UNICEF’s Projects Analysis at Bangladesh by Masahedul Alam

UNICEF’s Projects Analysis at Bangladesh by Masahedul Alam

Project Details from UNICEF Website

Education Sector

Early learning

Children who participate in early childhood education are more likely to enroll and remain in primary school (and achieve better results) than those who cannot access comprehensive early childhood care.

Early learning centres
UNICEF’s Early Learning for Development Project provides centre-based care and education to the most vulnerable children between the ages of four and six.

Since 2006, UNICEF and the Government of Bangladesh have established 5,560 early learning centres in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, urban slums and other disadvantaged districts.  Teachers help children develop their linguistic, social and cognitive skills through:

• story-telling
• singing
• indoor and outdoor games
• making toys from materials brought from home
• drawing
• show-and-tell
• question-and-answer sessions

Education for teachers and parents
UNICEF has supported training of preschool teachers, one for each early learning centre, in a programme currently serving over 254,000 children.  Parents are encouraged to visit the centres where they can learn how to give age-appropriate interactive care to young children at home.

Working with primary schools
The early learning centres link with primary schools to provide transition support and encourage primary school enrolment. A study of graduates from UNICEF-supported centres showed that 94 per cent of children who attended preschool in the Chittagong Hill Tracts later enrolled in primary school.

Food and learning
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, UNICEF is working with the United Nations World Food Programme to deliver micronutrient fortified biscuits to pre-school children attending the early learning centres. The mid-morning snacks motivate children to come to class. They also improve nutritional status and reduce short-term hunger, enhancing a child’s capacity to concentrate.

Child to child
UNICEF is piloting a child-to-child project to help prepare young children for primary school. Grade-five students from 30 primary schools pair with one or two local preschool-aged children. Each week, the grade-five students run an activity – drawing, singing, story telling or games – for the younger learners, under the supervision of a primary school teacher. The project provides additional early learning opportunities for young children and helps familiarise them with primary school.

Early learning for all
UNICEF works with the Government at policy level, and through the public media, to ensure that early learning is recognised as an essential part of every child’s education.
When the early learning programme was launched in 2001, public awareness of early childhood development and opportunities for formal early learning were almost non-existent. In 2007, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and UNICEF developed a pre-primary operational framework to establish preschool classes in all government primary schools by 2015.

UNICEF and the Government of Bangladesh are committed to the Education for All initiative – a global movement to meet the educational needs of all people. Goal one is to expand and improve early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable children. UNICEF is working with the Government and NGOs to develop set standards for early learning throughout Bangladesh.

Primary education

UNICEF supports the Government-driven Second Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP II). The programme aims to achieve quality education for all children by making primary schools more inclusive, child-friendly and effective.

Teacher training
UNICEF supports training for teachers and school administrators on inclusive education, interactive teaching and other classroom subjects. Information leaflets on current issues in education – such as access for disabled children, participatory learning, corporal punishment, HIV/AIDS, school sanitation, child injury and emergency preparedness – are distributed to teachers. UNICEF is also helping the Government to revise the Certificate of Education curriculum to ensure that new primary teachers understand issues of gender, access and participation.

Motivating communities
UNICEF works to mobilize communities in support of primary education and primary schools. Local theatre groups present plays and puppet shows about the importance of attending and completing primary school. The shows offer community members a chance to discuss sensitive issues like school attendance and drop-out rates. Over 2 million people attended these dramas in 2008. 

Meena episodes contribute to a nation-wide awareness campaign promoting girls’ education, creative teaching and the idea that learning can be fun.

Empowering primary schools
UNICEF empowers parents, teachers and local communities to work together by providing school-improvement grants to school management committees. These committees meet regularly to develop School Level Improvement Plans (SLIPs) to manage the funds. Making decisions about the needs of the school fosters a sense of ownership among teachers and parents. Among the schools receiving grants, money has been spent on:

• teaching materials
• filing cabinets and bookshelves
• books for school libraries
• benches
• tools
• cleaning products
• ramps for disabled access
• a school bell
• sports days and prizes
• musical instruments
• planting a school garden
• constructing toilets

Teachers involved in the SLIP process report feeling more motivated in the classroom because they have greater control over school resources and the learning environment.

Making learning fun
In each of the 64 districts, education fairs bring together teachers and students from different schools. Displays of children’s work and student performances foster a sense of school community and encourage children to take pride in their achievements.

UNICEF is working to increase primary school enrolment and attendance through early learning programmes.

On track for education
Literacy is a key indicator of the success of primary school education. In Bangladesh, literacy rates among 15-24 year-olds increased from 37 per cent in 1991 to 73 per cent for males and 76 per cent for females in 2010. Bangladesh is also on track to meet Millennium Goals two and three for universal primary education and gender parity in school.

