Definition of Youth

For the RYRC, the terms “youth” cover students in the class range of 6 to 12. This includes School (11 to 15 years old), College (16 to 18 years old). Youth are a heterogeneous group with diverse backgrounds, expertise, skillsets, and needs which requires appropriate human development approaches for meaningful engagement.

The term “youth engagement” refers to youth-led action and youth development. It speaks to active and meaningful participation of youth and inclusion of their voice in the humanitarian work across governance, management, programs, and service delivery. It also recognizes three interconnecting and fluid pathways of engagement: youth as leaders, youth as volunteers, and youth as members of affected communities. As an approach, it goes beyond a symbolic inclusion and is practiced through equal partnership in both the intergenerational co-operation and peer contexts.

Engaging Youth

Young people are key drivers in humanitarian action and development. Being meaningfully engaged as todays and tomorrow’s leaders, volunteers, and members of affected communities, they foster community resilience. As contributors to the RYRC’s vision to prevent and alleviate human suffering and promote and protect human dignity and peace, they enable the targets of the Agenda for Humanity and the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved.

The population of young people has consistently risen over the last decade, and they have become a growing constituency of communities affected by humanitarian crises. Their specific needs, rights, and potential are however often overlooked and even more so, they are missing at the decision-making tables where the communities they live in are being shaped.

The RYRC recognizes meaningful youth engagement as a strategic vehicle for transforming institutional cultures that directly and positively impacts the Bangladesh Red Crescent operational capacity to deliver on our humanitarian mission. Hence, adequate investments in meaningful youth engagement are inevitable for the transfer of experiences, leadership renewal, and progress overall.

Youth As Leaders

Young people, including members, volunteers, and staff, taking a lead as agents of change in different capacities and duration are considered young leaders. In their leadership, they are not limited by a title or position. Their specific abilities and unique qualities shape their leadership to inspire and influence positive change in the world around them.

To harness positive contributions of young people, the Bangladesh Red Crescent creates empowering and stimulating environments that enable participation of youth in decision-making and follow-up action. Allowing young people to self-organize through youth-led structures fosters leadership development and enables youth to have own voice. In addition, nurturing inter-generational cooperation while ensuring equitable participation in governance, management and service delivery on local, regional, and national levels benefits individual development and strengthens the RYRC’s operational capacity and institutional growth. Investing in systematic and competency-centered learning for young leaders is key for transformational impact on the quality leadership in RYRC.

 

Youth As Volunteers

Young people who invest their time to contribute to a greater good for their communities, not motivated in any manner by desire for gain, are considered young volunteers. They plan, design, deliver, review, and innovate the Bangladesh Red Crescent programs and services. Young volunteers enrich the delivery of these programs and services by bringing their unique skillsets stemming from their education and life skills. The volunteer management approaches, especially recruitment, accompaniment, and retention, must be tailored to reach diverse groups of youth, including those from affected and marginalized communities.

Young volunteers are treated in accordance with the Code of Conduct Policy while recognizing that they may have different and/or additional needs to those of adult volunteers. They are particularly vulnerable when volunteering in the field and the Bangladesh Red Crescent is accountable for their security, safety, protection, and physical and mental well-being. National Societies must provide young volunteers with access to youth-friendly information, training opportunities, and resources for their work.

Youth As Members of Affected Communities

School and College students who participate in and benefit from Bangladesh Red Crescent programs and services are not passive recipients of aid. On the contrary, they are involved in the planning, design, delivery and review of programs and services reaching them. Resilience strengthening is at the core of the Bangladesh Red Crescent’s engagement with young members of affected communities so that they are better able to bounce back, contribute, and take a lead in addressing humanitarian issues. In the fast-paced world, vulnerabilities are becoming increasingly invisible, therefore the Bangladesh Red Crescent programs and services must also address the hidden vulnerabilities that School and College students face, including mental health and well-being.