Along with its partner organization, ActionAid Bangladesh is working at LRP-50 to enhance the status the child rights. Thus, during the celebration of Child Rights Week 2021, members of the Child Forum organized a Press Conference on 07th October at Press Club in their community. In the conference, the Forum members talked about violence against children, climate change, and child rights to convey their message to the government and relevant stakeholders. Shahina Parvin Seema, Vice Chairman at Kalapara as chief guest, and Humayun Kabir, President, Kalapara Press Club as chair was present at the press conference. In addition, Rahima Sultana Kazal, Executive Director, AVAS; Taslima Akther, Officer of Upzilla Women Affairs; Md. Idris Alam, Program Officer, One-Stop Crisis Cell (OCC), and journalists from different national and local newspapers were also present at the conference.
The children at LRP-50 shared that education is one of the basic rights. However, during the coronavirus pandemic, many children in this area could not be able to join online classes since they do not have access to smart devices. On the other hand, many families faced a financial crisis due to pandemics. Besides, due to ongoing development projects, Payra Sea Port and the Electronic power project, there are many outsiders in the working area that creates social insecurity for girls Therefore, to save their children from starvation and for security, many parents opted for marriage for their girl children that increase the threat of child marriage in the community. The Child Forum members have demanded that along with the implementation of the law to stop the early marriage, children should get enabled environment to express their experiences and opinions.
They also highlighted that their area is one of the disaster-prone areas. And the intensity of disasters is increasing day by day due to climate change. They shared that in recent times, their community continuously faced the challenges of cyclones, drought, and salinity compared to earlier days. The rights of children are often ignored during disasters. Therefore, to save the future nation of the world, we must work together to save the earth. They have demanded tree plantation and take steps to decrease the level of black smoke created from vehicles and factories. They also asked for necessary repair and if requires building a new strong dam to protect their areas during the time of disaster.
In the Conference, the representatives of Child Forum members at LRP-50, have called to increase and develop a child-friendly budget at every level of local and nationals to establish the rights of every child and ensure the protection of everyone. At the end of the conference, Asamoni (10) shared, “I gave the welcome speech on behalf of our Child Forum. First, I was a little bit nervous, but when I thought I was sharing our suffering and claiming our rights, I felt confident. I want to work for the people of our community to bring change”.
