The youngest Bangladeshi to present at ICFP 2025
Tasfia Tarannum Ridita (Senior, MNS) represented Brac University at the International Conference for Family Planning (ICFP) 2025 held in Bogotá, Colombia. She was the youngest Bangladeshi to present her abstract as well as the only scholarship recipient from Bangladesh supported by International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
When asked to recount her advocacy journey, Tasfia spoke about initiating her work through TransEnd, an organization working with the Hijra community of Bangladesh. Her aim has always been to help out the community and while doing so she came across opportunities like joining the South Asia Youth Network, becoming a United Nations youth advisor and many more.
A misconception people have, according to her, is the idea that advocacy requires a lot of field work. However, it can also be done through research findings and learning about different policies and reading a lot of papers. Tasfia did independent research and submitted two project plannings out of which one abstract got accepted in ICFP 2025 out of more than 5,500 abstracts.
Her project was named Shujog which shed light on the topic of menstrual hygiene of incarcerated women, a rarely researched and talked about area of sexual and reproductive health rights. Some of the challenges she faced were to rely on secondary sources for her findings as field work required legal work and funding. Financing her trip to Colombia was also a major hurdle, but IPPF, co-host of ICFP 2025 stepped in to offer her a scholarship which is not something a lot of people had the opportunity to get despite having their abstract selected for the conference.
Despite the complications, she experienced a wonderful time in Bogotá and had the opportunity to meet many changemakers who have impacted their fields of work. “As a youth it was a very big networking opportunity, to get to know so many amazing people, who are doing such important work and actually making an impact,” she shared.
Her advice to youth advocacy enthusiasts is to find their own niche, connect with seniors of those fields and be genuinely dedicated to the cause. “I believe one person can make all the changes,” she affirmed.
