Strict compliance with health protocol can fight back Corona -19 spread amid its second wave

Strict compliance with health protocol can fight back Corona -19 spread amid its second wave

Dr. Zeenat Sultana, Program Director, BCCP  Published Version

Combat Covid-19 pathogen spread become a global challenge, it is the virus’s extraordinary capacity of mutation causing serious concern. The virus is transmitted in communities either directly by the air from an infected person’s airways, mouth or nose to a recipient’s eyes, nose or mouth, or by the virus contaminating an object or surface that is touched by a recipient. World Health Organization (WHO) conclude, it will never go for ever but will remain as a seasonal flu.

Since March 8, 2020 when the first Covid -19 case was identified in Bangladesh the number of both cases and deaths due to pandemic varies with rise and fall; but since March, 2021 Bangladesh has been witnessing fresh spike of Covid-19 pathogen, and the rate of infection has gone up as well as number of Covid-19 deaths.

However, it is worth noted that in consideration to very high population density of Bangladesh the number of infections and death has been relatively low, yet not been dreadful as many feared initially.
Situation demands an urgent necessity to improve our ability for adapting mechanism to deal with this risk situation. Strict compliance with health protocol and engaging community for risk communication is now essential to stop spread of this virus. We now need of effective interventions to increase adherence to hygiene behaviors on cough antiquate, use of face masks as appropriate, hand-washing on all occasions, physical distancing, and not touching one’s eyes, nose or mouth. The campaign on safety measures against Covid-19 infection and building capacity of the frontline fighters need to be geared up that requires critical role of social and behavior change professionals to play.

Increase awareness and practice: what to do?
Promotion of recommended hygiene practices, and community engagement for risk communication need involvement of different sectors and stakeholders, and implementation of evidence based multi-prong transmedia behavior communication interventions.

Mental health is another important area that need immediate attention. Due to pandemic both formal sector jobs and informal works become squeezed resulting in compromise in income; besides mostly keep confiding at home and the fear of infection all together make people likely to feel mental health pressure and face loss of psychological well-being.

At the start of the pandemic COVID-19, social and behavior change communication professionals are engaged into crafting programs, messages, and tools to help fight the spread of the virus and inform the public about how to keep themselves safe.

The messages on safety measure and risk communication for promoting social normative change and health behaviors need to be woven into the storylines to show the benefit for triggering social and behavior change. The programs have to reach the key target audiences in both urban and rural areas through community outreach and interpersonal communication (IPC) activities. The interventions have to produce tools, materials and implement program for: proper hygiene technique, reduction of stigma, community engagement for risk reduction, enforcement of safe environment, and strengthening capacity of the frontline workers for right use of the tools and materials.

There are many actors whose involvement is crucial to limiting the transmission COVID-19. These include governments and non- government organizations, factory and other business owners, media, law enforcement group and community groups. Their role and decisions they make have far-reaching effects on prevention of virus transmission and of the measures taken to control it, hence they should be an integral part of awareness building intervention.

What to consider for community intervention during Covid-19 pandemic?
• Plan for a range of activities to reach urban ,rural and hard to reach community and continue to assess risks;
• Coordinate with all relevant actors and stakeholders;
• Utilize all ‘windows of opportunities’ to increase coverage ;
• Engage with communities throughout the response;
• Acknowledge and address other needs;
• Encourage community level action;
• Increasing access to information on COVID-19 using culturally appropriate channels incl uding interactive shows using local media.

What to do for enable behavior in difficult circumstances of Covid -19?
One of the most important and effective interventions in public health response is to proactively communicate what is known, what is unknown and what is being done to get more information for saving lives and minimizing adverse consequences.
• Clearly define behaviors;
• Make guidance relevant to the context and population;
• Address the barriers to behavior;
• Need to be more creative to get people’s attention.

Risk Communication: key issues to consider for Covid-19
• Active engagement of the community decision makers and gatekeepers, community based organization and youth volunteers for internal and partner coordination.
• Engaging local media to increase exposure of risk communication messages for the community people for public communication.
• Working with local talents, religious and community leaders to disseminate key information on COVID-19.
• Use of community resource for installation of hand-washing station in public places with running water and soap.
• Promote hand-washing technique, face mask wearing and social distancing.
• Community surveillance to ensure maintenance of social distancing, use of face musk, avoid social gathering and crowded environments in public place.
• Address mental health and psychological support to cope with new normal situation.
• Community support system for the vulnerable, marginalized community.
• Address gender based violence, stigma and rumor.

Capacity strengthening of frontline workers
• Capacity building of staff and community groups on tools and guidelines.
• Ensure monitoring and follow-up mechanism.
• Regular dialogues with targeted community groups on COVID-19 related risks and prevention behaviors.

The success of preventing spread of virus mostly depend on strict compliance with health protocol - that is adapting few simple personal hygiene behaviors which to a great extent, depends on the awareness, knowledge and perception of people about the disease, and its mode of transmission where awareness intervention has a great role to play.

