Youth Storytelling for Resilient Futures: Building Youth Capacity to Capture Stories from the Ground
Bandarban, Bangladesh — SERAC-Bangladesh organized an engaging storytelling workshop titled “Youth Storytelling for Resilient Futures” under the Youth Catalyst project of UNFPA, supported by Sida. The workshop brought together 25 young participants from Bandarban to enhance their storytelling skills and prepare them to collect authentic, community-rooted stories reflecting the impacts of climate change.
Through this interactive session, participants explored how climate change affects their everyday lives — from recurring landslides and water crises to disruptions in education, health, and particularly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. They also learned how to transform these real-life experiences into powerful narratives that can inform policy and inspire community resilience.
The workshop served not only as a space for reflection but also as a strong capacity-building platform. It aimed to help young people identify and document natural, lived stories from their surroundings — stories that highlight both the challenges and the resilience of local communities. In the coming months, these trained youth storytellers will begin collecting stories from the very root level, ensuring that the true voices and experiences of their communities are heard and represented.
Facilitated by SM Shaikat (Executive Director), Md. Emran Hossen (Deputy Director – Finance & Admin), Mizanur Rahaman Akanda (Advocacy Specialist), and Lutfa Pathan (Project Manager) of SERAC-Bangladesh, the session equipped participants with practical techniques in storytelling, interviewing, and narrative framing for social advocacy.
This initiative reflects SERAC-Bangladesh’s ongoing commitment to empowering youth as agents of change in climate resilience and SRHR advocacy. By helping them capture genuine community stories, the organization aims to strengthen evidence-based advocacy and amplify youth perspectives in national and global dialogues on sustainable and resilient futures.