JCI is a worldwide membership-based nonprofit organization of young active citizens aged 18 to 40 who are dedicated to creating positive change in their communities. Through projects in 5,000 communities across more than 100 countries, members seek targeted solutions to local problems, creating a global impact.

Tell us a bit about your academic background and childhood.
I grew up in Dubai since my father was posted in UAE. We returned to Bangladesh back in 1991 and I got enrolled in Saint Joseph High School for my SSC and gave my HSC from Dhaka College. I then did my Bachelors in Marketing and International Business and my MBA with a Marketing and Finance major from NSU.
I grew up in a very Bengali environment with my younger brother and my parents. And it’s something I’m proud of. My father was a freedom fighter which has helped us in possessing certain values and beliefs. Because of these values, I always preferred to stay in the country and do something for the society.

How did you professional journey start?
I started my career in 2003 and I’ve been working ever since. I’ve worked in telecommunication, conglomerates & banks. My will is to always give back to society. Thus I joined JCI Bangladesh in 2013 as a member. I had a very fast-track growth here, which resulted in me becoming the National President in 2019. And this journey has transformed me into a global citizen. It has helped to develop leadership qualities and helped me connect to the community. I wanted to be in a platform that not only helped me learn but also helped me in giving back to the society and JCI was just the perfect place for that.

Could you tell us a bit about JCI?
It’s an organization that functions around certain value pillars. It creates leadership, it works in community development, it helps you to build a network, it gives you a lot of trainings for self-development and lastly, it connects you to various stakeholders which includes the government and the private sectors. “Connect & Collaborate” is JCI’s theme and so we work towards that tirelessly. The organization has been here since 1972, starting with just 10 members with one local chapter. And now it has 14 local chapters with approximately thousand members. We also have a very good gender-balanced ratio in membership. 45% of our members are women while 55% are men which is quite a good ratio. Six of our 14 chapters are run by women; we basically have six female local presidents. We have four national officers in the national board, who are women. JCI quite actively promotes women leadership and empowerment and it’s something we’ve been working on for the past three–four years. We’ve already partnered with organizations like Women Chamber, City Alo and such. We’ve partnered with organizations who actively work for female development.

What is JCI doing at the moment?
There’s a lot that JCI is doing right now. We’re focusing heavily on our value pillars. We’re working on leadership creation, we’re providing training and community development activities. We do a lot of different projects and this year we did about 26 projects so far. Projects which are in line with SDGs. We do this type of work under the Active Citizens Framework. These activities are carried out by the local chapters and monitored by the national board.

How were you affiliated with JCI?
My journey started through my JCI mentor. I knew him personally since he was a family friend. He asked me once to join the organization because he knew I was interested in this. I had a knack for working for people surrounding me. That’s why I decided to give it a shot. That’s basically how I got associated with JCI.

How are you trying to change the community through your role? What’s your vision?
The vision is very simple: The change begins with me. I believe that if you change within yourself; if you change yourself, you can change the community. JCI is a non-profit youth organization and we want to become a catalyst for making changes in the community. By changes I refer to say, self – development. When you develop yourself, you indirectly develop the nation. When you become a self – developed individual, you can contribute more in every format. We know that we need leaders and that’s why we work for leadership creation. You need to be able to lead and direct and we want to create that type of leader. We have a lot of JCI representation in various chambers. We have former JCI leaders representing leadership roles in FBCCI, DCCI, BASIS, SCCI etc. It’s a youth platform and so we help in creating that leadership mindset. We give the tools to groom a person.

How has this year been for JCI?
We’ve more or less been able to achieve our goals for the year. We have a POA – Plan of Action every year and we’ve been able to achieve almost all of it. We’re also given an international efficiency guideline. And we’re already 100% efficient.

Is there a particular project that you’d like to talk about?
One of our biggest projects this year was with BRTA. It was on the eye-sight issue of bus and truck drivers and it was huge! Another significantly big project we did was She Leads which was a female-centric project to recognize female entrepreneurs. We built a road to access a maternity home last year, which was quite a significant project. We’ve had projects based on things like sanitation and safe water as well. Apart from the projects JCI Bangladesh has also organized GALA events like “Leadership Conclave”, “Pre- Budget discussion”, “Lead Women-recognizing women leaders”, “Ten Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) award”, & “Be The Change Symposium” etc.

Why do you think the scope for development starts at a certain young age?

JCI has an age barrier, which is 18 – 40. JCI’s guideline is that it’s the prime time of youth and that’s when you develop yourself the most as a leader, as a networker and as a professional. It’s the peak time so if you don’t develop yourself within that, it becomes difficult to get into it later on in life.

What do you think the youth lacks?
This generation is very restless and lacks patience. They’re sharp, talented, tech-savvy and goal-oriented but they’re impatient so I would suggest the youth to work on that. Patience will give you a good result.

Why do you think the scope for development starts at a certain young age?
JCI has an age barrier, which is 18 – 40. JCI’s guideline is that it’s the prime time of youth and that’s when you develop yourself the most as a leader, as a networker and as a professional. It’s the peak time so if you don’t develop yourself within that, it becomes difficult to get into it later on in life.

What message would you like to give the youth?
Firstly, love your family. Secondly, love your nation. Live with passion, believe in yourself and be patient. Success doesn’t come overnight. There’s no shortcut, so be patient.

What are your plans for the next five years?
We want to grow our membership. We also want to have a JCI Bangladesh Foundation. It’s something we’re working on and hope to push out soon. We want to have our own office, as opposed to the current rented one we have. We want to become a full-fledged chamber, unlike an affiliated chamber.