LP4Y is built on well-defined principles of non-profit, non-religious, and non-political engagement. However, some countries, such as Bangladesh, embrace religion as a shared lifestyle, having an impact on the whole ecosystem for one month during Ramadan.
As in many other Muslim countries, Bangladesh adapts its working hours in the public and private sectors to match them to the needs and demands during the Holi month of Ramadan. In most places, the office time has been reduced to 9:00 am to 3:30 pm.
Ramadan started on March 11th, 2024 in Bangladesh and ended on April 10th, 2024. In the Training and Development Center (TDC) of Dhaka, all the Youth were very much concerned and dedicated to do Ramadan. For Rani, Youth in the TDC, it is a way to devote themselves towards good virtues.
In the TDC Dhaka we also took the decision to adapt the schedule to match with the capacity of the Youth to fully concentrate and feel that they always evolve in the best conditions to come everyday to the center to continue to get new skills. The Youth had to come from 9 am to 4 pm (instead of 8:30 am to 5:30 pm) with only 30-minute break time in the middle of the day (instead of 1 hour).
Even if the working hours have been reduced, the training remains demanding. No activities had been removed from the schedule. The length of each of them was just shorter. Jannatul says that the Ramadan schedule applied in LP4Y makes it easier for her to “fully focus on her tasks to get the maximum from the training”.
Aside from the training, the month of Ramadan required a lot of energy and dedication for the Youth. Indeed, they had to manage many things in their homes before and after training day. When they came back to their houses, most of them were in charge of preparing and cooking for Iftar. Their sleeping cycle was also rythmed by Sehri, the moment when they had to wake during the night to eat before the sunrise.
Still, even though that month was super demanding for the Youth, the attendance in the TDC was breaking records and was better than before the beginning of Ramadan for the last two weeks (more than 80% of attendance on average compared to the 64% on average in February 2024 for example). The resiliency of the Youth in such context shows the great motivation that animates them.
That adapted schedule had been built together with the Youth. Being flexible, listening and understanding the needs of the Youth was the key for them to feel comfortable, to come everyday and to keep their motivation high in any context.
Ramadan represents also the opportunity to share informal moments together, Youth and Catalysts, with the celebration of Iftar time that happened on April 4th, 2024.
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