Sustainable Development Goal 16 by the United Nations focuses on “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.” Birth into a third world country makes it almost obligatory to grow up observing the majority of people around us live life with standards significantly lower than the ideal ones. From the moment I had been aware of the luxuries and privileges I am entitled to, I have believed that the more privileged standards of life one earns by either lottery-of-birth or investing active labour into it, the higher onus of social responsibility they are ethically obligated to. There is no alternative to providing access to equal justice for all and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions accessible at all levels in order to progress towards a peaceful and inclusive society.
Amidst the multitudes of social plague, I especially wanted to take an active stand institutionally against gender-based violence. It is a human rights urgency to not only reduce death rates of women but also to end all forms of abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and violence conducted against them. With this agenda in mind, I joined a conversation with a few students from my high school in 11th grade to establish ProjectDebi- a youth organization with the motto “turning girls with hope into Goddesses with power”. Debi literally means Goddess in our native tongue.
Since its establishment, ProjectDebi has evolved from only being a confession medium for victims to an active organization for social movements stretching their activism for woman to transgender, children, LGBTQIA, etc. From the inception of this year, ProjectDebi aimed to dedicate this year to celebrating all our stakeholders; however, due to the pandemic, we quickly modified our funding-allotment to assist the highest number of families to survive the lockdown.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, ProjectDebi arranged a poetry night titled “Bojrokontha” or “Voice of the Brave” where teenagers and young adults, as well as little girls, had a safe space to speak/recite/sing their heart out. Why is a platform for rants and confessions about sexual, physical, or mental harassment so critical? The audience gets filled with sympathy and praises of bravery for the survivor, but is that all there is to it?
No.
Every time someone raises their voice, amidst all the cheers and chaos, a person camouflaged into the background with a thin, quivering, barely audible, voice will whisper how they have faced something similar. They will thank you for representation and for making their story heard. I do not invest in this project tirelessly to garner sympathy for victims, rather to raise empathy and support for the brave warriors that I have met through this.
The funds from this event were initially meant for street children’s education, but as the nation braced themselves against the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, we found people needing monetary support urgently. We financially facilitated two families who needed major surgeries that they could not afford after losing their jobs.
The surgeries were successful.
The prime focus of every social movement should be improving the lives of the most vulnerable stakeholders, and the most marginalised demographic group in our community are the transgenders.
Bangladesh, despite all the civic progress, is largely regressive in inclusivity and consider LGBTQIA as illegal, so no government safety net programs cover them. Through ‘Tader Tore’ initiative, ProjectDebi collaborated with “TransEnd” and “Orodhho Foundation” to raise funds for the transgender community. Over 400 people were aided.
‘ProjectDebi: কথা’ meaning “discourse” was a series of webinars where experts participated in interactive discussions about mental health of teenagers, socio-political inclusivity of Bangladesh, fighting against cyber-harassment, laws & rights in different aspects for ordinary citizens of Bangladesh, etc.
After Bangladesh was struck by cyclone Amphan, ProjectDebi also contributed in ‘Project Pathshal’ initiative organized by “Alokito shishu” & “Kandari” to sponsor reconstruction of a remote school ravaged by the cyclone.
Besides our focus on reconstruction, we wanted to actively organize cultural events to start discourse on our chosen topics; therefore to acknowledge and celebrate womanhood, there was ‘Revolutioনারী: নৈপুণ্যে নারীশক্তি (meaning revolutionary- the female virtuoso at work) Annual Art & photography exhibition’. After the grand success of the online event, we moved to collaborate with BIHDP (Bangladesh Integrated Human Development Programme) in "Excuse দিয়েন না" (meaning do not give excuses)- a project aimed to call out the nuances and multilayers of victim-blaming perpetrated by our society to excuse the abuser after violence transpires, which are an elaborate product of rape culture being propagated.
Two of our most recent endeavours were ‘ProjectDebi: কন্যা (meaning daughter)- Idea presentation competition’ and ‘ProjectDebi: প্রিয়পুরুষ (favorite male icon)- Appreciate the Ideal Men’. Through both of these events, participants posted an appreciation for a female and male icon who inspires them. Such events break the grim cycle of continuously discussing abuse and violence, as well as the posts received and reposted by ProjectDebi set the metric for ideal behaviour amongst others. It teaches clear distinction among what conduct is acceptable, what behaviour is basic decency, and what action is categorized as going the extra mile — each deserving of respect proportionately. The highest emphasis from myself at ProjectDebi lies in ensuring inclusive, participatory, and representative content-making at all levels. We want to start the discourse on social issues and push inclusivity as well as ensure it does not stay restricted amongst a very niche demographic.
For the society to holistically progress, there is a prerequisite of the mass to have a clear understanding that human rights, peace and security, and community development are all mutually reinforcing and complementary to one another. Therefore, SDG-16 marks the intersection between sustaining peace and ensuring human rights for all via equality of law and opportunities. To tackle challenges our community is currently facing and build a more inclusive society, there needs to be efficient and transparent initiatives taken by more youths determined to make the world a better place: one family, one locality, one community at a time.