded major streets of the town. After the rally, a discussion meeting on the background and importance of International Youth Day was held.
In the discussion meeting, Youth Focal, YPSA, Abdus Sabur has said, “young population is a blessing of a nation that it implies strength, energy, drive, pool of workforce and a full potential for future leadership. Bangladesh is a country of Youth and now in demographic bonus. This demographic bonus could bring a huge dividend, if this raw capital is converted into circulatory capital. If we fail to grab this opportunity immediately, this young population could create a disastrous hazard for the nation. So youth should be engaged on nation building as well as peace building.”
Simultaneously a discussion meeting on International Youth Day’ 2017 was held at Cox’s Bazar which was presided by Khaleda Begum, Team Leader, YPSA-CEVEC Consortium. Mohammad Shahjahan, Deputy Director of YPSA was present as a guest speaker in meeting. Alike, a tree plantation program was organized by YPSA-YES Youth Group at the premises of South Mitachari High School, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar.
After the tree plantation a discussion on International Youth Day’2017 was held at the YPSA-YES Centre, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar. Community Radio SagorGiri FM 99.2 has jointly organized a discussion meeting on International Youth Day’ 2017 with Sitakunda Upazilla Administration, Chittagong. Radio SagorGiri also broadcasted special magazine program on International Youth Day.
Chief Executive of YPSA Md. Arifur Rahman has given a special message on the occasion of International Youth Day’2017, he said, YPSA is a youth lead organization. YPSA was formed on 1985 being inspired by the spirit of UN International Youth Year. Young people are the driving force of economic development of Bangladesh. Peace, coexistence, social harmony, development and progress of a society depend on youth community. YPSA is working for empowering them to change Bangladesh for the better. In last three decades almost 0.25 million youth are benefited from YPSA’s interventions. We want to continue supporting young people to make them as ambassadors of peace and positioned actors to counter violent extremism in their own communities. In that regards, YPSA has been implementing numerous program on countering violent extremism and retaining social harmony. Where youth engagement is getting special attention.
On remembering this day YPSA has circulated a concept paper on the importance of International Youth Day’ 2017. This concept paper has elaborated the background of International Youth Day and recognized the role of youth in Bangladesh and their glorious history. The concept paper also called to action on how young people can contribute to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace. Likewise, the way of involving youth in different activities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is described in the concept paper.
