Yearning Aches Foundation advocates for food safety and sustainable development
Founded by Mahmud Hossain Amin, a student of Dhaka Residential Model College, Yearning Aches Foundation is a youth organisation that works to build a better society, by eradicating social problems. The idea behind its inception was inspired by various social leaders and youth-based organisations determined to uplift the underprivileged communities.
"We started this journey with a hangout where I was casually discussing my plans of working for social welfare. Two years ago, with just BDT 50 in our pockets, we embarked on the path of transforming lives," shared Amin. In their initial days, the team neither had enough ideas nor adequate funds to run an organisation, but with enthusiasm and passion, they have conducted over 14 events and have successfully reached out to 27,000 people so far.
The organisation has arranged several programmes on food safety, where they distributed sanitation materials among roadside food hawkers and small food shops in the city. They further spread awareness among people by discussing food hygiene protocols and ideal nutritional values.
The team continues its earnest efforts to tackle the city's pollution by providing free masks to pedestrians. They were also active during the road safety protests and conducted multiple awareness programmes to familiarise people with the use of zebra crossing and over-bridges. Furthermore, the team also reached out to slum dwellers to propagate hygiene awareness. "Currently, we are organising online events to generate awareness about the spread of the virus," said Ayman Tahmid, a student of Rajuk Uttara Model College and the Vice President of Yearning Aches Foundation.
The organisation is continuing its activities to combat the pandemic as their volunteers are delivering food packages among underprivileged communities for the past few weeks. "We have helped around 3,000 families across Dhaka, Barishal and Rangpur. These people had lost their sources of livelihood and were finding it difficult to make ends meet," added Alif Mahmud Akkhar, a student of Notre Dame College and the General Secretary of the organisation. They have also initiated a social media challenge chain called, '8 Kotir Jonno 8 Koti', during which the team members provided a food package to a nearby underprivileged family and tagged other people to do so. "Social media has played an important role in connecting us to the masses. We took on our social responsibility through an online challenge," shared Amin.
The future plans of the organisation include designing a sustainable development project to educate underprivileged students. They further intend to organise skill training programmes for the youth and support middle and lower middle-class families to survive, post the pandemic.