Lessons from the Stumbles: Team Bertho’s Journey to the Kindness in Education Awards 2023
“Failure is success if we learn from it,” is a famous quote from American publisher Malcolm Forbes. We associate failure with disappointment, despair, and doom. Seldom do we sit and wonder what we did wrong or what could have been done differently. While we dauntlessly tell stories of our successes, failures remain locked away in some corner of our minds as snippets of weakness.
Team Bertho is a youth organization that brings people from all walks of life across the globe together through their stories: stories about our lessons every time we hit the speed breakers of life. Murshidul Alam Bhuiyan (Junior, BBS) along with two of his friends brought Team Bertho to life early in 2016 while they were still in school. What started as a platform where they used filmmaking to address social issues, is now a medium for people across 75+ countries to impart wisdom, morals, experience, and kindness. Team Bertho set in motion a new blend of education – the wisdom gained is not something textbook teaches us, but life can. The pearls of wisdom live through photographs, literature, cinema, and designs; oozing with small lessons and connections which encourage, inspire and motivate. According to Bhuiyan, we should treat the whole world as our classroom, our stage of sharing what we learnt through life. Because success and legacy teach us little, but failures surely do.
Team Bertho recently won the Kindness in Education Awards 2023. This award is proudly presented to those who keep kindness and compassion alive throughout the journey of education. This prestigious award was something Bhuiyan and his team least expected, for they barely knew they were nominated. A small team which received global attention only post the pandemic, the award along with a few others now adorning their shelves is pushing them and their goals further. The desire to bring stories from all 201 countries in one platform, making sure all kinds of people felt like they belonged and their struggles were celebrated is now the new goal.
When asked what is one thing he stands by, Bhuiyan quoted Maya Angelou’s famous line, “I come as one, but I stand as 10,000.”. He might be called the leader or one of the founders and the key people behind the organization, but when he stands on the stage, all the other 9999 people whose pats, advice, and rebukes shaped him also stand with him. Every incident, he believes, no matter how big or small, every interaction no matter how short or deep, makes us who we are.
Team Bertho has not limited itself to films but published their book called ‘Fuelling hope’ and podcast ‘Berthodoler Caravan’ which are collections of short stories. To check out more of their work, visit https://www.facebook.com/teambertho
