Feature

THE Duke of Edinburgh's Award Foundation held an Award leaders' meeting recently in the country. They met to discuss the Bronze Level Award and also to consider strategies and means for the 1000 new enrollments in the Bronze and Silver categories in the Second batch.

Along with the award leaders from the participating institutions, the chief guest of the occasion was Sultana Kamal, former advisor to the caretaker government and a member of the Award's Validation Committee. She said that working with young people ensuring their holistic development, keeps us going even against the most difficult challenges.

After a welcome address by Suman Kumar Saha, National Director, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Foundation, Bangladesh, a discussion and interaction session was initiated with feedback from the award leaders on the objectives met and challenges faced in meeting the requirements of the award.

Speaking on behalf of the awardees, Mainuddin Shuvro, a bronze award winner from Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, spoke about his experience during the award programme, citing details regarding meeting the challenges with regards to the skills, adventurous journey, and physical recreation components of the award. According to him, the award programme had been an enjoyable, intellectual and a novel set of experience for the students in this country.

Following discussions with the award leaders mainly involved key decision-makings regarding the enrolment of the 2nd batch of award participants as well as opportunities for offering voluntary services in different fields. Another important issue settled in the meeting was the possible sites and tentative schedules of adventurous journey for the bronze and silver award participants.

The meeting concluded with a note by Sultana Kamal. Her words greatly motivated the award leaders as well as the participants to work for the award programme.