In a constantly evolving world, where challenges and opportunities abound, preparing your child for success means more than just academics. It's about equipping them with the skills and qualities that will distinguish them as confident and capable individuals, and leadership stands out as one of the most crucial qualities we can instill in them. Leadership isn't merely about holding a position of authority; it's about inspiring, guiding, and positively influencing others. As parents, we naturally aspire for our children to excel in their skill development. Picture your child growing up with the ability to communicate effectively, collaborate seamlessly, and make sound decisions. These skills extend beyond the classroom, helping them excel in academics, extracurricular activities, and social life. As your child enters their teenage years, they are poised for personal growth and self-discovery. This is when they should be encouraged to question assumptions, take risks, and experiment, all crucial skills for innovative leadership. During this phase, it's essential to encourage them to channel their learning into real-world change through community service projects. This transformative experience molds them into capable individuals ready to drive positive societal change. Read more: BYLC Ventures announces Cohort 5 winners Leadership skills go far beyond career aspirations — they shape well-rounded individuals who thrive in various aspects of life. Instilling leadership skills in your child matters because it nurtures their self-confidence, encouraging them to speak up, share their ideas, and take initiative. These skills empower them to tackle challenges creatively and with resilience, developing problem-solving abilities to serve them throughout life. Effective communication is another vital aspect, allowing them to express themselves clearly and listen empathetically while fostering stronger connections with others. Commencing this journey early is pivotal for developing strong leadership skills, emphasizing values like ownership, teamwork, community service, and active citizenship. In today's tech-driven world, BYLC’s Building Bridges through Leadership Training Junior (BBLTJ) and Building Bridges through Leadership Training (BBLT) programs sensitize younger minds to the power of human connection, empathy, and making a difference. They plant the seeds of leadership at a young age, ensuring your child grows up with a profound sense of purpose and responsibility. In our ever-evolving world, adaptability is vital; leadership skills help your child embrace change and guide others through it. At the heart of great leadership lies empathy, making your child more compassionate and inclusive. Lastly, leadership instills the initiative to create opportunities rather than passively waiting for them, setting your child on a path of continuous growth and personal development. Read more: How BYLC’s Art and Practice of Leadership workshop is changing the approach to leadership Leadership skills are the foundation of a successful and fulfilling life. Investing in your child's leadership development yields lifelong rewards. The programs of BYLC provide the tools, experiences, and inspiration necessary to shape your child into a leader who excels academically and professionally while positively impacting their community and the world. So, take that step forward and enroll your child in a leadership program today because nurturing tomorrow's leaders begins with your actions.

In Bangladesh, 51 per cent of young women were married in childhood, according to a new report which used data from the Bangladesh 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Bangladesh has the highest prevalence of child marriage in South Asia and the eighth highest prevalence in the world, according to a new analysis issued by UNICEF today. Approximately 34.5 million women in Bangladesh were married before they turned 18 and over 13 million women were married before they turned 15. “Children should not be married. Despite progress, the number of child brides in Bangladesh is staggering. Millions of girls are being robbed of their childhood, and denied their fundamental rights. We need urgent and concerted action to protect girls, to ensure that they stay in school, and have the opportunity to grow up to their fullest potential,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh. Despite a steady decline in child marriage in the last decade, multiple crises including conflict, climate shocks, and the ongoing fallout from COVID-19 are threatening to reverse hard-earned gains, according to a new analysis issued by UNICEF today. “The world is engulfed by crises on top of crises that are crushing the hopes and dreams of vulnerable children, especially girls who should be students, not brides,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Health and economic crises, escalating armed conflicts, and the ravaging effects of climate change are forcing families to seek a false sense of refuge in child marriage. We need to do everything in our power to ensure that their rights to an education and empowered lives are secured.” Worldwide, an estimated 640 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, or 