Download the Quality primary education factsheet.

Education for working children

UNICEF collaborates with the Government of Bangladesh on the Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Working Children (BEHTRUWC) project.

Education and child labour
Because many families rely on the income of their children to survive, UNICEF’s project for working children focuses on non-formal education that fits in around children’s regular work schedules. Education is the first step in breaking the cycle of unskilled-employment and child labour.

Learning centres
The project establishes small learning centres in urban areas that are home to high numbers of working children. Children between the age of 10 and 14 attend morning classes for two and a half hours, six days a week. There are 25 children in each class. The children usually return to their place of employment after class. By 2008, the project had opened 6,646 centres for 166,150 students in the six divisional capitals of Bangladesh.  Attendance rates are encouraging, with few drop-outs.

Basic education and life skills
During their lessons, students study basic reading, writing and mathematics. They also learn a range of life skills, such as how to obtain healthcare, identify hazardous work, and understand their rights as children and other issues relevant to their situation. Classes are interactive, encouraging children to apply what they learn in their everyday lives.

After completing a 40-month basic education programme, the children attain the equivalent of grade five in Bangla and social science and grade three in mathematics. They also learn basic English. The programme supports selected children to attend further education and vocational training.

Health and Nutrition Sector

By improving the health and nutrition of women and children, UNICEF seeks to prevent child death. Bangladesh is one of few developing countries on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4: to reduce the under-five mortality rate.

Maternal and neonatal health

 

UNICEF works in public health facilities and with local communities to strengthen maternal and neonatal health services and encourage women to seek treatment.

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Child survival

 

In order to reduce rates of childhood death, UNICEF supports immunization, child illness management and injury-prevention programmes across Bangladesh.

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Nutrition

 

Because maternal and child nutrition are inextricable linked, UNICEF seeks to improve nutrition across the entire lifecycle.

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HIV/AIDS

 

UNICEF integrates issues of HIV/AIDS throughout its programmes, from education for adolescents  to training of health workers.

Maternal and neonatal health

UNICEF works in public health facilities and with local communities to strengthen maternal and neonatal health services and encourage women to seek medical treatment.

Improving health facilities
UNICEF supports improvements to antenatal, emergency obstetric, postnatal and neonatal care  services in 191 public health facilities. These improvements include:

• facility upgrades
• new equipment
• staff training

Training to sensitize hospital staff to women’s needs and concerns (including the issue of domestic violence) ensures that the rights and dignity of female patients are respected.

The number of hospitals providing comprehensive birthing facilities is steadily rising, with 84 per cent of UNICEF-supported centres fully-equipped to provide comprehensive obstetric care.

Obstetric emergencies
UNICEF-supported health workers educate the community about the danger signs of pregnancy and the importance of seeking help from skilled medical professionals during obstetric emergencies. The number of women giving birth in the care of a skilled health worker increased from 13 per cent in 2004 to 24 per cent in 2010.  Though promising, this figure is not sufficient to significantly reduce neonatal and maternal death.

Linking with hospitals
Community health workers encourage women to utilize local health services, by linking them with their local health facility. Women learn that health facilities not only provide emergency treatment, but also continued care and information about best practices for mother and baby health and nutrition.

Empowering mothers
UNICEF is piloting a community-support system for pregnant and new mothers in six sub-districts. Volunteers from community-support groups visit pregnant women to monitor their status, refer them to the local health facilities and help plan for the birth.

Communities have been quick to adapt to the project. Many of the groups have established funds that local women can draw from to pay for transport to hospital in an obstetric emergency. In other communities, women received money boxes to encourage saving for medical costs and transport.  Ensuring emergency transport is one of the most effective interventions in preventing maternal and neonatal death.

Gender and birth
Community support groups also educate the community about a woman’s right to be treated with dignity when seeking treatment, whether this means privacy screens in the labour ward or separate toilets for female patients. Support group volunteers speak to women about their birth experience and the group advocates with the health centre whenever improvements are required.

Joint programme
Recently, UNICEF joined with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to support the Government of Bangladesh in a joint initiative to acceleraChild survival

In order to reduce rates of childhood death, UNICEF supports immunization, child illness management and injury-prevention programmes.

Immunization
UNICEF continues to support nationwide immunization drives against measles, tetanus, hepatitis, polio and other childhood diseases. Progress is encouraging:

• 88 per cent of children under the age of one are vaccinated against measles, compared to 77 per cent in 2004. 
• Bangladesh regained polio-free status after an imported case was discovered in 2006.
• Rates of neonatal tetanus are declining, with only 152 cases reported in 2008.

