The 19th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) held in Sochi of Russia was a unique and lifetime experience for the Bangladeshi participants due to its innovative arrangements, diversity of programmes and cordial hospitality of the host, among others.
The first World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was organised in 1947 in Prague. Russia hosted it for the third time. Earlier, Moscow hosted it in 1957 and 1985. The theme of this year's festival was— ‘For peace, solidarity and social justice, we struggle against imperialism. Honouring our past, we build the future’. Over 25,000 young people of ages between 18-35 from 185 countries including Bangladesh attended the festival. Participants included representatives from non-government organisations, teachers, students, politicians, social and cultural activists, power industry workers and journalists.
More than one hundred youths represented Bangladesh at the international forum of which 11 students and professionals were sponsored by Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation- Rosatom. Rosatom is helping Bangladesh in implementing the country’s nuclear programme, including construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power Project.
The festival, organised at Sochi's Olympic Park from October 14 to 22, 2017, included various educational and entertainment events, meetings and interactions with famous politicians, scientists and successful young professionals from all over the world.
One of the panel discussions titled ‘Powering the Future’ was dedicated to energy as it is a key factor for global development. Young experts and activists discussed the role of nuclear power in tackling global challenges, related to environmental protection and the importance of corporate social responsibility of companies all over the world.
‘WFYS was an excellent platform for discussing the future, which depends on the decisions we take today. Rosatom can be an integral part of the future landscape, as it supplies green energy,’ said Vadim Titov, senior vice-president of Rosatom International Network, a sister concern of Rosatom.
Rosatom’s Director General Alexey Likhachev said we can make the earth more habitable by focusing on green energy. He emphasised the role of nuclear energy in this regard.
‘As a future nuclear specialist it was really interesting for me to take part in the events. I was impressed by Russia's advancement in the field of nuclear energy, which made me believe in their capability as well. My special thanks to Rosatom for giving me the opportunity to attend this unique mega event which I will remember throughout my life. I believe the versatile experience I gathered and the huge number of friends from various countries I made during the festival days will help boost up my career,’ said Golam Sarwar, one of the participants and a student of Nuclear Engineering Department, University of Dhaka.
During the week-long festival, young people from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East shared their ideas and formed a single vision of global development, which was presented to the Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Participant Md Ripon Ali, lecturer of English, Ishwardi Girls’ College, said, ‘For being in the group of Future Industries, I was able to attend the seminar of Ndaba Madela, the future leader of Africa, who said that we should love our enemies more and behave more politely than friends to make them friend for a better society.’ It was a wonderful and outstanding platform to foster universal brotherhood. This was an opportunity for youths to express and share their views, ideas and experience about the present world and about its future,’ Ripon Ali said.
‘The best part of the festival in my opinion was the opportunity to get new friends from all over the world, to exchange and share stories about educational programmes, culture, stories and many others. I witnessed creative potentials coupled with enthusiasm, energy and versatility among the participants those can make wonders for the future world,’ said participant Tanvir Islam, MBA student of Pabna University of Science and Technology.
For this writer personally, it was an amazing journey to indulge in the process of discovering new ideas and sharing with others, it was an opportunity to interact with people from different cultures, communities, races and religions.
Sharing of experience by the heroes of our generation has motivated this writer in many ways to think beyond capacity. One of the biggest lessons this writer learnt was how to deal with challenges and how to turn those challenges into opportunities.
The writer is a business analyst at BDCOM Online Limited, Email: duronto87@gmail.com