With Living Legends
Sharing Liberation War Stories with Children

Patriotism has not yet become a cliché to the young Bangladeshi members of With Living Legends (WLL). They believe that the freedom fighters of our country are legendary characters and thus they aspire to spread the history of our Liberation War among young children through the actual stories of freedom fighters.

When the group started this movement in 2006, they were all university and college students giving tuition, mainly to English-medium school students. They noticed that many of these students had very little exposure to the history of our country. This observation led them to wonder how they could induce interest among these children.

“We noticed that most children like comics, superheroes and stories of heroism,” explains Hasan Munawar Mashuk, a member of With Living Legends. “We have adopted a format called the Superman format, where we portray our freedom fighters as superheroes. Our team collects real stories of the freedom fighters and then develops a script based on those stories where the freedom fighter becomes the superhero,” he adds.

They arrange three-day long workshops at different schools in Dhaka where these stories are told with the help of Styrofoam models on the first day. On the second day, a drawing competition is held at the school, where the children give colours to their perception of the story. On the third day, which they call “Superman Day”, WLL try to bring in the real-life hero, the freedom fighter, whose life the superhero story was based on. The real life superhero then presents the children with prizes. So far WLL has carried out this programme in about 40 schools inside the country as well as in London.

The members of With Living Legends work voluntarily, each member donating a certain amount of money to cover the expenses of creating the Styrofoam models and other costs. “We do not encourage the use of sponsors, because our movement is non-political,” says Mashuk.

by Tamanna Khan


Jagoree
Citizen Activism

It is very hard to find people who not only have visions, but act upon them. Such people can be seen in action when we look at Mridul Chowdhury, Tahmina Khanam, Mahrukh Mohiuddin and Rubayat Khan, whose shared frustrations and dreams about how they wanted to see citizen activism gave birth to Jagoree.

Jagoree is a non-partisan organisation that provides the youth of Bangladesh a platform to participate in the political process through in-depth study and activism. “It is our attempt at creating a space where discussion about politics is non-partisan and serves national and student interest. We wanted to facilitate more engagement among students and young professionals in the various types of political discourse,” says Mahrukh Mohiuddin, one of the co-founders of Jagoree.

The year 2009 saw Jagoree in action when they formed a human chain to raise a voice against the adverse effect that the fall in rice prices was having on farmers. Amongst its other activities is the round-table Jagoree organised on the issue of day-light saving. During the Production Sharing Contract with Conoco Philips when the National Oil, Gas, Power and Port Protection Committee was making a move against it, Jagoree facilitated a dialogue at Dhaka University between the supporters of the movement and the business community. They also had two series of round-tables in partnership with Prothom Alo, a leading daily of Bangladesh, on the issue of the current government restoring the original 1972 Constitution. Personalities like Dr. Kamal Hossain and Dr. Asif Nazrul were present at this session and answered the questions of students and representatives of minority communities.

“We want to raise our voices through questioning so that when a wrong decision is taken our questions can make way for clarification, which in turn may help us see the light. Our vision is to see a Bangladesh where the youth are aware and vocal and the political forces shaping up the nation are progressive,” says Mahrukh Mohiuddin.

In order to nurture positive leadership Jagoree plans to have “Ponchashey Bangladesh” which aims to reach youth groups from different platforms by bringing them together and knowing their opinions on where they wish to see Bangladesh in fifty years.

by Zaheen Zaema Khan


Sabrina Sultana
Founder of B-Scan

 

At the age of 10, Sabrina Sultana was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a disease that made her muscles weak and badly affected the movement of her limbs. As she grew older the problem started worsening and Sabrina was forced to leave school and spent most of her time inside the four walls of her room. Her life, as she describes it, was a 'dark cage'. “My family used to go to visit many places, attend many family programmme only I used to be at home. People used to stare at me or mock me when I stepped out of the house, something that always made my parents embarrassed. Numerous questions from all quarters used to evade my happiness.”

Constantly harassed, Sabrina almost gave in to society's pressure before her family received another setback: the youngest member of her family, her sister, was also diagnosed with the same disease. “I saw the doors getting closed one after another for her as well. I could visualise on her face the same life of agony that I was experiencing and this made me revolt,” she says.

Frustrated with the treatment of the disabled in the country, Sabrina took an ambitious step by writing a letter regarding the issues of the disabled to the Prime Minister. Although the letter never reached the government officials, she found another means to continue with her newly- formed fervour: Facebook.

By spreading the contents of her letter to as many people as possible, Sabrina created a network and got in touch with people suffering from various disabilities. Together with her friend, Salma Mahbub, who has been suffering from polio, they came up with a Facebook group called Bangladeshi Systems Change Advocacy Network (B-SCAN) on July 17, 2009.

B-SCAN became a forum for people suffering from disabilities to share their problems and let people know about the atrocities that the less-fortunate in Bangladesh continue to face. “We started dreaming of campaigns for awareness for the people with disabilities throughout the country that will someday make people aware and concerned and thus will help the people with disabilities to get their rights, says Sabrina.

With an aim to promote positive perceptions and attitudes associated with 'differently-abled' people, B-Scan has organised public campaigns in order to help the disabled lead a better life. “The situation for disabled people is terrible in the country. How many buildings have separate pathways for people on wheel-chairs? Almost none,” she claims.

Some of the missions of the organisation include: access to education, provision of employment oppurtunities, access to public buildings and public transport and the instilling into society a fresh value for the Bangladeshi citizens with disabilities.

A lot can be learnt from the determination and fervour shown by Sabrina Sultana. For someone who can't talk for more than 10 minutes without getting tired, one wonders how she manages to run an entire organisation. Although the PM never responded to Sabrina's letter, we do hope that the government and private organisations respond to B-scan and help the many lives that have been forsaken for so long.

by Naimul Karim