UNICEF works with the World Health Organization and the Government to increase access to vaccines in 15 low-performing districts. Activities include cold-chain management for local health services and social mobilization programmes that encourage families to bring all children for the full series of immunizations.

Illness
Encouraging families to seek treatment for sick children, particularly those suffering symptoms of pneumonia, infection, diarrhoea, malaria or malnutrition, is extremely important. UNICEF supports behaviour change campaigns and social mobilization activities to raise public awareness of the risks to child health. The number of children under the age of five who are taken to health-care providers when suffering symptoms of pneumonia has increased from 20 to 30 per cent between 2004 and 2007to 37 per cent..  

In order to improve the standard of care available to children at health facilities, UNICEF provides new equipment, trains staff and improves patient management systems. UNICEF supports the integrated management of childhood illness in over 200 health facilities at sub-district level. UNICEF currently supports projects in almost 300 sub-district health facilities for the integrated management of childhood illness. In these facilities, the quality of care improved by 50 per cent between 2006 and 2007.

Injury
Under UNICEF’s pilot project on injury prevention, selected schools have introduced injury-prevention and disaster-preparedness classes. Community-based initiatives include swimming lessons for children aged four to ten and village crèches for younger children. Community workers run courtyard meetings and make home-visits to raise awareness among parents about the importance of erecting fences around cooking fires  and water hazards.

The pilot proves that child injury is preventable. Over three years, in the four pilot districts (including three in rural Bangladesh and one urban area):

• Drowning deaths among children aged 1 to 4 reduced by 44 per cent.
• Injuries among children aged 1 to 17 reduced by 32 per cent.
• Hospitalization of children decreased by one third.

UNICEF is advocating for a national strategy on child injury prevention to curb rates of injury-related death, the biggest killer of children over the age of one. Material developed for the school pilot is being distributed to primary schools nationwide as a supplement to the standard primary education curriculum.

te improvements to maternal and neonatal survival rates in four districts.

Nutrition

Because maternal and child nutrition are inextricable linked, UNICEF seeks to improve nutrition across the entire lifecycle – from infancy, through childhood, adolescence, and the child-bearing years.

Vitamin A
UNICEF works with the Government to deliver vitamin A supplements to all children between the ages of one and five. Vitamin A boosts the immune system, strengthening resistance to diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection, measles and other childhood diseases.

Children receive the supplement twice a year through a nationwide immunization campaign or when they visit health clinics and outreach centres for their childhood vaccinations. 91 per cent of children under the age of five have now received vitamin A supplements.  UNICEF also supports vitamin A fortification of cooking oil.

Deworming and nutrition advice
Vaccination campaigns provide a platform to deliver other nutritional services, including deworming, and the promotion of breastfeeding and sound eating habits. Further advice on infant and child feeding is available at public health facilities where UNICEF trains staff in nutrition counseling.

Salt iodization
For two decades, UNICEF has supported salt-iodization as means of preventing iodine deficiency disorders. Iodine deficiency causes goiter, birth defects, deafness and paralysis, and hampers children’s mental and physical development. Although 84 per cent of households now consume iodized salt (up from 70 per cent in 2004), the quality of the salt is often unreliable.  UNICEF’s current programme provides monitoring and technical assistance to salt manufacturers to ensure proper iodization and works to increase public awareness of the importance of consuming adequately iodized salt.

Preventing anaemia
To address high levels of anaemia among pre-school children, adolescent girls and mothers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and selected low-income areas, UNICEF works to encourage families to eat foods rich in iron and folic acid. The programme also provides flavourless powders of iron, folic acid and other micronutrients that can be sprinkled over meals.  Adolescents in the community receive deworming and iron folate tablets.

Emergency nutrition
Because good nutrition depends on robust food security, UNICEF provides emergency food supplements to women and children during floods and other emergencies that compromise food production and supply.

HIV/AIDS

UNICEF integrates issues of HIV/AIDS throughout its programmes, from education for adolescents  to training of health workers.

HIV education
Because Bangladesh is a low prevalence country, UNICEF focuses on increasing access to HIV education and raising public awareness of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is one of four key issues being covered in a UNICEF-supported life-skills pilot project for secondary school students in ten districts. Children in adolescent centres and learning centres for working children also learn about HIV. UNICEF supported the Government to develop the National Communication Strategy for HIV 2005-2010.

Prevention of parent to child transmission
UNICEF is piloting a prevention of parent to child transmission (PPTCT) project for HIV-positive pregnant women and their families.  Selected health facility staff are trained and equipped to provide antiretroviral prophylaxis, voluntary counselling, testing services, and care and support for infected women, their spouses and children. Thanks to increased HIV/AIDS education, 48 per cent of women now understand that mothers can transmit HIV to their babies during pregnancy, at delivery and when breastfeeding.

