Friends of the neighbourhood

With an aim to help the underprivileged in their respective neighbourhoods cope with difficult situations and overcome crises, a group of students in the port city have been working under the banner of “Rise of Youth Community (RYC) Bangladesh” since 2017.

“There are many organisations working with bigger agendas for the underprivileged in the country. But despite that, a lot of people living below the poverty line often remain under the radar. We thought of identifying them in our neighbourhoods with an intent to help them as much as we can,” said Dipro Prattoy, founder and chief executive of the organisation.

It all started in mid-2017, when Dipro and some of his friends came up with a plan of doing something for the people deprived of various civic amenities and education.

Though the urge to help was strong, the team members -- all being O-level students -- struggled to start their endeavour due to lack of proper funding and planning.

A year passed away as they collected more members, funds from their close ones and set out towards their goals.

In June 2018, they implemented their first campaign by providing iftar to impoverished people, most of whom were rickshaw-pullers in the city.

In December the same year, the organisation’s members gave away pens and notepads to all the students of Charulata Bidyapith, a school for orphans and underprivileged children.

“We tried to continue our work with small steps. It helped us learn to work as a team and also taught us to evaluate the real problems disadvantaged people of the locality were facing,” said Dipro.

The effort was indeed getting stronger, as volunteers launched a hand-wash campaign earlier this year in the slums and shanties beside Ashkar Dighi in the city to raise awareness among the slum-dwellers -- many of whom suffer from waterborne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera. 

RYC volunteers distributed soap and handwash among 200 families and also showed the slum-dwellers several instructional videos on good hygiene practices.

RYC’s biggest campaign so far was on dengue -- held this month. With the ongoing dengue outbreak across the country, the organisation’s members distributed leaflets, explaining the procedures to prevent and treat dengue fever, at several places in Chattogram.

They also distributed eco-friendly mosquito coils among over 100 families in the slums of Ashkar Dighi area.

“It would be better if we could help more people but budget constraints are always there. That, however, won’t stop us,” Dipro said.

“Our work will continue and we want more youths to join us and help the society to the best of their abilities,” he added.