12 million girls per year, according to the latest global estimate included in the analysis. The share of young women who married in childhood has declined from 21 per cent to 19 per cent since the last estimates were released five years ago. However, in spite of this progress, global reductions would have to be 20 times faster to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of ending child marriage by 2030. Meanwhile, South Asia continues to drive global reductions and is on pace to eliminate child marriage in about 55 years, the report notes. However, the region remains home to nearly half (45 per cent) of the world's child brides. While India has recorded significant progress in recent decades, it still accounts for one-third of the global total. Sub-Saharan Africa – which currently shoulders the second largest global share of child brides (20 per cent) – is over 200 years away from ending the practice at its current pace. Rapid population growth, alongside ongoing crises, look set to increase the number of child brides, in contrast with the declines expected in the rest of the world. Latin America and the Caribbean is also falling behind and on course to have the second-highest regional level of child marriage by 2030. After periods of steady progress, the Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia have also stagnated. Girls who marry in childhood face immediate and lifelong consequences. They are less likely to remain in school, and face an increased risk of early pregnancy, in turn increasing the risk of child and maternal health complications and mortality. The practice can also isolate girls from family and friends, and exclude them from participating in their communities, taking a heavy toll on their mental health and well-being. Worldwide, conflict, climate-related disasters, and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 – especially rising poverty, income shocks, and school dropout – are helping to increase the drivers of child marriage while also making it difficult for girls to access health care, education, social services and community support that protect them from child marriage. As a result, girls living in fragile settings are twice as likely to become child brides as the average girl globally, the analysis notes. For every ten-fold increase in conflict-related deaths, there is a 7 per cent increase in the number of child marriages. At the same time, extreme weather events driven by climate change increase a girl's risk, with every 10 per cent deviation in rainfall connected to around a 1 per cent increase in the prevalence of child marriage. Precious gains to end child marriage in the past decade are also being threatened – or even reversed – by the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, the analysis warns. It is estimated that the pandemic has already cut the number of averted child marriages since 2020 by one-quarter. "We’ve proven that progress to end child marriage is possible. It requires unwavering support for vulnerable girls and families,” added Russell. “We must focus on keeping girls in school and making sure they have economic opportunities."  

A 10-year-old boy has been killed as a truck ploughed through a roadside house in Sadar upazila of Kurigram. The deceased was identified as Musa Mia, of the upazila. Read more: Youth dies after being hit by truck in Dhaka’s Rayerbazar The Kutigram-bound timber-laden truck ploughed into the roadside house in front of Jatrapur Union Parishad around 10 pm on Sunday  while the child and his mother were asleep, said Khan Mohammad Shahriar, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sadar police station. The injured mother and son were rushed to Kurigram General Hospital where doctors declared the child dead on arrival, he said. Read more: Teen girl dies after truck overturns in Ctg “Legal steps will be taken in this regard,” said the OC.

A 6-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher at his school in Virginia during an altercation inside a first-grade classroom Friday, police and school officials in the city of Newport News said. Experts said a school shooting involving a 6-year-old is extremely rare, although not unheard of, while Virginia law limits the ways in which a child that age can be punished for such a crime. No students were injured in the shooting at Richneck Elementary School, police said. The teacher — a woman in her 30s — suffered life-threatening injuries. Her condition had improved somewhat by late afternoon, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said. “We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Drew told reporters, later adding that the gunshot was not an accident. Drew said the student and teacher had known each other in a classroom setting. He said the boy had a handgun in the classroom, and investigators were trying to figure out where he obtained it. The police chief did not provide further details about the shooting, the altercation or what happened inside the school. Joselin Glover, whose son is in fourth grade, told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper she got a text from the school stating that one person was shot and another