Drop-in centres
Through 146 drop-in centres in 44 districts, UNICEF has been supporting HIV/AIDS prevention activities among those most at risk of contracting the virus: injecting drug users, mobile populations, men who have sex with men, sex workers and their clients, and children forced into commercial sexual exploitation.

The centres provide health care (including treatment for sexually-transmitted infections), crisis shelter, counselling, health education, resting and recreation facilities, and referral and outreach services. The centres distributed over 6.6 million condoms, 2 million syringes and 1.3 million extra needles between January and September 2008. UNICEF will progressively withdraw from the drop-in centres as the Government of Bangladesh takes on full responsibility for this project in 2009.

Protection

UNICEF advocates for the protection rights of all children and works to safeguard the most vulnerable.

Adolescent empowerment

UNICEF runs an adolescent empowerment project to help prevent child marriage, dowry and other forms of abuse and exploitation of adolescents, especially girls. The project targets 100,000 boys and girls, and their families and communities.

Peer education
In 28 districts across Bangladesh, UNICEF sponsors 2,580 adolescent centres, where trained adolescent leaders educate their peers about child rights, child marriage, reproductive health, gender, HIV/AIDS, dowry, and violence. Sessions on critical thinking and communication encourage adolescents to build on their new knowledge by speaking to parents about the issues that affect them. The centres also provide a safe place for adolescents to socialize and discuss their concerns.

Participation
The centres run various cultural and sporting activities. Encouraging girls to play sport helps address gender disparities, boosting girls’ mobility and participation in community activities. Through some of the centres, adolescent girls can access training in small business management and livelihood trades, such as garment manufacture. Increasing the economic worth of adolescents strengthens arguments against child marriage and dowry.

A supportive community
Parents and community members participate in sessions at the centres that are linked to the adolescents’ programmes. These adults meet regularly with the adolescents, helping to build a support network for the teenagers. Adults and adolescents work together to prevent child rights abuses in the local community.

The Bangladesh Shishu (Children’s) Academy has adopted training modules and teaching aids from the adolescent project, meaning that UNICEF interventions now reach adolescents in all 64 districts of Bangladesh, helping to build a culture of female empowerment and delayed marriage.

Children at risk

UNICEF’s work to protect children at risk includes legislative and institutional reform, advocacy on the rights and requirements of vulnerable children, capacity building of child protection services and piloting of child protection systems.

A national protection system
UNICEF is advocating for a national child protection system to support all vulnerable children, including:

• orphans
• children living on the streets
• working children
• children in conflict with the law
• victims of trafficking, violence, abuse and exploitation.

The system will link together all organizations and institutions (public and private) that support children at risk. Outreach activities will identify different groups of vulnerable children and help them access services for health, shelter, education, social and legal assistance.

To support the network, UNICEF is facilitating the development of a national child protection information management system and the design of national social services training.

Community-based care
UNICEF is piloting a number of community-based child protection systems.

• Children orphaned or made vulnerable by Cyclone Sidr have been fostered by relatives or other families in their local communities. The 2,000 foster families receive monthly cash transfers and are visited every month by government social workers.
• 199 former camel jockeys have been successfully reunited with their families. The reintegration programme for the camel jockeys will serve as a model for future community-based care initiatives.
• UNICEF is working to establish a protection system for Rohingya refugee children in Cox’s Bazar in collaboration with UNHCR.

Institutional reform
UNICEF is developing minimum care standards for institutions that care for orphans, children in contact with the law, and victims of trafficking and abuse. This has included training for institution staff in child-friendly and gender-appropriated care.

UNICEF supports institutionalization only as a last resort and is seeking to decrease the number of children living in institutions through legal reform and alternative care policies, including the development of a separate juvenile justice code.

Drop-in centres for children living on the street
UNICEF supports reintegration services for over 5,000 children living on the streets in six city corporations. Children in drop-in centres receive basic education, counselling, life-skills training and job placement, as well as food and shelter. Family support and community outreach activities encourage parents and community members to interact with the children and help them readjust to life in the general community.

Support for camel jockeys
Since 2005, UNICEF has worked closely with the Government of the United Arab Emirates to repatriate 168 trafficked camel jockeys and provide support for a further 31 boys who returned independently to Bangladesh. The children lived in shelters on their return, where they received medical, educational and psycho-social support. The children then moved back to their communities, where support continues to be available through community care committees. The committees also work to raise awareness about trafficking and protect other children from human traffickers.

