grantees » Reshmila Lamin

This grantee is still in the process of their leadership development with the JWH initiative. 

Since 2011, Reshmila has showed great potential as a leader leader of equitable and sustainable community development through her work as Program Officer of Human Resource Management at the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK). BARCIK is an NGO that explores the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and local practices into contemporary development programs. Reshmila’s interests lie primarily in community-led rural development and gender justice programs. Those who know Reshmila know she is keen on learning and self-enrichment, especially with respect to knowledge she can apply to developing her own community in Bangladesh. Equipped with sincerity and a good attitude, Reshmila wants to use the JWH Initiative platform to expand her capacity as a strong female environmental leader.

It is too often the case that women are silenced in community development endeavors, depriving the projects of valuable input from the female perspective. Indigenous women of Bangladesh are frequently not confident enough to share their voices and knowledge with development workers. Reshmila feels her role could be to break down these gender barriers and help local women and youth to come forward and take a stand. Reshmila will thus use her JWH Initiative grant to participate in two exposure visits- one to Asian Indigenous People’s Pact (AIPP) in Thailand and one to the Institute of Social Research and Applied Anthropology in India- in order to refine her capability of motivating youth communities, facilitating community participation in development works, and educating and empowering females to advocate for themselves in the development process. Furthermore, Reshmila will take English language classes as a means of allowing her to better participate in the field of gender justice and sustainable development at an international level.