Shirin Akhter

As the Director of FIVDB’s education division, Shirin’s career has spanned over two decades in education, from teaching to developing non-formal education training programmes and advocacy for improving quality education for girls. She serves as the organization’s focal point for Gender and Child Safeguarding and is passionate about supporting girls in tea garden communities who are amongst the most vulnerable in the country.

Friends in Village Development Bangladesh was established in 1979 to give disadvantaged communities a greater voice and to help ensure a better quality of life. Working in collaboration with communities, civil society, the Government and the private sector, FIVDB specializes in grassroots service delivery, social mobilization and advocacy. Their education programmes address infrastructural issues and social norms that are barriers to girls’ education in Bangladesh.

With their Malala Fund grant, FIVDB will focus on tea garden communities in Sylhet in the north eastern part of Bangladesh and address challenges that girls face in completing 12 years of education, including high rates of poverty, lack of parental support, early marriage, proximity to schools and lack of sanitation in schools. The project incorporates girls’ agency and leadership by getting them involved in community engagement and awareness.