pay $ 14/month for international
payment charges. The mother
of the scholarship recipient is
provided a mobile phone and a
bank account. The donor profile
is connected with the student’s
profile, the parent’s profile and
the respective school’s profile
having direct access to each.
Every month the scholarships
are transferred from user’s bank
to the mother’s bank. The user
receives the bank statements
every month as well as the report
card of the scholarship recipient
in their profile inbox every quarter
to be in the loop. This continues
until the student completes grade
five, getting a primary school
certificate. The donor has now
successfully prevented a child
from dropping out and ensured
a literate citizen for Bangladesh,
paving the way towards its 100%
literacy target. This also ensures
a step towards reducing poverty
because achieving literacy will
open doors to new possibilities for
these children.
the channel to eradicate poverty
was empowering the population
through education. This called
for effective measures towards
reduction of dropouts. The model
for AlterYouth was thus derived
as a solution for preventing
dropouts in the country. The
underlying reason for dropouts
was the children who dropped out
could be engaged into vocational
opportunities to earn an income
for their families. The parents
being illiterate themselves, failed
to recognize the long-term benefits
of education and the incentives of
free amenities was not enough to
deter them.
The only incentive that seemed
to be able to strike a chord was
providing monetary incentive
greater than or equal to what
the dropouts earned. The whole
model for AlterYouth was based
26
on this insight. After speaking to
locals from his own village, Nabi
found that the average dropout
earned Tk800 ($10). It seemed
rather dismal that so many youth
were deprived of basic education
because of what was a meager
sum of money to many of us. He
realized to make a greater impact,
people like him had to come
forward. And what better way to
create awareness for this cause
than leveraging on the prowess of
the internet.
A beta website was soon launched
and the hypothesis that providing
monetary incentive greater than
the income the dropouts would
potentially make can turn the
scenario around was tested out
in twenty different Government
Primary Schools. After a successful
run for 2 years, the official website
was launched.
Change Magazine September 2017 www.changemag-diinsider.com
The website would host profiles
of rural schools along with a
database of its most vulnerable
and poverty-stricken students. The
students were nominated based
on objective criteria provided
by AlterYouth, such as having a
single mother, landless families
and having a disabled parent. A
potential donor would be able to
log into the website and select
a student to give a Literacy
Scholarship.
The scholarships were valued
at Tk800/month contingent
upon 65% attendance and
marks in class, continuing until
completion of grade five, after
which the recipient has achieved
literacy. AlterYouth added a
scholarship management fee
of Tk200, amounting to $ 12.5/
month, although users from
outside Bangladesh have to
AlterYouth only goes to show
that all it takes is grit and genuine
passion to make your dreams into
a reality. Asifun Nabi didn’t just
make his own dream of someday
seeing Bangladesh parallel to
countries such as America a reality.
He also made dreams of many
unfortunate children of achieving
literacy such as Sufia, a reality.
To be a part of the change,
visit AlterYouth at:
https://www.alteryouth.com/
As of now, AlterYouth has ensured
scholarships for 212 students and
plans to make this number grow
exponentially. AlterYouth has
targeted 900,000 scholarships
per month and is working
tirelessly towards that goal. The
perseverance of the AlterYouth
team has led it to become one
of the four startups to receive
recognition from Grameenphone
Accelerators, an accelerator
program designed to support
early-stage, home-grown tech
startups. The journey so far for
About the Author
Farhana Shahnaz is currently doing her bachelors in
Economics and Marketing. She always had a penchant
in being involved with initiatives that help drive changes
for the betterment of our society. She is a feminist and a
freethinker.
Change Magazine
27