Dhaka [Bangladesh], November 21 (ANI): The Joy Bangla Youth Award has been awarded to 30 youth-led organizations that turned around lives and brought about positive community changes in Bangladesh.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, announced the award-winning organizations through a virtual ceremony launched by Young Bangla, the youth front of ruling Awami League's research wing Centre for ResearchInformation (CRI).

CRI Trustee Nasrul Hamid attended the virtual session, conducted by Dr Nuzhat Choudhury. The certificates, crests, and laptops will be dispatched to the awardees. Apart from them, top nominees will also receive certificates.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy announced the names of the awardees through a virtual ceremony.

Back on October 24, 2019, he appeared in the "Let's Talk" event interacting with a group of youths at 'Youth on Politics, a session of Young Bangla with Sajeeb Wazed.

A year later, he appeared online to name a group of young changemakers nominated for the Joy Bangla Youth Award.

In between this time, he called upon people to follow health guidelines to stop the spread of COVID-19, through social media, instead of hurling rhetoric typical of many politicians in the country.

Young Bangla set off on November 15, 2014, to directly incorporate the young generation in the country's development activities geared towards 'Vision 2021'. The organization, carried forward by 50,000 volunteers and 315 organizations, consists of nearly 300,000 members.

At the first stage, the 'Joy Bangla Youth Award' was conferred under six categories - women empowerment, children's rights, empowerment of specially challenged people, empowerment of underprivileged people, empowerment of ultra-poor people, and youth development.

In the second stage, the awards would fall under the purview of seven sub-categories - anti-drug awareness campaign, activities to deal with COVID-19, environment and climate change, healthcare, education and awareness, cultural initiatives, and disaster management.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ICT advisor and CRI chairperson Sajeeb Wazed Joy said that the country can never budge from its founding principle of secularism.

"Whatever religion we belong to, we are all Bangalis," he said at the award ceremony.

Referring to the young champions of change who were conferred with this award for transforming lives in their communities, Sajeeb Wazed said: "Each time I look at you, I feel inspired.""We harbor a culture of complaining. But, look at these youths who chose not to complain. Rather, they are harnessing their merit and giving their best to solve problems they observed in society. Instead of pinning their hope to someone else, they came forward to advancing the country through their leadership," he added.

"Those who are awarded here and those not - I congratulate both of you. This is because the dream Bangabandhu dreamt of was to advance the country forward. You carried out that task," he further said.

"When we see the death toll due to the Coronavirus is quite high in many developed countries, the death toll in our country is low. Not a single death is expected, though! ... They didn't pay heed to their doctors' advice. But we did," he added.

Observing that the country's economic growth is still on the rise despite the coronavirus pandemic, he said, "Many developed countries suffered significant economic losses. But, we are still progressing owing to the leadership." (ANI)