ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2025
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. This year, 60,000+ young leaders applied to join the Class of 2025 on 7,000+ campuses across 170 nations. 290+ campuses worldwide (less than 5%) were selected to host the 4,500+ Millennium Fellows.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT TASHFIA TARANNUM TIFA, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW AND CAMPUS DIRECTOR FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
University of Dhaka | Dhaka, Bangladesh | Advancing SDG 13, SDG 5, SDG 3 & UNAI 6
" Every child deserves safety, every woman deserves dignity, every life deserves a world that ensures a sustained future. I aim to turn these convictions into sustained action. To give a community their deserving chance to thrive, activism is not a choice it is a responsibility. I am driven by the belief that youth have the power to build a world rooted in equity, compassion and resilience. The Millennium Fellowship will help me transform that belief into tangible impact. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Bonhi
Bonhi is a movement for Justice, Climate and Childhood. Bonhi is a youth-driven initiative I founded to enhance climate awareness, child rights , and women's hygiene awareness among the youth in Bangladesh, mainly throughout the regions of Rangpur and Sherpur, where I grew up and saw firsthand how vulnerability, misinformation, and silence affect children and adolescent girls.Growing up between these two districts, I witnessed how landslides, floods, droughts,poverty, and limited access to information disrupt children's lives. But I also witnessed another quiet crisis: girls experiencing menstruation without guidance, using unsafe materials, or feeling ashamed to speak about their own bodies. These realities, combined with climate-induced disruptions that make hygiene even harder, shaped the vision of Bonhi.My journey as a Child Journalist, participant in UNICEF's climate and child rights programs, and as a trained Red Crescent youth worker taught me that the gaps in information directly harm young people. Bonhi was created to fill in these gaps through youth-driven, accessible education.
Bonhi follows a simple, participatory model:
1.Climate awareness sessions using real-life examples from local communities
2.Child rights discussions connecting climate impacts to safety, wellbeing, and access to support
3.Women's hygiene and menstrual health sessions focusing on stigma reduction, safe practices, and bodily autonomy
4.Interactive storytelling, visual materials, and open Q&A
5.Youth ambassador model to promote peer learning and leadership
The inclusion of menstrual hygiene is deliberate. Girls are often the most affected during climate emergencies. Either through loss of privacy, lack of sanitary materials, or restricted mobility. Bonhi makes sure they get clear, non-judgmental guidance on menstrual health, hygiene management, and their right to dignity and safety. In this way, it provides a space where girls can freely ask questions, learn with confidence, and support each other.
Bonhi brings together climate action, child rights, and women's hygiene awareness to create holistic understanding of resilience centered on young people's health, confidence, and agency. The initiative aligns with the SDGs: SDG 5, Gender Equality; SDG 13, Climate Action; and SDG 16, Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions.
Bonhi acts as the spark,flame-the "bonhi"-that aspires to kindle informed, healthy, and empowered communities by first reaching the youngest among them.
About the Millennium Fellow
Tashfia Tarannum Tifa is a passionate dreamer , dynamic young leader and a second year student of Peace & Conflict Studies at the University of Dhaka. Born and raised in such regions of Bangladesh where she was inspired to "do something for others".She has been deeply committed to Climate Resilience, Child Rights and Women's Health from an early age .Her Journey began as a Child Journalist by UNICEF , and a Child Rights Activist via UNICEF.
Continued her journey by representing climate vulnerable communities being a Member of Parliament in Bangladesh Generation Parliament. She also trained Red Crescent first aid volunteer and co founded a root level community for rescuing and rehabilitating animals. Her leadership spans climate change policy work, community advocacy, and humanitarian action. Through the Millennium Fellowship, she aspires to amplify youth-led solutions that foster inclusive, compassionate, and sustainable social change.