Continue generating local evidences on tobacco control

Continue generating local evidences on tobacco control

Published Version

Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) and Bangladesh Tobacco Control Research Network (BTCRN) in collaboration with the Institute for Global Tobacco Control based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), Baltimore, USA organized a daylong Research Findings Dissemination Conference on Tobacco Control on March 22, 2021 at CIRDAP International Conference Center, Dhaka. The findings of the eight research projects were presented in the conference through two scientific sessions.

Situational Analysis of E-cigarette Usage in Bangladesh has found that the trend of e-cigarettes smoking has rapidly increased especially among the youth population in Bangladesh since last five years. Hence, the study recommended banning of e-cigarette immediately to protect the youths from the harmful consequences of e-cigarette smoking. Another study on Designated Smoking Areas (DSA) in the Restaurants revealed that the level of compliances in designing and managing the DSAs in the restaurants is significantly low. It was observed that the DSAs were not protecting non-smokers from the secondhand smoke effectively. Evidence was also found that, in some cases, the DSAs were sponsored by the tobacco industries. Therefore, Government should not allow DSA in any restaurants. One more study titled Demystifying Tobacco Industry Interferences to Undermine Graphic Health Warning Implementation in Bangladesh reflected evidence of TI interferences that may impact in the formulation of future tobacco control policies and rules and regulations. Such TI interferences should be exposed more frequently so that Government could take necessary measure to stop them.

In the opening session of the conference, National Professor Dr. Brig. (Rtd.) Abdul Malik, President, National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh, and Advisor, Bangladesh Tobacco Control Research Network chaired the inaugural program while Ms. Kazi Zebunnessa Begum, Additional Secretary (WH Wing), Health Services Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was present as the Chief Guest. In addition, Prof. Dr. Shah Monir Hossain, former Director General, DGHS; Prof. Dr. Mohammad Robed Amin, Line Director, Non-Communicable Diseases Control, Directorate General of Health Services; Prof. Dr. Md. Ruhul Amin, Director, Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC); Dr. Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh, Deputy Head, WHO Bangladesh Country Office; and Dr. Joanna Cohen, Director, Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Baltimore, USA attended the opening session of the conference as Guests of Honor. With his opening remarks, Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan, Director and CEO of BCCP, kicked off the discussions.

MoHFW formally introduced the Leadership and Coordination course

MoHFW formally introduced the Leadership and Coordination course:first ever of such course is introduced in the HPN fields

Published Version

Resulting Ujjiban’s 3-day Leadership and Coordination course as were conducted for the high-level MoHFW along with its unit level officials in 2019, the ministry requested Ujjiban for developing a Leadership and Coordination course compatible to the district and upazila level HPN officials through a cascaded model of curriculum and conduct ToT for the MoHFW and Directorate officials on this curriculum. The objective of developing such a curriculum was to enhance leadership and coordination skill of the District and Upazila level GoB officials working in the HPN fields. As HPN program response and acceptance requires people’s support and their participation, it has been envisaged that enhancement of these skills will lead to effectively engaging community, attaining their support and create a sense of ownership for the HPN programs.

Ujjiban developed this curriculum and submitted to the MoHFW for approval. The National SBCC Steering Committee Chaired by the Secretary, HSD, MoHFW and Co-chaired by the Secretary, ME & FWD in its 2nd meeting approved the curriculum on October 20, 2020.

BCCP is carrying out developing a set of materials to create community awareness on protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) in the Rohingya Camps in Cox’s Bazar. The materials will be adopted and developed in English, Bengali and Rohingya Language targeting 4 major types of audiences of adults both women and men, children and parents, people with disability and influential of the Rohingya community.
With this approval the MoHFW issued an office circular for the MoHFW and directorate level HPN officials including few other allied ministry level officials to take part in this 2-day residential ToT to hold on March 3-4, 2021 at BRAC, CDM, Savar with USAID Ujjiban SBCC project’s technical assistance.

Participants:
Following the plan this ToT was participated by 26 Ministry and Directorate level GoB officials represents MoHFW, MoI, MoRA, MoA including the units of DGHS and DGFP.

The curriculum has 10 sessions on the Leadership and Coordination issues delineated for 2 days formal session during March 3-4, 2021 while this residential ToT planned to convene on the prior night of the March 2 to meet in an informal introduction session.

Curriculum Methodology and facilitator:

In the curriculum as well as the ToT followed the Reflection, Discussion and Synthesis (RDS) as the overall methods while particular methodology followed throughout the formal sessions includes: - Open and plenary discussions
- Question-answer
- Multi-media presentation
- Card writing
- Group/individual work
- Group/individual presentations.

An expert facilitator group of 5 persons facilitated sessions those includes:
- Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan, CEO, BCCP
- Dr. Zeenat Sultana, Acting CoP, Ujjiban
- Mr. Shafiqur Rahman, Project Integration Advisor, Ujjiban
- Mr. Belal Uddin, Advisor, CM, Ujjiban
- Mr. Dipak K Mazumder, SCS, Ujjiban.

Observations during the 2-day working sessions:
ToT participants found very much engaged and participatory during the working sessions throughout two days. They proactively participated in open discussion, question-answer, card writing and group/individual presentations. Although the levels of participants range from the Assistant Director up to the Additional Secretary levels but that does not bring any impediments in the participation while discussing, questioning, group working or presenting.