was in custody. “My heart stopped,” she said. “I was freaking out, very nervous. Just wondering if that one person was my son.” Also Read: 8 found fatally shot in Utah home, including 5 children Carlos, her 9-year-old, was at recess. But he said he and his classmates were soon holed up in the back of a classroom. “Most of the whole class was crying,” Carlos told the newspaper. Parents and students were reunited at a gymnasium door, Newport News Public Schools said via Facebook. The police chief did not specifically address questions about whether authorities were in touch with the boy’s parents, but said members of the police department were handling that investigation. “We have been in contact with our commonwealth’s attorney (local prosecutor) and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” Drew said. Newport News is a city of about 185,000 people in southeastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation’s aircraft carriers and other U.S. Navy vessels. Richneck has about 550 students who are in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website. School officials have already said that there will be no classes at the school on Monday. “Today our students got a lesson in gun violence,” said George Parker III, Newport News schools superintendent, “and what guns can do to disrupt, not only an educational environment, but also a family, a community.” Virginia law does not allow 6-year-olds to be tried as adults In addition, a 6-year-old is too young to be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty. A juvenile judge would have authority, though, to revoke a parent’s custody and place a child under the purview of the Department of Social Services. A school shooting involving a 6-year-old is extremely rare, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Boston’s Northeastern University. Fox told The Associated Press Friday evening that he could think of one previous incident involving a child that age. In 2000, a 6-year-old boy fired a bullet from a .32-caliber gun inside Buell Elementary near Flint, Michigan, 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Detroit, striking 6-year-old Kayla Rolland in the neck, according to an AP article from the time. She died a half-hour later. Fox analyzed school shooting data sets going back to 1970 from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, which is located at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He said the data listed school shootings involving children ages 7, 8, 9 and older, but not 6-year-olds. Another factor that stands out about the Virginia shooting is that it occurred in a classroom, Fox said. Many occur outside a school building where students are unsupervised. From 2010 through 2021, there were more than 800 school-related shootings in K-12 schools that involved 1,149 victims. Thirty percent of those occurred in the school building, said Fox, who published the 2010 book, “Violence and Security on Campus: From Preschool Through College.” “There are students who killed teachers, more typically high school students,” Fox said. “I don’t know of other cases where a 6-year-old shot a teacher.” ___ Barakat reported from Falls Church, Virginia.

UNICEF is launching a new climate financing initiative to enhance countries' climate resilience and disaster preparedness for children and youth and bolster protection for children from the impacts of future climate-related disasters. The Today and Tomorrow initiative is an integrated climate change finance solution that, for the first time, combines funding for immediate climate resilience and risk prevention programmes for children today, with innovative use of risk transfer finance provided by the insurance market for cyclone disasters tomorrow. The combined financing platform is designed to help countries address the current and growing impacts of the climate crisis while preparing for future emergencies and rapidly responding to them when they occur. “The risks of climate change are no longer hypothetical. They are here. And even while we work to build communities’ resilience against climate disasters, we have to become much better in pre-empting risks for our children,” said Karin Hulshof, UNICEF deputy executive director for Partnerships. “We know more climate disasters are in the making. We just do not know where or when they will hit.” Children and youth are a critically vulnerable population group that is among the most affected by disaster risk and climate change, including the effects of extreme weather events such as cyclones. Last year, UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index estimated 400 million children (nearly 1 in 6 children globally) are currently highly exposed to cyclones. In its initial three-year pilot, UNICEF’s Today and Tomorrow will focus on eight countries in four global cyclone basins – Bangladesh, Comoros, Haiti, Fiji, Madagascar, Mozambique, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. UNICEF is raising $30 million for the initiative and is calling for additional private and public partners to take action and join UNICEF in helping to close the intensifying humanitarian financing gap for disaster protection for children and youth. Read more: Heatwaves to impact almost every child by 2050: UNICEF report Climate harm in childhood lasts for life and perpetuates and deepens inequality and poverty across generations. However, the unique needs of children are not directly addressed by existing Risk Transfer mechanisms. This leaves a global humanitarian financing gap, or “Child Protection Gap,” that encompasses hundreds of millions of children and youth. Cyclones and the disasters they trigger, such as floods and landslides, represent the fastest-growing category of climate-influenced disasters and are a major cause of losses and damages worldwide.  