Media men, citizens urged to help stop moves against FPAB

Media and conscious citizens of the country have been urged to help Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB) to serve the cause of health of an estimated ten million mothers and children family planning, said a press release.

President of the FPAB Prof Khaleda Khanam made the appeal while speaking at the press conference at the National Press Club in the city on Thursday.

She said a vested quarter is now out to see the FPAB going vanished with extensive maternal and child health care it is now providing.

She said the FPAB, which was groomed by personalities like Dr Mohammad Ibrahim, Alamgir MA Kabir, Dr Captain Abul Kashem, Dr Syed AKM Hafizur Rahman, M Shamsul Islam, Shaheed Md Moyezuddin, Kazi Anisur Rahman and Dr Nilima Ibrahim, has already earned international acclaim for its contribution to the cause of maternal child health and family planning. Meher Afroz Chumki, daughter of Shaheed Moyezuddin, also worked hard to build the FPAB as it is today, she pointed out.   

Prof Khanam said the FPAB now has 21 branches and 11 special work units and three special units. Its 1,487 reproductive health promoters go door to door in rural areas to create awareness on do's and don'ts in maintaining good health. There are 72 family development centres where thousands are taken care of by doctors and other health and family planning personnel at a time when physicians on government payroll are reluctant to serve the rural masses.

The former Member of Parliament and Whip said 21 youth centres are imparting precious lessons on their adolescent lives to build them as responsible citizens of the country. A total of 1,000 satellite camps are held monthly to look after mothers and children who are out of reach of hospitals and community clinics. "In fact, these serve what the community clinics innovated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina aims at," she said.

Prof Khanam said a vested quarter had misguided the Ministry of Social Welfare in dissolving the elected executive committee of the FPAB on August 13, 2013 but both the High Court and the Supreme Court restored the elected body in its position. Since then, the vested quarter is again out to dishonour the verdict of the highest judiciary.

She said the FPAB was about to be shut with donors refusing to provide any funds to it following the conspiracies of the vested quarter. But after the highest court's judgment and tireless efforts of the FBAP President, they resumed funding to the organisation.

She said the FPAB now receives Tk 800 million from donors and Tk 8.0 million from the government annually. "This means, the FPAB cannot be run without the donors' funds," she said adding that the donors will once again stop all funding if similar step is taken by the ministry once again.

Saying that the FPAB is now a prestigious organisation serving the cause of maternal and child health in Bangladesh, it is the responsibility of the entire nation to keep it afloat by helping frustrate all ill attempts of the vested quarter seeking to grab foreign funds.

 "We maintain the highest transparency and accountability in accounts of the FPAB and donors too audit the accounts leaving no room for any swindling of the foreign tax-payers' money," she said.

Prof Khnam informed that the next election of the FPAB executive committee will be held in December this year and the results of the polls are expected to frustrate all conspiratorial moves of the vested quarter.

The press conference was addressed, among others, by Honorary Secretary General Nasir Ahamed Babul and executive directive of the association Dr AFM Matiur Rahman.