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It was a hot summer afternoon at the Balukhali 2 Camp. I was talking to a few girls there. I wanted to know about their life in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. And there she was. Let’s say her name was Ruby. Now, Ruby was smiling shyly while the other girls were teasing her. Being curious, I wanted to know what the reason was. One of the girls said Ruby talks to her would-be husband all night long. And for that, she keeps four cell phones. The girl is only at her adolescence; 15 or 16 years old at best. I reminded Ruby of the proper age for a girl to get married. After all, she was still a child. To my happy surprise, Ruby smiled back and said, “I am not marrying now. I will be 18 before he will come to meet me.”

In April 2018 ActionAid and partners adopted the Dhaka Declaration at the International Conference on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis and pledged to uphold its clauses.

ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) is working with the young people and their constituencies, across the level, to empower and helping them become active citizens and change agents to challenge the unequal and unjust power relationship embedded in the social and political structures. Programmatic interventions of AAB engage young people, living in exclusion, particularly with young women and marginalized groups that are excluded based on their identity and locality. And all these engagements are meant to create spaces for young people to convene, facilitate and co-create with the local struggles and connect with progressive social movements, at local, national, regional and international levels

Ever since its launch in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become this new buzzword across the world. Even more so, in the development sector. The guidelines to this generation’s moon shot- the SDGs state that participation across all sectors- government, private and the community, is critically essential in reaching the SDGs by 2030. The government of Bangladesh submitted a VNR on the progress of SDGs in 2017, and as development practitioners, we are keen on supplementing these efforts.

Personal is political’, often quoted feminist perspective was popping in my head since June 20th, the international refugee day. During and post partition of India our mother, Kamela, was living in India, Suri, a provincial town and also in Kolkata. She got married in 1949 and gave birth to her first child in January 1950. Having spent 4 months post the delivery of her child in Suri she moved back to Kolkata with her daughter. As the riots in Kolkata got ugly she and her husband were advised to leave Kolkata and take refugee in Dhaka.

When the Rana Plaza disaster took place, I was working as a journalist for a television channel. I covered the deadly disaster from the very first day. It was a horrible experience, indeed, to witness so many dead bodies, scarred faces, wounded body parts and the weeping faces of the survivors beneath the collapsed roof. As a journalist, I had the opportunity to go inside and witness the situation first hand. I can recall that I could not eat during the day, nor sleep at night. Even after the rescue operations concluded, I could not sleep for months. I still see corpses, blood, families crying and survivors wailing every time I think of the heart-wrenching disaster. I can barely contain my emotions. These emotions and realities remind me of the challenging situations the survivors face in their daily lives.

The influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh since 25 August is now over 370,000 with the figures increasing daily. They are being supported by the Government of Bangladesh, local and international non-governmental organisations and host communities.

Since joining with ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) in 2014, I am working on developing the Handloom business as well as handloom sector in Bangladesh. At the time of working with the sector, I gathered a lot of information and data which are hindering the growth of the sector. Nowadays, the sector is declining stage but there is a good prospect of handloom products in our country and outside of our country. The government sector, the private sector and many fascinated individual of Bangladesh are working for the development of the sector but growth is not in significant position.

The dialogue with Adriano Campolina, Chief Executive of ActionAid International (AAI), brought together a diverse youth audience consisting of adolescents, ethnic and religious minorities, urban slum dwellers, leaders of youth clubs and foundations, former Child Sponsorship programme participants, as well as, those in tertiary levels of education. The candid discussion was around key priorities for youth such as decent jobs, migration, harassment, climate change, disaster preparedness and management and building networks.