The Future Belongs to Young People.
Only If They Can Access It.
DIHAN Foundation delivers digital literacy, technology access, and youth empowerment programmes across Bangladesh, for the millions of young people in rural communities, urban slums, the char lands, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts who are being left behind by a digital revolution.
A Young Person's Story
The following account is based on the real experiences of young people in underserved communities across Bangladesh. Personal details have been anonymised to protect privacy and dignity.
She is 17 years old. She lives in a rural village in Rajshahi division. She completed her SSC examinations last year, one of only three girls in her class to do so.
She wants to work. She wants to build something. She has ideas, clear and specific ideas, about a small business she could run selling handmade products online.
But she has never used a computer. Her village has no reliable internet connection. The nearest digital skills training centre is in the district town, two hours away by bus.
She is not lacking intelligence. She is not lacking ambition. She is not lacking the will to build a life that is different from the one she was born into.
She is lacking access. And in the digital economy, access is everything.
When a DIHAN Foundation outreach worker visited her community she was the first person to put her name on the list for the digital skills programme.
She completed the programme. She now runs a small online business selling embroidered textiles to buyers in Dhaka.
She earned more in her first month than her father earns in two.
She told our outreach worker that the most important thing was not the skill itself. It was finding out that the door existed.
Nobody had ever told her the door was there.
Digital Inclusion & Youth Programmes
Creating opportunities for young people through technology, skills development, entrepreneurship, and digital access across Bangladesh.
Foundational Digital Literacy Programme
Digital Skills for Employment
Youth Entrepreneurship & Online Business
Women & Girls Digital Inclusion
Digital Safety & Online Protection
Community Technology Access
Empowering Bangladesh's Digital Generation
Bangladesh is home to one of the largest youth populations in the world. Through digital inclusion, skills development, and community outreach, DIHAN Foundation is working to ensure that young people are not left behind in the digital age.
The Digital Inclusion Challenge
According to ILO estimates, Bangladesh has over 47 million young people entering education, employment, and economic life.
Millions of young people face limited employment opportunities and require access to practical skills and economic pathways.
Many rural communities still lack reliable access to digital tools, internet connectivity, and technology-based opportunities.
Our youth empowerment and digital inclusion programmes aim to reach communities across all districts of Bangladesh.
Specialised digital inclusion programmes support young people living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and other underserved regions.
Globally Aligned. Community Driven.
Every DIHAN Foundation Digital Inclusion and Youth Programme is designed in alignment with internationally recognised development, education, employment, and digital empowerment frameworks. Our approach ensures that local action contributes directly to global development goals while creating real opportunities for young people across Bangladesh.
International Standards and Frameworks
DIHAN Foundation follows globally recognised frameworks that promote quality education, digital inclusion, youth employment, innovation, online safety, and sustainable development. These standards help ensure that every programme delivers meaningful and measurable impact for young people.
- UN SDG 4 — Quality Education
- UN SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth
- UN SDG 9 — Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- UN SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals
- UNICEF Digital Inclusion Framework
- ITU Digital Skills Standards
- UN Women Digital Empowerment Guidelines
- ILO Youth Employment Programme Standards
- UNICEF Online Safety & Child Protection Standards
Building Futures Beyond Boundaries
She was there an hour before the programme started. That is what ambition looks like when it finally finds a door that is open.
DIHAN Foundation will not stop until every young person in Bangladesh, in every rural village, every char land community, every hillside in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and every urban slum, has access to the digital skills, tools, and opportunities they need to build futures that poverty and geography tried to make impossible.
Because Bangladesh's greatest resource is not its rivers, garment factories, or remittances.
It is its young people.
And they deserve a future that is worthy of everything they have to give.
