Bangladeshi girl Fairooz Faizah Beether, the co-founder of an organization that aims at enlightening the youth about the importance of mental health care, has won the 2021 Goalkeepers Global Goals Changemaker Award, announced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Moner School is an online platform - the first in Bangladesh - that aims to raise awareness around mental health and ensure equal access to mental healthcare, particularly among the youth.

The 2021 Changemaker Award, which celebrates an individual who has inspired change using personal experience or from a position of leadership, recognizes Faizah for her work promoting good health and well-being, the Foundation said in a release, according to Bangladesh media reports. 

“Such an honor! This has been a lifetime experience,”  an elated Beether said about winning the award.

"We just wanted a place where people can write letters anonymously, so we can set up a meeting with a counselor," Faizah, a final semester honours student of Business Administration in Khulna University, told The Daily Star.

From there, seven strangers who met through a youth platform project, began the task of getting people's stories, putting them in touch with counselors, and meeting their needs.

Three months later when the project ended, five members of the original group, including Faizah, made this their passion project, and the Moner School was born, the paper said. 

(SAM)