ZenEd is a youth organisation aiming to build an inclusive society by imparting education and skills to teens about proper etiquette, tolerance, and acceptance for different identities so that they can become better 21st-century citizens. For their first project, ZenEd completed a three-day workshop programme recently titled ‘Attorney Raju Mahajan & Associates presents Together Towards Prosperity with ZenEd’. The event took place at SOS Children's Village, Dhaka which is a part of the world's largest network of non-governmental organisations focused on supporting children without parental care and families at risk.
ZenEd has administered training on emotional intelligence, leadership, netizenship, social awareness, and so on. To give an idea about their workshops, Sadia Tabassum Addrita, a co-founder shared, “In our session about bullying, the students opened up about their personal experiences, and they suggested ways of preventing bullying and what they can do to help the victims. They came up with the ideas themselves, instead of us suggesting anything. This shows that these young people realise what's wrong. So, they should be encouraged to think and take actions against such issues and bad activities around them.”
The team of ZenEd was founded by nine young minds, who came together under BRAC Youth Platform's 'Amra Notun Network' and who are equally devoted to developing children as the best human beings through education. They believe that education consists of more than what's taught through textbooks, and they envision that their organisation will complement school education for teens in order to ensure that they develop an inclusive and progressive mindset.
Another co-founder Niloy Haque said, “Those of us who dream of a harmonious society - a society where we do not have to experience people lashing out at others because of intolerance and prejudices - we have to come forward to spread the dream among others, to share the ideas on how to achieve such harmony. And that is why we have founded ZenEd.”
The SOS Children's Village authority welcomed ZenEd's initiative and said, “These children had no idea about some of these topics before. Now they will be encouraged to discuss issues, such as bullying others, among themselves. We think that this is a very important learning for teenage children and a crucial part of their development as good human beings.”
“We look forward to holding more such projects in the future, that will include teens in more underprivileged communities, like children living in slums, who have no access to such 21st-century skills,” added co-founder Kazi Nishat Aunjum Semonti.
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