Michelle Obama once said, “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.” Today, Harbingers’ Magazine spotlights four remarkable young female activists from South Asia who are proving that there’s no age limit either.

These amazing girls have all turned personal experience into power to make the world a better place for other young people.

Gargee Tanushree Paul

Gargee from Bangladesh, aged 16, is a journalist for the online news platform hello.bdnews24.com, focusing on children’s and women’s rights. She has written widely on numerous topics, including child marriage, education and climate change. Since 2024 she has been a UNICEF youth advocate.

She has five years of experience as a journalist and is also the founder and president of charity Be Positive since 2017, which is dedicated to supporting underprivileged children.

Moreover, she is involved with an informal school in Laxmipur, Netrokona district, helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds to transition to mainstream schools. She teaches English online and is also a member of the school’s management committee.

Seeing the struggles of children from Indigenous communities made her realise, as a young girl herself, how important it is to maintain the wellbeing of kids, so that they will not live in uncertainty.

Susmita Adhikari

Susmita, 19, from Nepal, has a particular interest in nutrition and menstrual health. After training with SOCHAI, a charity that is dedicated to improving the health, nutrition and livelihoods of Nepali women and girls, she has been involved in many awareness campaigns and community training schemes. These include awareness programmes on nutrition for new mothers in rural Nepal.

“The misinformation or lack of correct nutrition education can impact everything in our life, including physical and mental health,” Susmita says.

She recalls a moment during training when a young woman believed she should eat less during pregnancy. Through this example, she highlights the harmful effects of misinformation on maternal health and the risk of perpetuating malnutrition.

She also remembers meeting a teenage mother in a remote village, feeding her malnourished child a popular biscuit brand, misled by advertising into thinking it was healthy. “If a young woman believes myths or does not have the knowledge of evidence-based information about nutrition when she becomes a mother, it may affect not only her,” she explains.

Such real-life meetings and experiences drive Susmita’s passion for helping people and promoting the importance of nutrition advocacy. Susmita says: “More than anything, I hope other young people will step up and become advocates for a change in raising awareness and challenging harmful practices around us.”

Menuri Kodikara

Menuri, a UNICEF youth advocate for Sri Lanka, became the Minister of No Poverty in Sri Lanka’s first sustainable development goals (SDG) Children’s Parliament in 2020. Motivated by her family’s own financial struggles, she has since worked with SUNFO and other international organisations on SDG-related social initiatives.

Apart from her activism, she is also a world-renowned chess player – so much so that the Sri Lankan government gifted her an apartment in 2016 for a record-breaking performance in international chess where she won three gold medals for Sri Lanka.

This building houses over 500 families, mostly displaced by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and affected by poverty. Upon moving there, Menuri explains that she was disturbed by the conditions children faced, such as drug addiction, child marriage and lack of education. So she started a children’s club, organising workshops and cleanups, and distributing school supplies with support from the housing ministry.

Zunaira Qayyum Baloch

Zunaira, 14, from Balochistan, is a UNICEF youth advocate for climate change and child rights in Pakistan. Notably, she has represented Pakistan’s youth at national and international forums including COP29. As an activist who started at a very young age, she has faced numerous challenges in a community where she had to fight for her right to education and to be heard.

Her passion for making a positive impact drives her to use her voice and actions, empowering herself and others to create meaningful change in the community and the world. Zunaira shares a meaningful message to young girls: “We, girls and women, can work together to create a more equitable and just society by amplifying the voices and stories of each other.”