March 29, 2024, 4:35 pm


Staff Correspondent

Published:
2020-11-15 14:43:13 BdST

BD teenager wins International Children’s Peace Prize


A teenager in Bangladesh, Sadat Rahman, has won this year's International Children’s Peace Prize for his efforts to stop cyberbullying.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai presented the award during a ceremony held online on Friday night in the Netherlands, said a press statement of KidsRights Foundation, the organiser of the ceremony.

From an impressive 142 applicants from 42 countries, KidsRights’ Expert Committee chose Sadat Rahman of Bangladesh as the winner, it added.

By winning the award, Sadat gained an international platform which now enables him to spread his message among an audience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

This prestigious prize was launched by KidsRights during the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome in in 2005. Since then, the prize has been presented by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate every year.

Sadat, a 17-year-old teenager from Narail, was moved by a story about a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after suffering from cyberbullying.

Later, he founded ‘Cyber Teens’, an anti-cyberbullying social organisation, and created an app after it to give helpless teenagers a platform to turn to for help.

The app provides young people information about internet safety and scope for reporting cyberbullying confidentially. Cyber specialists, social workers and the police are often brought together via Sadat’s organisation.

The app has already supported over 300 victims of cyberbullying, by reporting fake social media accounts and providing support for mental health problems. It has also led to the arrest of eight perpetrators of cybercrimes so far.

Sadat has reached over 45,000 teenagers with internet safety seminars in schools and colleges.

He has also created “Cyber Clubs” in every school in his local area. In these clubs, young people are given education on digital literacy.

Noting that Sadat wants to see a world where young people feel safe online, KidsRights Foundation quoted him as saying, “I live in a remote area and I am a very ordinary boy. If I can save teenagers from cyberbullying, why can’t others?”

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