UNICEF’s research has shown that investments that reduce exposure to and negative impacts from cyclones and other hazards can considerably reduce overall climate risk for millions of children. UNICEF’s Today and Tomorrow is the first pre-arranged and event-based climate disaster risk financing mechanism that specifically targets this Child Protection Gap, with full support for the Tomorrow portion of the risk transfer instrument, secured from the German and UK governments under the newly launched G7-V20 Global Shield against Climate Risks. Read more: Children want govt investment in education, health, protection: UNICEF  

Every parent knows that kids might get sick occasionally. When a kid gets ill with the flu, pains, injuries, or viral diseases, s/he may miss going to school or playing outdoors with playmates. If the illness continues for several days, it can make the child unhappy, sad and bored. However, not many parents think about how to keep an unwell child cheerful.  Some parents tend to keep ill children busy with gadgets. During ailment, electric gadgets, like phones, tablets, or TVs can be more harmful to children. Now, except for allowing gadgets what can parents do to entertain an ill child at home? Here are some tips. 10 best tips to entertain an ailing child without screen time New Toy Your child could have many toys at any time during their growing time. But, a new toy can bring it joy, especially during sickness. Pick a toy that your kind would love the most to possess. It will make the child happy and give it a feeling of appreciation, which can aid in the recovery process. Besides, the small gift will rekindle your kid’s love for you.  Read Best foods for expecting mothers Crafts Seek out various options to entertain your unwell child. You can engage the kid in various crafts such as drawing origami, skill with clay, and creating crafts to decorate our rooms. It is a good idea to set up a table containing recycled paper, where you and your kid can draw or create origami together.  Such activities will not only help the child stay at home without getting bored; but also develop its imagination power. Thus, your kid can have a lot of fun. It will help the kid to overcome illnesses in a much more relaxing manner.  Indoor Games When your child is sick, it is best to assist them in resting. When they feel bored staying at home for days due to illness, you can play different low-stress, indoor games with them. The types of games can vary depending on the age of your child.  Read How to deal with your demanding child? If your child is below 5, you can play puzzle games with them or engage them in imaginary cooking games with their playing instruments. Children above 5 may like to play ludo or carom and you can accompany them. Besides puzzles, baby cooking games, ludo, or carom, you can play traditional board or table games with your sick child to give him/her companionship and entertainment. You can also create board or table games to have a fun time.  These indoor games can provide an abundance of entertainment for a child who is too ill to go outside for playing with friends. Parents and other family members can also join the ailing child and play games together to enjoy a leisurely afternoon of fun at home. Read Top brain foods for studying and exams Reading When a child is sick, s/he may feel lonely or helpless. To make the kid happy you can engage him/her in a creative task like reading. If your child is unable to read, you can read for him or her. When your child can read, you can lend him/her a book and inspire him/her to read. Reading books helps children to spark their imagination and give the parents a chance to spend quality time with them in a fun way. You can pick colorful story books, a rhyme, or a novel so that your child feels an attraction to read or listen to stories from you. If you enjoy reading, they will be happy and relaxed. However, make sure you choose the books that they would love to read or hear from you.  Practice Language If your child is not much tired and getting better, you can play with them with language. For instance, you can give your school-goer kid a list of phrases and ask them to draw the definition of each word.  Read How physical punishment affects children and alternative ways to discipline them You can ask your under-five kid to sing his/her favorite songs to tell the names of different body parts or to express their favorite foods in English or other different languages. By engaging in these activities, your kids will have a great time without gadgets while staying at home. 

