A Bangladeshi volunteer who campaigns against child marriage and violence against women -- including running a sticker campaign on Dhaka public transport -- has been named as a youth ambassador in a prestigious new programme celebrating and promoting the work of young people worldwide, said a press release.
Joseph Mahtab is one of 22 young changemakers becoming YouthLead ambassadors, picked from nearly 1,500 applicants around the world. Joseph, 30, from Barguna, is the president of the Voluntary Services Organisation (VSO) Alumni Association in Bangladesh. He will now take his place as an ambassador for the YouthLead.org programme, founded by the United States Agency for International Development.
The VSO Alumni Association in Bangladesh is a group of 450 young people who have completed a volunteer programme with the organisation.
The association focuses on different social issues -- gender inequality, violence against women, dowry, poverty, sexual harassment, peace and justice. They are also contributing effort to raise awareness on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in public universities and educational institutions together with civil society groups.
Since the association was established in 2015, they have reached around 4,000 people with their voluntary work to stop violence against women and prevent child marriage. In 2018, the team led a sticker campaign on public transport in Dhaka to raise awareness of a national helpline for survivors of violence to access justice.