Uniting against trafficking
UNICEF is working with the Government of India and the Government of Bangladesh to prevent cross border human trafficking and develop a uniform system for the rescue, recovery, repatriation and reintegration of trafficking victims. UNICEF works to repatriate and reintegrate children who have been trafficked to India for sexual or commercial exploitation.

Children and the law

Criminal responsibility
In 2004, following advocacy efforts by UNICEF, the minimum age of criminal responsibility was raised from seven to nine. Enforcement remains difficult because many children have no proof of their age due to low levels of birth registration.

Legislative reform
UNICEF supports government efforts to harmonize domestic legislation with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other international standards. As part of this undertaking, a new Children’s Code will legislate all CRC rights and principles not found in other national legislation.  The new legislation will cover the rights of all children to health, education, participation and protection and enable enforcement of the CRC in Bangladesh.

UNICEF has also supported the Government to amend the 1974 Children Act – which covers children in conflict with the law and children in need of protection – in line with the CRC. UNICEF is advocating for the establishment of an independent body or commissioner for child rights.

Juvenile justice
UNICEF is working towards a child-friendly justice system that diverts children in contact with the law to appropriate social support services, instead of depriving them of liberty in detention centres.

To sensitize the legal and law enforcement communities to international child rights and standards of justice for children, UNICEF supports multisectoral training for judges, magistrates, police officers, probation officers, lawyers, social workers and staff in institutions. UNICEF assists the Government to coordinate UN, NGO and government partners working for justice for children.

Birth registration

UNICEF supports the Government’s programme for universal birth registration in Bangladesh. Since 2006, with the passage of the Birth and Death Registration Act, children born in Bangladesh must be registered with a birth certificate.

Technical support
UNICEF provides technical assistance and advocacy support to the national birth registration drive. Birth registration is currently manual and slow. Efforts are underway to computerize the process and build a more efficient national registration system.

Increasing public awareness
Media campaigns raise public awareness about the importance of birth registration. Teachers and health care providers reinforce the campaigns, explaining that birth certificates help children access health and education services, while providing protection against child marriage, labour, trafficking and other abuses.

Expansion
According to the Government of Bangladesh, almost 45 per cent of people are now registered with birth certificates, though the percentage of the child population with birth registration is not known. Combining birth registration with school admission is increasing the scope of the campaign. UNICEF is supporting accelerated registration of the most vulnerable and excluded children, including children living in the streets and in brothels.

Water, hygiene and sanitation

Sanitation and hygiene

UNICEF works to improve sanitation coverage in Bangladesh by creating demand in local communities for sanitary latrines. UNICEF also promotes safe hygiene practices.

The Sanitation, Hygiene Education and Water Supply in Bangladesh (SHEWA-B) project aims to reach 30 million people.

Community hygiene promoters
UNICEF's SHEWA-B project is implemented through 10,000 community hygiene promoters across 19 districts in Bangladesh. The hygiene promoters are young men and women from within the local communities, trained to educate their neighbours about the health and economic benefits of proper sanitation, waste disposal and good hygiene. They visit women in their homes and hold courtyard, tea-stall and school sessions.

Sanitation for health and comfort
Hygiene promoters encourage families to invest in improved latrines (that isolate excreta from the human environment) by explaining that money can be saved on diarrhoea medication and through fewer sick days for working adults. They also emphasize the social benefits of improved sanitation, including greater privacy and fewer offensive odours.

In 2009, overall access to improved latrines was 54.1 per cent (54.3 in rural areas, 53.5 in urban areas; and only 8.5 per cent in slums). The number of people defecating in the open and in hanging latrines (which empty directly into water sources) is nearly 10.5 per cent.  Encouraging people to defecate in a fixed place and away from water sources is the first step to achieving proper sanitation.

Mapping toilets
Under SHEWA-B, community members meet for water and sanitation assessment walks around their village or slum. During the walk, everyone is encouraged to point out water sources, sanitary and unsanitary latrines, and spots where people defecate in the open or dispose of waste. Afterwards, the community draws a map that shows all houses, pumps, toilets and waste sites. The community uses this map to plan for future sanitation improvements, which they must finance themselves. By the end of 2010, SHEWA-B communities had installed nearly 1.3 million latrines using their own funds.

Hand-washing with soap
In 2008, UNICEF launched a national campaign on TV and radio to encourage hand-washing with soap after defecation and before eating. Hygiene promoters also focused on the importance of hand-washing with soap or ash during their education sessions. While improvements have been made since 2007 in project areas, a formative research commissioned in 2010 revealed that there is still slow uptake of hygiene behavioural change.  Accordingly project strategies and approaches were sharpened and the sanitation and hygiene promotion strategy was revamped to create a critical mass of adopters. Mothers of children under five and primary school students are the primary audience and topics address the most critical WASH behaviours.  An intensive mass communication hygiene promotion campaign launched in 2010 aims to reach 10 million additional people.

