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Between Bangladesh and Queens: My account of immigration to entrepreneurship

26 Jul 2020 10:09 AM

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About 8,000 miles, several thousand cities, a few hundred countries and multiple oceans.

That’s the geographical distance between Dhaka, Bangladesh and Queens.

Yet, when my mom explained that people were immigrating to america, I felt as if I were to prepare for a trip which entailed breaking the barriers between innumerable worlds - a paradigm change between civilizations.

My concepts of the American life were crafted illusional figurines, crystallized by intangible depictions of the Western lifestyle about the Disney Channel.

We had never practiced to take up the role of a character from one of my American morning TV shows, but that’s what We felt like was expected of me as We heard the news.

I think I have a significant hazy memory, however the day We heard the news headlines remains as sharp in my memory simply because an unpolluted river. The institution van dropped me off after my exam at a fairly narrow alley in Mirpur, where I lived with my extended family group.

It was a good monsoon morning; I jumped from the van, skipped my method over the uthaan - drenched by rain but careful not to slip on the algae forming on the yard. I halted nearby the tap to clean my once-light school shoes, now caked in mud.

Wet books and issue paper at hand, I struggled to open up the tap. That’s when I saw my mom venture to the dangerously wet veranda, holding a paper.

“This letter came in the mail today. We will America,” she announced.

I couldn’t show by her facial expression the underlying emotion - euphoria, amusement, regret, or perhaps a variety of all. Who knows?

“Crude timing to take up a joke as We am soaked in rain and drain water,” I thought. Nonetheless it wasn’t a joke.

Fast forward several years. I am today finishing senior high school in Queens.

I reside in the vibrant Queens Village spot with my family.

Yet, I recall where I originated from: Bangladesh.

I really like my native land, but there are particular ideas and conditions that I believe must be changed.

My childhood experience molded my perception that lives round me were greatly in peril in Dhaka.

People have become familiar with the sight of kid waiters being abused, little boys using drugs and the groups of 16-year-old brides being forced to pay dowries. Even so, the fact these problems will be prevalent enough to be elements of the Bangladeshi life does not make them right.

When I entered senior high school in the U.S.A, I did so research on kid poverty and took a lot of classes online regarding sustainable advancement. Whenever economists sought to exemplify extreme concentrated poverty, their immediate description was of South Asia or tropical Africa.

When portrayal of an unsustainable city was necessary, the example was often my city, Dhaka, where in fact the population had grown from half a million to 15 million on the span of a few years; where child poverty was a widespread catastrophe.

Soon after, We founded an NGO named Efforts in Youth Advancement of Bangladesh, or EYDB, with a motive to enrich the lives of street and orphan children, who are often denied basic human rights such as for example shelter, education, and dignity. I assume that by giving these young people with quality education and developmental opportunities, they are able to grow up to be another generation of self sustainable Bangladeshis, who will go on to improve the socio-economic dynamics of Bangladesh.

Amid a worldwide pandemic, we must join forces to support those influenced the most in Bangladesh: marginalized and impoverished communities.

To initiate efforts in combating COVID-19, I acquired touching Beacon Stage INC. in Dhaka and organized to send funds to Bangladesh. From New York, I began fundraising to send the relief.

In two weeks, EYDB successfully provided rations of rice, vermicelli, sugar, potatoes, lentils and oil for some impoverished families in the Dhaka area who were affected tremendously by the pandemic. But we were holding not the just projects that EYDB pursued.

We recruited 102 volunteers from across the USA and four different countries for EYDB’s COVID-19 efforts. I qualified these volunteers over Zoom through workout sessions to build up yearlong educational products for Bangladeshi children in grades K-8.

This summer, I hope to go to Bangladesh and offer 5,000 children surviving in slums, whose education has been halted therefore of school closings, with the yearlong educational material that EYDB is creating.

The families of a number of these children have already been affected in such a approach by the pandemic that the majority of children will never be in a position to re-enroll in universities. EYDB is also looking towards collaborating with Queens politicians to provide services across NEW YORK.

I made a decision to initiate EYDB and inspire additional Bangladeshi teens to join in my business lead of providing because of their community back home. Youth voices happen to be tremendously significant in combating the persistent crises within the modern world.

One proactive approach could be ignored by the world, but as youth around the world interact, they become such a good sphere of force that their call to justice can't be overlooked.

It took me a journey of 8,000 miles between diverse worlds to look for my passion, but I am hoping that lots of more will soon hold my hand as we turn into a global force of young {change|switch|modification|trans