According to the UNFPA’s state of world population report 2018, the young population across the globe has reached an astonishing figure of 1.8 billion out of 7.6 billion, and most of them live in developing countries such as Bangladesh. Twenty-four per cent of the world population today is young people who are between 10-24 years old. Globally, about 26 percent of the world is under 15 years of age and some 9 percent is over 64 years of age.

This remarkable magnitude of young population surely can play a significant role in ensuring sustainable development of their communities and countries consequently can bring sustainability and contentment in the Asia Pacific region. In order to do so, these young people are needed to equip with right mind-set and leadership skills. Thus to empower young people with right mind-set and effective leadership skills, global housing non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity undertakes a righteous youth leadership initiative called Habitat for Humanity Young Leaders Build.

The Habitat for Humanity Young Leaders Build (or Habitat YLB) is a multi-month campaign conducted every year bringing together youth from across the Asia-Pacific region dedicated to affordable housing solutions for the families in need. The Habitat YLB is one of the largest youth movements in the Asia Pacific region and it is a chance for the young people to get together to volunteer, fundraise, raise awareness, and voice out their support for the need for decent and affordable housing. The movement encourages youth to take the lead and motivate their peers to build homes and communities, on a Habitat build site and/or online through their social networks.

Now on its eighth year, the 2019 Habitat for Humanity Young Leaders Build campaign began on 5 December 2018 on World Volunteer Day and continued until the culmination on 13 April 2019. In the first phase, the awareness-raising campaign focuses on sharing about Habitat’s work and the need for young people to get involved in the vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. In order to motivate the youth to participate in advocating for housing, Habitat for Humanity International also introduced the advocacy grants in the 2016 Habita Young Leaders Build campaign. Since then the application for advocacy grants opens every year during the Habitat Young Leaders Build campaign period, where applicants are encouraged to submit projects focused on decent housing, slum upgrading, gender and property rights, disaster resilience, or security of tenure. This year three winners from Bangladesh received USD 1000 each as grants for funding their proposed housing advocacy projects.

This Habitat YLB season, Habitat Bangladesh hosted 240 volunteers comprising a lot of young people, professionals from diplomatic missions and corporate people to contribute to the positive change in the community. Volunteers came from Australian International School Dhaka, Playpen School Dhaka, American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, MetLife Bangladesh, Heidelberg Cement Bangladesh, the US Embassy Dhaka, Human Aid and community volunteers. These wonderful groups of volunteers worked on six houses in Berua, Tumulia and Uttar Rajnagar villages under Kaliganj Upazila and generated 1530 volunteer hours! The MetLife Foundation and the Heidelberg Cement Bangladesh fund the houses.

As a part of the regional campaign, Habitat Bangladesh also organized a special build Women Build celebrating the International Women’s Day on March 8, 2019, which has been a great success. Around 60 volunteers from the US Embassy Dhaka, MetLife Foundation, Human Aid, Local Community Based Organisations and other individual volunteers made this event meaningful by participating in the build activities of 3 women headed houses followed by a discussion on empowerment and health issues of women at Berua village, Kaliganj, Gazipur.

Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh, a branch of Habitat for Humanity International, was established in 1999.  It currently operates in 7 locations across the country, aiming to ensure decent and affordable shelter for all. To date, more than 15,937 low-income Bangladeshi families have collaborated with Habitat to improve their housing, water and sanitation, and living conditions. This represents approximately 300,000 people who have also received training in safe water and sanitation, appropriate construction technology, disaster response microfinance and mitigation.