Sheikh Mohammad Yousuf Hossain, a popular and dedicated social worker, is a dreamer, Founder and President of YSSE, the first-ever Bangladeshi who is working for fostering youth as a social entrepreneur. It was a privilege for me to get to know his amazing activities. Hope you can be inspired by his experience and journey.

Hope you are doing well. As we know, the world is going through a pandemic, and everyone is doing their work from home. During this pandemic, how are you spending your time at home in a productive way?

I am mostly trying to do some social works to help impoverished people in this pandemic situation. I am leading the team from home. We distributed some foods though Charity hub. Iftar in the madrasa, and among some needy people during Ramadan. Youth School for Social Entrepreneurs is still running in this pandemic; which is pretty productive work if you ask me. 

How are you maintaining ongoing communication with your employees and interns? 

We have messenger groups for each department for all the employees and interns. We communicate through that for updates and social media posts. Our weekly meeting takes place in Zoom or Google meet, through which I like to interact with my employees and interns about tasks and projects. 

What are the most important values you demonstrate as a leader? 

I think the best quality I have as a leader is morality. That is one thing I like to demonstrate to everyone around me. Another one is modesty. Try to manifest these as much as I can. 

What is your greatest strength?

My greatest strength is communication. I like to get on with people and form connections with them. I work my charm on them to make them feel at ease. I am trying to enhance it every day. 

What would be your greatest weakness? 

I trust people a bit too easily. That sometimes stabs be in the back.

How do you lead through changes?

I infuse more enthusiasm for my work. I try to work harder and with more dedication. And I lead my people with newfound energy and aspirations.

How do you motivate your team during this pandemic?

We organize online session to uphold the works we have done, how many entrepreneurs we have able to support during this time and try to infuse a positive mindset about the whole situation we are in and. 

What kinds of criticism you most get? 

We have not faced any negative criticism, to be honest. I guess that is because we are very transparent about what we do. So there are no secrets or issues among us. If you are not working with us closely, you cannot ask for our consent. We try to avoid all religious, political, and gender-related issues in our workplace. So this keeps everything running smoothly. Therefore, no room for critique. 

To maintain a positive environment or a positive mindset, what type of activities you usually do? 

I have already told earlier about what to do to keep the organization running, even in this pandemic. We try to make everyone feel connected and try to motivate them. The base is communication for everything.

What were the biggest challenges this year, and what did you learn from it?

Well, I don’t think this was a challenge. Instead, I see it as an opportunity. Covid19 has stopped us from doing a lot of things, but at the same time, it has opened the door for us for the various opportunities, and we utilized those opportunities to the fullest. This was the learning I learn from it. 

What is continuing to learn opportunities do you have for the members of YSSE?

We have a bunch of continuous learning opportunities for the members of YSSE. We are conducting online classes; Facebook lives, talk shows etc. These shows and classes teach many things such as learning about different skills, the story of the young leaders of our country, knowing about the journey of the entrepreneurs etc. These are helping the youths to become a better human being and serve society.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of YSSE right now?

Youth engagement is the biggest strength of YSSE right now. Our organization’s name talks about ourselves. The ‘Y’ in YSSE stands for youth. So, everything we do serves our purpose, which is the development of the youths. 

What are the plans, projects and activities of YSSE?

We have a list of plans such as “YSSE Mentorship Course”, a course designed for young entrepreneurs that will teach them the story behind famous entrepreneurs of the world, how they deal with the challenges and overcome them. This will help the entrepreneurs to start their own business and face the challenges and overcome them. This course will be launched in the next month. Again there will be a magazine called “Sociopreneurs”. It will be launched soon that will talk about the story of entrepreneurs. Another live talk show will be launched soon, and the entrepreneurs of our country will be coming there as guests. In the near future, we will launch an organization called “YSSE Institute of Skill Development”, and this will be considered as the “Nurturing Centre” and “One Stop Service Provider”. Currently, we are working in 28 countries around the world. 

And our projects and activities include Uddog and Uddokta, Sociopreneurs magazine, Bangladesh youth symposium, Seed funding, Behind the journey, Social Entrepreneur 101 start and grow your business, Resonance and many more. 

Tell us some important activities that were done by YSSE during this pandemic. 

During this pandemic, YSSE has organized donation programs to send reliefs to the helpless and needy ones. YSSE has taken a bigger step towards helping those who are dealing with hunger. YSSE has provided food to 1000 families with low income living in slims of Shewraoa and Dhamalkot area. Another most important project YSSE has launched is “ YSSE Emergency HealthcareServices”. The motive of this project is to provide primary healthcare services by telephone with the help of a team of specialized and generous doctors which is free of charge. YSSE is proud to provide telemedicine service to more than 2000 people. Besides that, YSSE has organized virtual events like “ Speak to inspire”, presenting a live segment on career development, YSSE IT supportive service etc.

As the unemployment rate is increasing day by day and people are losing their jobs in this situation, do you think YSSE can help them?

Of course. Because YSSE emphasizes vocational learning which will help the youths to do something for themselves and start their startups if people start losing their jobs.

In which position you want to see YSSE in the future?

I want to see YSSE in a global position someday. YSSE will keep its head higher in front of the whole world and will act hand in hand with other international institutions around the world.