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Saturday 10th December
An excited group of young active citizens from Tower Hamlets and Newham met at Heathrow airport to travel to Bangladesh to take part in an exchange trip with The Hunger Project. The 12 young delegates are made up of young leaders from across East London. We set off for Bangladesh and will get there via Dubai.
Sunday 11th December
The group arrives at Dhaka airport after the long journey and is met warmly by staff from the hotel. As this is my first time in Bangladesh I am immediately stunned by the shear amount of people in Dhaka and this is equally highlighted through the amount of traffic on the road. It is very busy, there seems to be no immediate system for driving but everyone can easily negotiate the traffic.
When we arrive at the hotel we are again given a warm welcome by the staff and greeted with a rose flower.
We then meet for dinner in the restaurant and sit down to a Sri Lanken buffet, which is absolutely delicious, very tasty and certainly welcomed

Monday 12th December
We left the hotel at 8am and immediately hit the heavy Dhaka traffic, a journey which should take 15 minutes takes an hour as everyone is trying to get to work. However as a tourist in this country it is a great experience seeing locals weave in and out of the traffic, through organised chaos, people hanging off the buses as well as jumping on and off them whilst they are moving. Safety seems to be brushed aside by the sure will to get on and do things. It really is mind blowing to see.

9.15am
We arrived at The Hunger Project to a very warm welcome from our friends who visited London, as well as some very welcoming staff from the project. The Hunger Project was set up in 1991 by a group of young people, and really started to take off as a movement in 1993. The Hunger Project is now running in over 23 countries.
Bilal who is the chair of the youth arm to the Hunger Project and Mimi recapped on their time in Tower Hamlets emphasising they had learnt lots and that the experience had changed their lives. Our programme gave them the opportunity to see grass roots programmes in some of the poorest areas in London, with some of the most deprived young people in our community. They also found the training from myself and the British Youth Council very useful.
Poroma Kanya, who is an assistant programme officer (Youth ending hunger), played an inspirational video of the work the Hunger Project are doing across Bangladesh. One of the most amazing things about the Hunger Project is that they have over 100,000 volunteers working to make a difference in their community.
Two really important statements stood out for me and these were
“Unleashing human potential for spirit and activism” what an amazing statement, that just makes you warm with excitement, energy and enthusiasm which gives you the immediate get up and go.
“In partnership with other like-minded organisations we will eradicate hunger, poverty, injustice and inequality from our lands”. This, for me, summarises the passion and love for this beautiful country. For me this is more than a statement, it is a purpose, a reason for getting up - it is the future.

10.30am
We were given the great privilege of visiting the Parliament buildings where the MPs debate and pass their laws. Saad, who is the head of security, again gave us a very friendly welcome and immediately made us feel at home. As well as being beautiful inside, the outside is surrounded by a moat which creates a peace and a place of thought, reflection and spirituality within a vibrant and colourful and noisy city. The library, which boasts every single daily newspaper since the independence of Bangladesh, was an incredible place to visit, again it highlights the passion, enthusiasm and honour the Bangladeshi’s feel towards their country. In traditional style we finished with tea, biscuits and story-telling.
We took lunch at a fantastic traditional Bengali café and followed this by a visit to an art exhibition by a local famous artist, Ashok. His work was a masterpiece throughout a museum which brought back to life those who had fallen throughout the conflict and struggle for independence. He had placed a roller coaster of soil throughout the museum to symbolise that the blood of the freedom fighters will be brought back to life and reused so that they are never forgotten.

Meeting with Proshika- another NGO dedicated to helping those with the most need. Proshika is a micro finance organisation. The concept of microfinance is astounding, and incredibly empowering. Proshika give loans to very poor people to start small businesses. The participants of this programme cannot even get a bank account, let alone a loan from the bank. This programme has seen many women start up their own businesses and break the poverty cycle.
To finish the evening off we went for dinner at a beautiful Bangladesh restaurant with our friends from the hunger project and British Council, followed by some cards in the hotel.