November 2009
S.M. Fahad Bin Kamal (Bangladesh)

S.M. Fahad Bin Kamal

S.M. Fahad Bin Kamal, a 2004-2005 Youth Exchange and Study (YES) alumnus, is a community organizer in Bangladesh who is in his final year of undergraduate study. As the current president and one of the founders of YES Alumni Bangladesh, Kamal has arranged over a dozen community service projects throughout Bangladesh, including clothing drives, blood donation events, and cyclone relief efforts. YES Alumni Bangladesh is one of the most active youth service associations in the region, and Kamal strives to continue expanding its membership and scope throughout Bangladesh.

During his YES program, Kamal studied at Milford High School in New Hampshire. There he earned recognition in many club activities including the indoor track team, future business leaders association, and marketing association. As a devout Muslim, he fondly remembers his Unitarian host family, who included him in its routine activities. This experience showed him some of the many denominations of Christianity in the United States, akin to Muslims around the world who also practice and understand their faith in different ways. When asked about his YES experience, Kamal said, “That single year integrally changed my perspective on life. The YES program is a platform that helped me gain leadership skills, broadened my vision, and made me aware of my responsibilities.”

After returning to Bangladesh in 2005, Kamal founded YES Alumni Bangladesh with other members of his cohort and was appointed president; since then, he has been reelected four years running. Inspired by his YES experience in the United States and recognizing different community needs in Bangladesh, Kamal continues to draw ideas from the his surroundings to create quality service projects.

“Bangladesh has a huge population of 150 million people. Due to job scarcity, many people migrate to the capital [Dhaka] looking for work. Their average daily earning is less than a dollar. My motivation for starting YES Alumni Bangladesh was to do something beneficial for these migrant workers. By fulfilling our social responsibility, we can also create awareness,” Kamal said.

The first YES Alumni Bangladesh project, in 2005, was a clothing drive in Rayer Bazar, a slum of Dhaka where many migrant workers have taken residence. Association members worked with the National Federation of Youth Organization of Bangladesh and iEARN-BD, the Bangladesh program agency of YES, to collect and distribute over 400 pieces of clothing. The 2009 clothing drive, now underway, has already collected over 800 pieces of clothing and now accepts lightly-used blankets.

Kamal has found unique ways to team up with the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka to bring global awareness to youth service activities taking place throughout Bangladesh, including speaking to Bangladeshis this year about his exchange experience during America Week. He also brought collaboration between YES Alumni Bangladesh and the U.S. Embassy to deliver relief aid in the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr in 2007. Shortly after his exchange program, Kamal attended the U.S. Department of State’s “Diversity and Tolerance Symposium” in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, an event for South and Central Asian alumni of the YES and Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) programs, two U.S. Department of State exchange programs focused on youth leadership. As one of four representatives from Bangladesh, Kamal discussed YES Alumni Bangladesh’s projects with alumni, heard about other alumni’s experiences, and parlayed these stories into a blood drive project held at the Red Crescent Society’s Bangladesh Mohammadpur Centre. This blood drive has now become an annual event for YES Alumni Bangladesh with donations increasing each year. Kamal has also led teams of YES alumni at conferences in India and the U.S., including the July 2009 YES Alumni Conference in Washington, D.C.

Kamal is a strong proponent of bringing people together to achieve great things. As president of YES Alumni Bangladesh, he not only encourages members to collaborate with one another, but also to take leadership positions as project coordinators and to contribute ideas. “As YES Alumni, we work as a team to maintain coordination among us, and we all believe in hard work. As a result, in this four year journey, we have been able to stand strong with huge accomplishments and great admiration from others.”

Kamal is now in his final year of at the North South University in Bangladesh, pursuing a bachelor of business administration in human resource management. He continues to split his time between school and YES alumni activities. When asked about his rigorous schedule, Kamal explained, “I believe we all came in this world to fulfill a certain mission. My mission is to stand next to humanity. The YES program taught us to take the lead. To make society a better place, it falls to young people to take up this responsibility and change their world.”