School sanitation and hygiene
UNICEF’s earlier successes in school sanitation have been incorporated into the Government’s Primary Education Development Programme. In schools with proper sanitation, students miss fewer days of class. Community hygiene promoters continue to work with local schools to explain proper hygiene behavior and Support development of WASH in schools plans.

Water and arsenic mitigation

UNICEF’s safe water interventions, including arsenic mitigation, are integrated with the sanitation and hygiene programmes.

Safe water
Community hygiene promoters (CHPs) educate local communities about the importance of drinking safe water and using clean water for cooking.  They explain that water must be collected and stored in clean, covered containers before use.

The hygiene promoters also assist the community to mark safe water sources on village and slum maps and develop plans for future improvements. Between 2006 and 2010, UNICEF and the Government will install more than 20,000 new safe water points according to community plans. Over 13,000 water points had been installed by the project by the end of 2010.

Arsenic testing and removal
UNICEF has been involved in arsenic testing of tube wells in the 19 project districts. Safe wells are painted green and contaminated wells are painted red. UNICEF has tested more than 1 million tube wells for arsenic contamination and is providing alternate safe water – including household arsenic filters and community treatment plants – in 68 sub-districts.

Preparing for floods
UNICEF works to support the Department of Public Health Engineering of the Government of Bangladesh, providing technical expertise to help prepare for annual flooding, which contaminates water sources and destroys latrines.

Emergencies

Bangladesh is susceptible to regular flooding, cyclones and other natural disasters that impede development. UNICEF works to prepare communities for future emergencies and provide immediate and long-term relief support to families

Cyclone Aila

What happened?
Cyclone Aila hit 14 districts on the south-west coast of Bangladesh on the 25th May 2009. It was the second major blow for the region in less than two years: many of these areas were still recovering from the effects of 2007’s Cyclone Sidr when Aila struck. 

The cyclone caused :

• 190 immediate deaths
• injuries to 7,103 people
• damage to 6,000 kilometres of roads
• more than 1,700 kilometres of embankments to collapse
• more than 500,000 people to become homeless
• complete destruction of 275 primary schools and damage to 1,942 schools

While the cyclone was not as strong as Sidr, and the initial death toll was considerably lower, it is estimated that about 4 million people have been affected during and after Cyclone Aila. The cyclone has had a devastating long-term impact, particularly because embankments which were breached during the storm remain unrepaired. This means that some homes and schools still flood at high tide. People continue to live on embankments, the only place above water level, without sufficient food, water, shelter or protection. Livelihood options were also severely affected by the cyclone as livestock, shrimp ponds and cropland were washed away or destroyed. 

UNICEF’s response
The pre-positioning of emergency supplies meant that UNICEF could start work immediately after the cyclone. Within the first week UNICEF supported the DPHE on various water and sanitation initiatives: 11 mobile water treatment plants were deployed, 2,757 water points and 2,689 latrines were repaired and 6,999 drinking water bottles, 972,700 water purifying tablets, 8,747 jerry cans and 651 kilograms of bleaching powder were distributed.

As a result of UNICEF’s interventions and support :

• 26,000 families (130,000 people) received family kits including essential items such as plastic sheets, cooking pots and clothes
• 15,000 children and adolescents benefitted from psycho-social support and recreation activities at 180 Child Friendly Spaces
• Approximately 500,000 primary school children received learning materials
•  595 schools were repaired and 50 temporary learning spaces were established
• 81,000 children aged 6 to 59 months and 11,000 pregnant women and lactating mothers received one-week’s emergency rations of high-energy biscuits
• 10,500 children aged 9 to 11 months were immunised against measles
• Over 500,000 people, including an estimated 233,347 children, gained access to water, sanitation and hygiene initiatives which helped contain any major outbreaks of waterborne diseases. 

UNICEF's Aila response was carried out in partnership with: several Government Departments such as the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) and the Central Medicine Store; NGOs including Oxfam, NGO Forum, Concern Worldwide, Save the Children (UK, USA and Australia), Action Aid and Society Development Agency (SDA).

Pandemic (H1N1) influenza

What is happening?
Since the first case of pandemic influenza, or ‘swine flu’, was identified in June 2009, there have been 840 diagnosed cases and six deaths from H1N1 in Bangladesh (as of March 2010). However, it is estimated that many more people have been infected with the virus than have been officially detected. 

How has UNICEF responded?
UNICEF has worked in close collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh, particularly by providing technical and financial support to its communication response to pandemic influenza. 

