Message from the CEO

Fourteen years ago, I founded the Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center (BYLC) to educate, train, and develop the next generation of leaders in Bangladesh. Under my leadership, BYLC has grown into the country’s most prominent and influential youth leadership organization over the past decade. We have taught leadership to 6,500 young people, connected many of them to jobs while helping many others to become entrepreneurs.

Thirty-four years ago, when I was a child, Bangladesh was inundated by severe flooding. Our house was submerged, and my family lacked drinking water and cooking gas for more than two weeks. My father took me on a boat to distribute relief to flood victims. For the first time, I witnessed the devastating impact of extreme weather events which have grown more frequent with global warming.

Although I didn’t understand the magnitude of the climate problem then, I had a child’s faith that adults would take care of it.

But that has not happened.

Instead, I have seen Bangladesh grow increasingly vulnerable to the global impacts of climate change. My home-city of Dhaka has become the world’s least livable city in part due to climate-induced migration and extreme weather events. Cities throughout the world face catastrophic climate-related damage and loss of life.

For this reason, I am now launching the Global Youth Leadership Center (GYLC). We cannot wait for others to solve the climate crisis, and national solutions alone won’t work. We need to work together and at scale to tackle a global problem that affects us all.

For my home country and for my two children, I am mobilizing youth to tackle the climate crisis. Over the next 10 years, I am committed to working with youth from the 55 member countries in the Climate Vulnerable Forum, to educate them about the science behind climate change, equip them with leadership skills to take individual and collective action, and enable them to launch businesses that contribute to climate mitigation or adaptation. While the climate vulnerable countries contribute only 5% of global emissions, we are focusing on these countries because they stand to lose the most from extreme weather events caused by climate change.

Over the next 18 months, we will establish GYLC offices and begin operations in ten of the most climate vulnerable countries. I will be on the ground in all ten countries–Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ghana in Africa and Vietnam, Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pacific Islands in Asia–to launch our programs, meet with valuable partners, and encourage each and every one of you to join GYLC in creating the climate leaders of tomorrow. I hope to see you there, ready to join our global movement!