By Nurul Islam Laskar | Muslim Mirror

GUWAHATI, SEPTEMBER 20, 2020: Stars of North East India (SONEI), a social media platform for unearthing, handholding, mentoring, and showcasing the talents of the youth in our society, celebrated its sixth anniversary on Saturday. A virtual meeting was organised on the occasion in which members of SONEI, spread across the continents, participated and shared their experience on the topic
“What SONEI means to me?”

Significantly, SONEI was also registered as a public welfare trust last week which will enable it to undertake bigger projects for the welfare and empowerment of the youth in the coming days. Members expressed their deep gratitude to A Sabur Tapader who worked relentlessly for the registration of SONEI Trust.

Earlier at the outset of the meeting, a minute’s silence was observed to pray for departed souls and for the early recovery of patients ailing in hospitals. Thereafter, SONEI member Aman Wadud was felicitated for bagging the Fulbright-Nehru Masters Fellowship (2021-2022) that will take him to the USA for post graduate study of law in an Ivy League Institution. Another member of SONEI, Syeda Farida, was also felicitated on being appointed State President & Spokesperson for the International Human Rights Organisation, Assam Chapter.

One major project of SONEI during the last six years has been the Rural Inter School Debate Competition which has groomed and produced a number of proficient debaters and orators from rural areas of Assam. During the pandemic, the members of SONEI contributed over Rs one lakh to provide ration and other essential items to people who had lost their sources of income or had to return home from the cities because of the pandemic. This was stated by Nazia Laskar, in charge of “SONEI Cares Project.”

Naheed Khan Hossain, Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming at Futurwits, now located in Dubai and Zarin A Choudhury, PMV Engineer at Sendar International Company Limited, Saudi Arabia participated in the virtual meeting and shared heir experiences. Among leading out-of-state members, Dr Mehboob Haque from Aliah University Kolkata and Dr Sikdar M Askari related their experiences in the new normal of online education.

SONEI member Indrani Tapati, mixed martial art exponent, spoke on the importance of self defense skills for women; Tinat Atifa Masood, Entrepreneur and motivational speaker, spoke on her experiences of interviewing varied personalities during the pandemic; and Reshma NC Shah, teacher and education consultant, apprised the members about her recent experiences of international educational meets. Sunayana Dutta, film maker and social worker, and Farnaaz Islam, painter and poet, entertained the audience with some melodious songs.