In response to the initial outbreak, UNICEF developed an emergency communications strategy. Materials such as banners, posters and leaflets were used to raise awareness at all ports of entry and at railway, bus and launch terminals, particularly during the Eid and Puja religious festivals. More than 2 million leaflets, 150,000 posters and 225 large format banners about H1N1 were printed and disseminated with UNICEF support. The Government has since requested UNICEF to review and update the national communication strategy for pandemic and avian influenza, a process which is being finalised.

Other activities include:

• Using interactive popular theatre to raise awareness. Close to 200 script writers in all 8 divisions of the country, including seven indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, developed scripts during 2009. A total of 48 scripts in as many dialects were developed.
• Disseminating information at grassroots level through existing UNICEF projects, reaching almost 20 million people. For example, 10,000 community hygiene promoters received orientation on pandemic flu and then integrated these messages into their existing tea stall sessions and courtyard meetings.
• Using the mass media to create awareness, through TV announcements and drafting simple swine flu prevention messages for newspapers and radio.
• Developing a partnership with Bangladesh’s leading mobile phone provider, Grameenphone, which sent out 7 million SMS on  H1N1 to their subscribers
• Providing 30,000 protection masks and 100,000 surgical masks to the Director-General Health Service for distribution.
• Working with faith-based organisations to develop a sermon booklet containing four Friday sermons on avian and pandemic flu. The key message was to promote handwashing with soap before prayer. More than 2500 imams attended a national conference on integrating influenza messages into their sermons.

Cyclone Sidr

What happened?
On the evening of 15 November 2007, Cyclone Sidr – a category four cyclonic storm – hit the low-lying and densely-populated coast of Bangladesh. The cyclone ravaged 30 southern districts in both Barisal and Khulna divisions. Hundreds perished as buildings collapsed in the 240 km per hour winds. Thousands of others drowned in tidal surges that were over 15 feet high in many villages.

The cyclone caused:

• 3,363 deaths
• 55,282 injured people
• 1.5 million damaged or destroyed homes
• 2.5 million acres of damaged cropland

Through loss of life, home and livelihood, the 8.9 million people affected by the cyclone continue to face lives of increased poverty.

UNICEF’s response
Immediately following the cyclone, UNICEF worked with Save the Children to establish 220 safe spaces where child victims received food and safe water and had access to psycho-social support and recreation.

UNICEF also provided a wide range of emergency supplies, including:

• Safe drinking water for over 100,000 families
• 1 million packets of oral rehydration solution to treat diarrhoea
• 100,000 blankets, 30,000 tarpaulins and 40,000 plastic sheets
• 99,000 winter jackets for children aged five and below
• Family kits – containing clothes, cooking utensils and basic household items – for 32,000 families

Longer-term support for cyclone victims has included:

• Materials and support to build 42 transitional schools, which can be used as cyclone shelters during future storms
• Construction of almost 30,000 latrines
• Nutritional supplements for more than 140,000 children and over 50,000 women
• Cash transfers and social support for 2000 orphaned and vulnerable children and their foster families.

Floods 2007

What happened?
In 2007, more than half of Bangladesh was seriously affected by monsoon flooding. Caused by excessive rainfall in catchment areas of Nepal, Bhutan and Northern Indian, floods in July and September affected 13.3 million people – 6 million of them children – in 46 districts.

The floods caused:

• 1,100 deaths (90 per cent of them children)
• 400,000 displaced people
• 1.1 million damaged or destroyed homes
• 162,000 cases of diarrhoea
• 2.2 million acres of damaged cropland

Many farmers lost their crops twice and were unable to replant.

UNICEF’s response
To restore access to safe water, UNICEF supported the construction of 853 new tubewells, the repair of 91,300 damaged wells, and distribution of over 4.3 million water purification tablets.

UNICEF also provided

• Plastic sheets and family kits – containing clothes, cooking utensils and basic household items – for 98,000 families
• Food supplements for 162,000 people
• Essential drugs for 250,000 people

During the floods UNICEF set up safe spaces that provided care and psychosocial support to 40,000 children. These children were able to continue their studies thanks to UNICEF’s emergency education kits.

Avian influenza

What is happening?
Periodic outbreaks of avian influenza or ‘bird flu’ in poultry have been a concern in Bangladesh since March 2007, when the first case of H5N1 virus was detected in birds. To contain the threat, the Government of Bangladesh had culled over 1.65 million birds in and around infected farms by January 2009.

In January 2008, a 16-month old boy contracted the H5N1 ‘bird flu’ virus. The boy was the first and only human case reported in Bangladesh. He survived.

