Sabhanaz Rashid Diya started her career at the age of 13, working as a staff reporter and columnist at a well-known newspaper in Bangladesh. She went on to found One Degree Initiative, a nonprofit youth organization based in Bangladesh. At the time of this episode (March 2023), she had more than 14 years of experience in policy advisory roles and had worked with organizations including Khan Academy, the World Bank, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In this episode Ahmed Fahad talks with Diya about her early life, what she struggled with and learned while living and studying abroad, and her professional life. They go from her years as a journalist and the start of One Degree Initiative to studying film, life in the USA, the daily work of a policymaker and women's participation.
What the conversation covers
- Her time as a journalist, and what it takes to join a newspaper and get published
- How to get better as a writer
- Founding One Degree Initiative, the 100 smiles initiative, and how One Degree got its first office
- How to start an organization and convince people to be part of a nonprofit
- Her favorite book and how she got into books
- Studying film, life in the USA, and dealing with the hurdles of studying abroad
- The day-to-day life of a policymaker and frameworks for writing policies
- Stories from working for nonprofits, visiting different countries and working in the private sector
- Why she is not into biographies, and physical books vs e-books
- Women's participation
The conversation is in Bangla.