Children that are constantly needing attention can hardly accept "no" for an answer. If your kid is constantly demanding something in a rude way, don’t get stressed out! In the current world, numerous parents are experiencing such issues. Here are 11 effective and respectful strategies for dealing with demanding children. 11 tips to deal with your demanding child Understand their needs Sometimes kids ask for basic things in rude ways. Try to understand what they want. For instance, 'Get me food!' means 'I am hungry; "Go away" means "I need space; "Pick me up" could refer to 'I require a hug or 'I'm not feeling safe.  When a kid is demanding something from you, it is communicating a need. Now, what does the kid need you to do? The easiest thing to do is to identify the kid's needs and simply say you heard it.  Read How physical punishment affects children and alternative ways to discipline them Find the reason for anger Each child is not similar. Like adults, children have different traits and personalities.  The anger of children is likely caused by a different emotion they're unable to communicate. Some kids may get angry about basic needs like food; while some kids may always get restless for new toys in shopping malls. Therefore it's essential to allow your children space to express their feelings.  Take a positive attitude When your child is over-demanding, you may think that kid is rude or insolent. However, the way you perceive children determines how they can think of themselves.  Read How to comfortably travel with babies If you respond to the child with an angry voice and tag the kid’s behaviour as ‘rude’. The kid may bear the same perception about himself or herself, and continue to behave in ways that conform to this judgment. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Therefore, try to stay calm and stay positive in response to a child that has shouted for food or a new toy, or other things. Try responding by saying something such as, "You sound very frustrated about something; what can I do to help?" By responding to the kid’s needs in a polite way, you can let it know that you understand its demand.  Don't take it personally Your unconditional love for your child is unwavering. But still, the kid may act like crazy sometimes! Don’t take such insolence personally. It could feel like it, but these ill-manners or irrational demands aren't about you or indicate how you parent your children. They are just a challenge at times! Read Excessive Crying in Infants: Possible Reasons, Tips of Soothing They're likely feeling overwhelmed and just beginning to learn how to communicate. Relax before responding to your child; remember that your child can influence their future decisions. Help them resolve their needs Sometimes your kids require or want you to take care of things for them; however, most of the time, they need to know more before they are sure of what to do. They're capable and confident and awed by their ability to make decisions themselves. It's your responsibility to help them do this. Honestly, it's not practical, useful, or fun for you to take on everything for them.  After acknowledging their need, should they be capable of helping themselves, a brief, nonjudgmental, and not accusatory statement could assist them in deciding the next steps. Read Breastfed Infant’s Slow Weight Gain: Common symptoms, reasons, solutions Be kind and talk to them with an open mind Sometimes, you have tried all of the above and still hear a resounding demand. It could be that you are wrong regarding the need that is at the root that your children really need is some compassion before they're at a point where they can discern what they're looking for.  Be there for the child, be supportive of them, discuss the issue, and solve it when everyone is relaxed and capable. Achieving a request is not a sign of giving in, but it does mean that you're always there for your child when they are most difficult.  Define what constitutes a demanding behavior Spend the time to sit with your child and discuss the distinction between polite, acceptable behavior and demanding behavior, which won't help them get anywhere. This makes it much easier to discuss their shady actions later. However, don't do it during a tiff, and it's a great discussion to have when both of you are in a relaxed state! Read Learning Disabilities in Children: Types, symptoms, ways to help Model good behavior Now, how to teach your kids to express themselves and communicate their desires in a bit more polite way? The answer is you have to behave politely first before you expect your kid to be well-mannered. Instead of giving them instructions on what to do, make it sound like an appeal: "Can you please wash your hands before dinner" instead of "Go wash your hands". Remember, your kid is always following you! So, when you're with others or in public, demonstrate the manner of conduct you'd like your children to emulate. If you make a mistake and get angry with your kids or other people and then you're not able to control it, be sure to assure them of your apology and also explain the mistake was not yours. Read Motivating Kids to Study, Do Homework, Get Good Grades: Know Secret Ways Salute their manner of conduct If your child is correctly asking for things or acts positively, you must be sure to acknowledge and praise the child for their efforts. You can give them small gifts or incentives like ice cream or their favorite food. Children learn best by reiterating good behavior rather than being admonished for bad behavior. Encourage them to fulfill extra needs with their own saving In the current world, lucrative promotions, branding, and advertising impress adults. Kids become prey to these crazy advertisements on TVs, and in shopping malls. Unlike adults, kids have less patience and judgment power. Sometimes, your kid might be relentlessly demanding a new toy, doll, or shirt.  