On October 01 last Peacempire successfully launched its social action project in the largest school of Narayanganj, namely Murapara Model Pilot High School, bringing together nearly 1,375 students at a road show, just after collecting petition signatures of 603 people and holding a workshop of 109 attendees there. Later on October 08 it also organised the second consecutive event, which included a drama drawing an audience of 579 local people, over 340 students at a rally, 499 petition signatures and about 107 participants in a workshop at the Islamic seminary 'Baraloo Paragaon Batenia Dakhil Madrasa' in the district.
Peacempire is among the top 20 global advocacy solutions for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Sponsored by Women Deliver and Johnson and Johnson, it advances through three major activities, which include workshop, campaigns and building a coalition on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights advocacy to reduce the rate of Early Forced Marriage and Violence against Women to 30 per cent involving young people aged 12 to 25 in the underprivileged areas of Rupganj in the district. The project also forms a coalition bringing together SRHR experts, traditional leaders, political quarters, administrative bodies and victims at monthly social campaigns.Thus it equips young advocates with the capacity to effectively respond to child marriage and gender vioelnce through citizen journalism and digital media facilities, i.e. common cellphone hotline, social media outlets etc, to ensure legal interventions and public engagements in the area.
First, the workshop has four core sessions, i.e. icebreaking, focus session, brainstorming, essay competitions and survey. From grades 07 to 10, it selects top 20 students on the merit list from different sections of a school-over 100 students in total-for a duration of two hours. Experts address the Focus Session on Understanding the Local Context of Child Marriage and Gender Violence.
Debashis Bhattacharjee from Youth School for Social Entrepreneurs conducted the focus session at Murapara Model Pilot High School and later Rafiqul Alam Khan from South Asian Youth Society took part in another focus session at the Islamic seminary Baraloo Paragaon Batenia Dakhil Madrasa. In the middle of workshop, two facilitators each time cooperated with attendees to help brainstorm on "Causes, Effects and Preventions of Child Marriage and Gender Vilence".
Participants wrote their opinions on colourful stickypads to be glued with sketboard papers on the walls. In both of the days, a total of six excellent essays received mementoes in the categories of two winners, two first runners-up and two second runners-up. Finally undertaking surveyes marked the end of workshop activities. In this session, students filled up attendence sheets and chose their roles out of given four priorities of 'Popular Opponents'- reporters, educators, advocates and campaigners.
Second, the campaigns included both infield and online activism. Offline activism included one rally and one road show, two hand imprints, 10 street interviews, 1,103 petition signatures, one drama, mimes etc. On the other hand, digital activism is undewway to establish common cellphone hotline, social media outlets, producing documentaries/short films, blogging, storytelling, reporting and creating apps to be available on the Peacempire website soon.
The third is building a coalition and forming a club. The multi-actoral coalition includes five SRHR experts/practitioners, 11 religious leaders, six traditional leaders, three policy-makers, 15 local media workers/journalists, political quarters, administrative bodies and victims. Since some of the religious/traditional leaders propagate early marriage, justify violence against women and discourage contraceptives, the project educates and engages religious quarters in SRHR practices. They prefer early marriage of girls to protect their virginity/purity from adultery, an absolute misinterpretation of religion. Therefore, as a religious solution to a religious challenge, the project aims at finding a positive religious explanation in light of Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, the club consists of "Popular Opponents" of all four categories. With regular followups, the club members will be further trained up to write, blog and help make video documentaries for the website and other social media channels.
Thus the project will directly benefit 2022 people, while indirectly reaching out to more than 17,402 beneficiaries and 50,000 virtual beneficiaries in 34 villages and beyond. The unique outcome of the project is drawing a popular end to the culture of indifference and violence against girls and women in the area. This project finds an enduring solutions through the establishment of a permanent website and social media channels, which will continue beyond the project timeline.
The writer is a Women Deliver fellow, USA.
Email: [email protected]
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