Person to person transmission of avian influenza is not yet possible. Should this change, a human flu pandemic would be inevitable. The pandemic would threaten every aspect of children’s lives.

Spread of the virus has already compromised household economies and the nutritional status of women and children.

UNICEF’s response
In collaboration with the Government’s Department of Mass Communication, UNICEF works to educate local communities about the risks of avian influenza (AI) and encourage individuals to adopt safe behaviours to avoid transmission of the virus from animal to human.

Folk theatre groups tour the country to present music and plays on avian influenza. Folk songs and plays encourage people to wash their hands properly and observe other safe behaviours when handling birds, poultry meat and eggs.
 
AI protection messages are also included in a range of campaign and education materials:

• Rickshaws and vans equipped with megaphones announce health and safety advice in meat and poultry markets.
• Posters explain the dangers of AI to local people.
• AI training manuals provide poultry farmers with the knowledge to improve hygiene practices and reduce risks for livestock and humans.
• TV and radio spots on public and private channels encourage hand-washing and other safe behaviours.

UNICEF trains community hygiene promoters about the virus, so that they can include prevention messages in their hygiene education sessions. Health professionals, local administrators, community volunteers and Scout leaders have also received training.

UNICEF works with the Press Institute of Bangladesh to create awareness among journalists about the dangers of AI and their responsibility to provide accurate and timely information to the public.

UNICEF collaborates with the Government and other international agencies to control the virus and further prepare ministries, hospitals and the general public for a human pandemic.

Emergencies every day

In addition to major disasters, such as Cyclone Sidr, emergencies in Bangladesh are often on a relatively small scale. Localized flash floods, food shortages and violent storms are common. Whether the emergency effects hundreds or millions of people, women and children are always the most vulnerable.

Emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction are central to UNICEF’s everyday work in Bangladesh. Assistance varies dramatically depending on the crisis.

During an emergency, UNICEF provides support in several key areas:

Safe water and hygiene

Food and supplies

Education and protection

Participation of children

Participation of children

UNICEF seeks to empower children to speak out about the issues that concern them and participate in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.

Opinion poll
UNICEF conducted the first national Children’s Opinion Poll in 2005 to find out what issues most concern young people. The second national poll in 2008  focused on vulnerability, disparity, and discrimination. It specifically addressed corporal punishment and other abuses in schools, homes, and workplaces, children’s experiences in disasters, and the rights of children with disabilities.

Some key findings:

• 91 per cent of respondent children reported experiencing physical punishment at school.
• 80 per cent of children thought that physical punishment at school was acceptable in certain circumstances.
• 16 per cent of respondent children have had to leave their home in the last five years due to a natural disaster.
• While only 1.4 per cent of households included a child with a disability, 90 per cent of respondent children knew about disability and were able to list different types of disability and problems faced by children with disabilities.

Child journalists
UNICEF works with children in every district of Bangladesh as part of Children’s Express , a news agency dedicated to children and youth. Children receive training in child rights, news writing, interviewing and reporting. Their work is printed in local and national newspapers. In 2008, Children’s Express trained 670 young journalists who contributed 390 group reports on child rights issues and 261 individual features to local and national newspapers.

Children in the media
UNICEF collaborates with various media agencies to advocate for children’s participation and children’s rights.

• UNICEF trains journalists on children’s issues and ethical reporting.
• Television and radio stations broadcast programmes both about children and for child viewers. Two TV stations in Bangladesh have won awards for the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting  in recent years.
• UNICEF sponsors the Meena Media Awards  for excellence in media programmes and writing, produced about children, for children or by children.
• UNICEF supports the International Children’s Film Festival Bangladesh, which promotes quality films for children and supports child filmakers.
• UNICEF supports the national public radio and television stations, and numerous private channels, to produce and air edutainment programmes for children.
• UNICEF also works with the Department of Mass Communication to promote children’s issues through folk theatre and song, and films screenings in local communities, followed by public discussions and courtyard meetings.

At a Glance

UUNICEF currently working on Bangladesh at Education, Health & Nutrition, Protection, Water, hygiene and sanitation, Emergencies Sectors also they arrange different kind of Participation program for Child Development & Child rights with government ministries, non-government organizations, UN agencies and a wide range of donors. Their partners are equally committed to solving the problems facing children in Bangladesh

As per above details from UUNICEF’s official website UNICEF working most of the major sectors at Bangladesh for child developments & child rights. UNICEF working at Bangladesh for child development, but need to confirm as their funding amount must be utilized properly. For this must be develop Special Investigation Team from their own account as their NGO partner utilize properly. And at the same time ensure child option at every sector.

(Continuing)

Thanks,

Masahedul Alam