Read Basic Communication Skills Needed in Business, Career, Relationships So, don’t be upset about your kid’s excessive demands; rather you can set a toy budget or shopping budget for your child.  Try to make them understand the value of money and encourage them to make savings. So that they can buy desired things with their saved money. Take good care of yourself It has never been easy to be a parent. Being a parent and managing the household can be exhausting and stress-inducing. Make sure that you're looking at yourself too. Read Why Self Care of Moms is Important: Tips for busy mothers A good night's sleep, eating well, and taking time to relax with your parents are vital to your well-being. The more relaxed you are, the easier it will be to handle your children's demands without becoming frustrated or losing your temper. Bottom Line So far, we have discussed how to deal with a demanding child. Demands are not an emergency; it's not something to be punished for. It's an appeal for assistance, an opportunity for connecting, a child in school, and a need to be acknowledged. Remember that a demanding child provides the parent with the opportunity to impart knowledge. Parents have the chance to address the issue! Many parents treat their children the way they would like to be treated by them. This is extremely strong. If you keep showing affection and a positive attitude, they will begin to learn what it feels and looks like to be treated with kindness. Keep the faith, and then try again. Read Common Sleep Problems in Children: Causes, Symptoms, Ways to Help

A one-and-a-half month-old baby boy died after falling off his mother's lap in a road accident in Kaliganj upazila of Jhenaidah on Friday.The deceased was identified as Sizan, son of Shihab Hossain of Chhota Shimla village of the upazila.The accident occurred on Friday morning when a pick-up van hit the motorcycle they were on in the bus stand area of the upazila, said Abdur Rahim Mollah, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kaliganj Police Station.Sizan's mother Shanta Khatun and grandfather Abul Kalam also suffered injuries in the accident, added the OC.He said Shanta's father was riding the motorcycle while Shanta, the baby and grandfather  were on the back of the bike on their way to a doctor's visit. Read: Student dies falling off university building in cityOn the way, a Jhenaidah-bound pickup hit the motorcycle resulting in the baby falling off. The infant died on the spot.Locals rushed them to Kaliganj Upazila Health Complex.Police arrested the driver of the pick-up and seized the vehicle from the spot, added the OC.

A nine-year-old boy breathed his last after accidentally strangling himself with a rope in the capital's Jurain on Saturday. The deceased was identified as Arafat Islam Arzu, son of Azizul Haque, a trader of Siabnia village in Mongla upazila of Bogra district. Arzu was a second grader at a local school. He lived with his family on the fourth floor of a four-storey building next to Muradpur High School in Jurain. The incident took place on Saturday noon when the boy strangled himself while playing with a rope in the balcony of the house.   He was rushed to the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the doctor on duty declared him dead at around 2 pm, said Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) police outpost. Read: Child killed in Cox’s Bazar landslide

Police recovered the body of an eight-year old girl in Sonargaon upazila of  Narayanganj on Thursday, three days after she went missing. The deceased was identified as Humayra, daughter of Dulal Mia from Pirojepur union and a student of class one. The body was recovered in the morning from a ditch at Noagaon after being informed by locals , said Mohammad Hafizur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge of Sonargaon police station. Also read: Hanging body of KMP’s ADC, bullet-hit body of constable found in Magura “The girl’s body might have been dumped in the ditch after murder,” he said. Humayra’s brother Sajib, and his wife Boishakhi were detained, he said. Humayra’s father Dulal Mia said, “Humayra went out with her brother and sister-in-law on Monday morning and since then she remained missing. Later we filed a general diary at Sonargaon police station in this regard.” Also read: Body of missing REB officer recovered from Haor in Kishoreganj Md Amir Khashru, Superintendent of Narayanganj police (crime) said the girl might have been killed over a family feud. The body has been sent for an autopsy and a case will be filed in this regard, he added.