AlterYouth, a tech-startup working to prevent dropouts in Government Primary Schools throughout Bangladesh, has won the ‘2018 Asia Pacific SDG Enterprise Award’ in the ‘Asia-Pacific Forum on Youth Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ organized by UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub and UNDP China, in partnership with the All-China Youth Federation.
The forum took place in The Twenty-First Century Hotel in Beijing, China on the evening of August 2, 2018.
Asif U. Nabi, CEO of AlterYouth, and Meraj Enam, CCO of AlterYouth received the award on behalf of the startup, presented by Jayathma Wickramanayake, United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. The forum was attended by UNDP officials, Government Representatives of the Asia Pacific countries and experts of the international startup ecosystem.
Haoliang Xu, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and A.B.M Ruhul Azad, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of Bangladesh were also among the attendees.
AlterYouth is a P2P scholarship platform, where users can give scholarships directly to students in Government Primary Schools upto class 5, after which a child learns to read and write. With scholarships, children no longer drop out to work in order to support their families. The model is designed for an able citizen of Bangladesh to ensure a literate citizen for the country, online.
AlterYouth launched with an initial investment from the Grameenphone Accelerator, following an Innovation Grant from Startup Bangladesh, ICT Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication & Information Technology and currently operates in 67 villages throughout Bangladesh.
