Rakibul Hasan
Peacempire, an initiative to scale down Early Marriage, undertook major activities among 2805 adolescents, youths and adults, mostly aged 13 to 25 years, who represent over 32 villages in the district of Narayanganj, Bangladesh.
We have surpassed the targets we set. Until the eve of February, we trained a number of 162 Community Reporters, 149 Young Advocates, 63 Peer Educators and 2431 Campaigners, through series of workshops and campaigns, conducted between early weeks of October 2016 and the mid winter of January 2017.
Earlier we formed a popular coalition of citizens—teachers, professionals, physicians, journalists, administrators, priests, politicians, victims and people of all walks of lives to successfully implement this project.
On the second phase, the Peacempire project has advanced through 04 major activities—workshop, campaigns, documentations and forming SRHR coalition to reduce the rate of Early Forced Marriage and Violence against Women into the rate of 30% involving adolescents and youths, aged 12 to 25 in the underprivileged areas of Rupganj subdistrict, Bangladesh. The coalition brings together SRHR experts, traditional leaders, political quarters, administrative bodies and victims in monthly social campaigns.Thus it equips Popular Opponents with 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 ensuring legal interventions and public engagements in the villages.
The workshops include the following sessions— Icebreaking Session (i.e. Name Aerobics, Birth Map etc), Expert Lecture, Case Studies, Storytelling, Solidarity Session, Training Materials, Assignments, Group Works, Competitions (i.e. Oratory, Essay, Drama, Drawing etc), Award Ceremony, Club Launching, Video Clip Show and Refreshments.
From the very beginning, we have plans in details to make the sessions as creative and spontaneous we can through engaging the maximum number of participants in activities. We considered to prioritize as a group of girls from Rupshi New Model School remarked, “we are suspicious for a long about reports and researches done about us, so we request everyone to listen to us before anyone writes ‘anything’ about us, because there is nothing about girls, without girls”. Therefore, we ensure that students get to speak up for what they are not being heard quite a long time.
During our third workshop on November 23, 2016, we invited a number of local victims of child marriages and gender violence, guardians and faith leaders in solidarity with the students at Abdul Haque Bhuiyan International School and College for couple of hours.
We started as I presented a conceptual paper giving national and global understanding on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, with case studies on local child marriages. Followed by me, faith leaders, politicians, parents and administrators shared their valuable ideas about an inclusive coalition to help reduce the rate of Child Marriages and Violence against Women.
The major event in the school was bringing students together in the dialogue on causes, effects and way out of the infested child marriage. The dialogue began as over 100 students were given sticky pads to write down their opinion on aspects of Child Marriage. Later, they were asked to merge their opinions as similar to others in different small groups. Again, the small groups were annexed with comparatively larger groups. Finally, the whole classroom turned into two rival counterparts to debate and dialogue the major way out to reduce child marriage in the area.
Then on December 15, 2016, we arranged the fourth major event in a combined school, named Rupshi New Model School and College, Rupshi. With maximum cooperation from the school authority, we initiated few more additional interactive session along with our regular workshop programs. Youth Club of Bangladesh, a popular volunteer group on health rights, developed and delivered the conceptual lectures in line with best global SRHR practices and Family Planning concepts. The entire classroom was segmented into different groups with different assignments and later the team leaders presented their collaborative works before teachers, school managing committee and local media workers.
Students were given with papers and scopes to develop different tools they think can reduce the rate of child marriage in the area. They brainstormed over hundreds of written solutions, which we critically analyzed to develop a policy paper later. The best 03 papers among the competitive solutions had received Awards of Excellences.
Head Master of the school and Governing Body President among others narrated stories that inspired audience giving them a conviction and legacy to fight for what is right.
End of the workshop, about 28 Reporters, 32 Advocates, 09 Trainers and 04 Campaigners, out of hundreds applied from the school, demonstrated their working interests to continue the campaign through newly formed club.
Later on December 29, 2016, Sahitunnessa Pilot Girls High School, the largest girls’ school in Rupganj subdistrict, invited Peacempire team to organize another consecutive workshop at its premises. This time, Mr. Thakurdas Kar, Head Master of the school, delivered the conceptual lecture among the students. A number of 03 teachers joined the team and cooperated with us during the workshop period.
As previous school, a number of three inspiring stories in Bengali language received mementoes under the categories of Winner, First Runnerup and Second Runnerup. And later 20 Reporters, 40 Advocates, 10 Trainers and 10 Campaigners got inspired to enlist their names to work as Popular Opponents with us in the future.
Finally on January 11, 2017, Majhina Moujar Ahmadia Fazil Madrasah, Kayetpara was convinced to allow us to undertake the last (6th) workshop that reached out to around 03 Reporters, 06 Advocates, 15 Trainers and 563 Campaigners in separate event called assembly on the day.
Girls under veils and with gender segregation, the madrasa, a no go zone, did not allow us to enter into the campus until the local politicians intervened to facilitate permission for us.
At the beginning of the day, the final or third campaign, bringing together around 563 students in an assembly happened in the most conservative religious school raising unprecedented voices against child marriage and gender violence, which is so far an astonishing achievement in the project.
However, the campaigns included both infield and online activism. Offline activism included 01 rally, 01 assembly and 01 roadshow, 02 hand imprints, 10 street interviews, 1103 petition signatures, 01 drama, mimes etc. On the other hand, digital activism in form of website is undewway to establish common cellphone hotline, social media outlets, producing documentarie/short films, blogging, storytelling, reporting and creating apps are now available in the Peacempire website soon before deadline of February 15, 2017.
A number of 07 newspapers home and beyond have already published our successful launching, continued progress, press releases and policy briefs etc. Earlier 10 newspaper columns and a conference paper were published in 2016.
Fourth is building coalition and forming club. The multi-actoral coalition included 10 SRHR experts/practitioners, 22 religious leaders, 12 traditional leaders, 06 policy makers, 30 local media workers/journalists, political quarters, administrative bodies and victims.
In total, we have trained and engaged 162 Community Reporters, 149 Young Advocates, 63 Peer Educators and 2431 Campaigners from all 06 workshops and 03 campaigns conducted between early weeks of October 2016 and the mid winter of January 2017. They indirectly benefited, we mean they disseminated what they learned among 233 peers in their institutions.
