BITA E-News Letter th 14 Issue January – April 2018 Message from Executive Director This Issue Over again we are in the lead of our readers with th E-News letter- 14 issue. At first we would like to Intervention with Rohingya share our feelings of happiness as United Nations adolescents Social theatre to enhance Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) psychosocial development declared Bangladesh, a developing country, regard as “Ananda School”: Education centre our economic growth is at 7 percent or higher. In this for underprivileged slum children period, BITA has engaged Rohingya adolescent boys “Time is now: Rural and Urban and girls with cultural initiatives successfully aiming to child protection. Continuation of ROSC phase II activists transforming Women’s lives” Promote tolerance and diversity among project extended educational, training and employment opportunities for slum children and rural youth. This the youth Providing Health camp to older issue highlights other notable interventions including people at Ramgoti upazila International Women Day Observance with enthusiastic participation of girls, health camp for older people, Theatre In Education (TIE) youth engagement for peace, tolerance and harmony, Joyful education for combating human TIE presentation before young learners. trafficking & safe migration Let me say once more, we greet all attachment for Steps toward building skills and flourishing e-news letter in future and collectively raise creating job opportunities of Youth our voice to promote rights and foster humanity. PVT(Pre Vocational skills Training) We welcome your ideas and piece of advice . Please do Graduation Course : Certification favour to email us at [email protected] ceremony for PVT graduates Appreciation of youth’s power working for peace and harmony Sisir Dutta Executive Director Intervention with Rohingya adolescents Social theatre to enhance psychosocial development In August 2017, violence erupted in Rakhaine state of Myanmar. More than 7 lakes people have fled to Bangladesh to escape the military’s large scale campaign of brutality. More over half of them are children. They took shelter at Ukhiya and Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar district. They made makeshift settlements at Kutupalang, Balukhali, Moinarghhona, Hakimpara, Jamtoli, Unchiprang of Ukhiya & Teknaf. Still they are caring the fear of inhuman brutality of Mayanmar’s force. The adolescents particularly girls became traumatized as they witnessed of rape, violence, killing of their nearest persons. Being refused citizen of the country for a long time, they hardly enjoy any human rights. The Rohingya people have been suffering from several annoyances like polygamy, child marriage, and gender-based violence and many other superstitions. Following conditions, BITA in support UNICEF started a project titled “Promoting psychosocial wellbeing through cultural initiatives for protecting Rohingya adolescents from abuse, exploitation and GBV (PPCIPR)” since December 2017 that continued till March 2018. The project accommodated the adolescent boys and girls aged 12-18 years in cultural initiatives. Directly10,000 adolescents of Moinarghona, Hakimpara, Unchiprang refugee camps participated in the activities . Total participants were divided into 400 groups. Among them, 70% were girls while boys 30%. The decidedly addressing issues making a concept of awareness towards them were like so: Child marriage, polygamy, child trafficking and child labor, Gender based violence, drug addiction, radicalization, sexual and other violence. The whole process carried on by group orientation, processing socialization, skill development activities, develop social theatre production and in house and street drama performance. Attentiveness all the way through amusement among the adolescents getting free from panic was one of the important intentions. Simultaneously 2400 stimulating sessions were held involving 400 groups. Block leaders( BLOCK MAJHI), parents and religious leaders also included with all the efforts. For each group, two mentors were selected. Five- day skill development trainings were held with them for expertise and capacitate of total 800 mentors. Afterwards they shared all about the views and know-how with the own group. Rousing sessions and expatriation process initiated them to set up 400 social theatre show on six in progress issues. Every single team staged a particular drama at the makeshift camp of Mainarghona, Hakimpara, and Unchiprang. A friendly Football Match was organized against drug addiction. More to the point an exemplary incident happened when through following sessions encouraged to stop a child marriage in the camp. To build capacity for effective implementation, BITA organized 3-days TOT on Facilitating Cultural Initiatives for Promoting Psychosocial well- being of Rohingya Adolescents in Cox’s Bazar for Technical Officers and 2-days orientation for Community Mobilizers. After completion of activities forty groups awarded for their performance out of the 400 groups. Colorful cultural program and discussion meetings were held in each 3 camps. Prize giving ceremony was graced by the presence of Camp officials & NGO personnel including Jannatul Ferdous Ruma, Program Officer, Child Protection, (UNICEF). In addition, a discussion meeting was arranged to enrich the glory of International Women Day with participation of Technical Officers and Community Mobilizers. World Theatre Day also observed with participation of Rohingya children and adolescents through colorful manners. “Ananda School”: Education centre for underprivileged slum children Since 2017 Bangladesh Institute of Theatre Arts ( BITA) has been running the Urban Slum Children Education program through “Reaching Out- Of- School Children (ROSC) phase 2 project under the ministry of primary and mass education. Its aim is to ensure standard education and to resist drop out of slum areas’ school going children. Through this project totally fifty thousand unprivileged children, age group of 8-14 years, are getting education. This programme is providing facilities in 10 city corporation slum areas’ children. BITA has established 40 Ananda schools at 21 wards of Chittagong City Corporation area. Government endorsed 5650 children selected through various processes. The children are getting education in encouraging environment. They are acquiring educational materials like pen, pencil, text books, free of cost including stipend. Each student got total 2700 taka for nine months as stipend. Parents, government school teachers, local elected representatives, bank officers, managing committee of Ananda schools were present during the educational support distributed among the students. Foremost intention of the programme is to ensure education for unprivileged children and liberated them from the curse of child labour. “Time is now: Rural Uttering the above slogan this year BITA celebrates the “International Women Day”. and Urban activists Intending the success of the day three -day series th th program (6 March -8 March) have been taken transforming where most lucrative part was “The Football Match Women’s lives” of Adolescents Girls”. The Match was held at Beltoli Railway Housing Field of Pahartoli ward(9no). Along with the supportive youth team local journalist Md. Nuruddin Khan Sagar steered the match. Twenty two participants were divided into two groups –Red and Green. The match was drawn by 1-1. Then referee called for tie-breaker. The Green group won the match by 3-1 goals. At the end of the match, prizes were distributed among the players of both teams. This was the first opening sports of adolescent girls in this area. Local people from all walks of life enjoyed the match. They showed gratitude from the core of their hearts to Action Aid Bangladesh and BITA for this pretty observance. Sultana one of the participants of the match expressed her joy, “I am really excited being a contestant of the match. I enjoy the freedom of playing in open field and wish to continue in future.” Another participant Tahmina echoed the same opinion, “Yes! I also want to play up coming days. Several times I watched female football and cricket match on television. For the first time I am in the field as a player”. Match referee Nuruddin Khan Sagor also stated his aspiration of further involvement with such different initiatives for adolescent girls. At present advent of violent extremism where National Day Celebration youth are largely involved, violent extremism and radicalization could become a huge threat Promote tolerance and diversity among of our independence and sovereignty. In the the youth context of Chittagong, a good numbers of socio- cultural organizations existing. But most of them are not proactive. That’s why BITA who carries a large amount of experiences of work for a long time with grass root people as well as community people to deal with PVE issues using alternative culture based approach. Most important intention was to promote the idea of tolerance for diverse judgment. With the support of USAID’s Obirodh, BITA organized a one-day program to engage 300 youth through different methods, including puppet show, local song performance, open discussion, and quiz on PVE issues. The initiative was taken by a platform Youth Idea Chittagong. The platform celebrated the 48th Independence and National Day 2018 on 26 March at Chittagong Muslim Hall ground. More than 300 Youth participants from the 21 wards in Chittagong City Corporation participated in this occasion.