Participants comments and commitments as next step:

- This course has largely capacitated them individually and encouraged them to practice Leadership and Coordination in their respective workplaces to deliver better for the program, community and country as a whole.
- The cascaded model of the curriculum and the training will benefit any development program including the HPN fields. Now follow-up actions are required to mobilize respective units planning for further ToT/Training.
- Ujjiban can consider providing this ToT for few more groups which will increase the possibility of allocating OP fund for the ToT/Training in the respective units.
- The formation of the SBCC Coordination Committees will uniquely be rotated with the Leadership practices once the District and Upaila level officials could have provided with this Leadership and Coordination training.
- The course contents, methodology, management and the facilitation were conducted in a planned and effective manner. Trainees of this course can follow these while they also organize such training.

Closing Remarks:

Mr. Nitish Chandra Sarker, Additional Secretary, ME & FWD, MoHFW attended the closing session as Chief Guest. He underscored the need of the Leadership and Coordination training for the HPN fields as people’s support and their ownership through community mobilization and community engagement are most expected in the Health, Population and Nutrition programs. He lastly hoped this curriculum and course will be undertaken by respective units as regular program intervention.

Eliminate child labor for a better future:

Eliminate child labor for a better future:
a common view expressed by the researcher and program experts

A three episodes radio program revealed with a common view that child labor in the dry fish sector should have been eliminated if we want to let children have a better future and our role to play on it. Program and communication experts, researchers and celebrities attended these radio programs which was also added with entertainment elements broadcast during February-March 2021 period.

“There are at least 12,000 women, 8,500 men and 2,500 children involved in dried fish processing work of Cox’s Bazar. Around 14,366 workers were employed there. Of them, 2,876, that is 20 per cent, were children, 63 per cent were women, and the rest were men. Among the children, 59 per cent were aged between 14 and 17. Girls outnumbered boys among the child workers, comprising 72 per cent of the child labor there. During the research, 461 children were interviewed.” Said by Professor Doctor Abul Hossain, Economics Department, University of Chittagong, lead researcher of this study under CLIMB project of Winrock International.

He was one of discussant of a live talk show jointly organized by BCCP & Radio Today.

Besides Professor Doctor Abul Hossain the other discussants those took
part in the 1st episode of radio programs, they were:
1. Mr. A H M Zaman Khan
Project Director, CLIMB Project, Winrock International
2. Mr. Md. Tanvir Sharif
Civic Engagement & Capacity Development Specialist
CLIMB Project, Winrock International
3. Mr. Abu Hasib Mostafa Jamal
Team Leader, Media & Communication Team of CLIMB Project
Assistant Director (Program), BCCP

Dr. Zeenat Sultana, a public health and communication experts works in BCCP as Program Director also attended the 2rd episodes of the program.The 1st & 3rd radio episodes program were live talk show aired by Radio Today also streamed by their official Facebook page, and the 2nd episode program was entertainment education program, aired by Radio Today 89.6 FM. Jointly organized by BCCP and Radio Today on February 11, 2021, (1st episode) February 28, 2021 (2nd episode) and March 21, 2021 (3rd episode) and all aired at 9.00 P.M.

Child labor is an obstacle to the physical, mental and social development of a child. Every child has the right to grow up in healthy atmosphere where they can get all the facilities to cherish his childhood. With this belief, BCCP has been working since long to ensure a healthy and better future for children through its different program interventions related to child rights, protection, education, health, nutrition etc.

Currently BCCP has been working to eliminate child labor and promoting an admissible work condition for the children working in the Dried Fish Sector (DFS) of Bangladesh with the support from U. S. Department of Labor through WINROCK International under Child Labor Improvements in Bangladesh (CLIMB) Project. The overall goal of this project is to reduce Child Labor (CL) and increase acceptable conditions of work in DFS of southeast part of Bangladesh.

BCCP has been transmitting information/stories related to CL and Force Child Labor (FCL) in the country’s DFS and promote admissible work conditions for children by reaching CSOs, media people, and stakeholders. BCCP has been facilitating media people to contribute to the dried fish sector to address the lack of information and to identify the issues and problems.

In this connection, BCCP is working with this popular platform - ‘FM Radio'. The Radio Today was the selected FM Radio who jointly organized this program with BCCP with a slogan: ‘সুন্দর আগামীর জন্য শিশুশ্রম নিরসন’ In English it is: “Eliminate child labor for a better future”.

Focus of the discussion for episode-1:

• Scenario of child labor in dried fish sector of Bangladesh based from research data
• Importance of media & communication to reduce child labor in dried fish sector of Bangladesh

Link for episode – 1: Click Here to Show

Focus of the discussion for episode-2:

• Health hazard of working children in dried fish sector of Bangladesh
• Mental health hazard of working children in dried fish sector of Bangladesh

Link for episode – 2: Click Here to Show


Focus of the discussion for episode-3:

• Capacity building of CSOs and their ripple effect to reduce child labor
• Importance to connect and mentor the media & Journalist’s to reduce CL in DFS

Meeting the Future Leaders

Meeting the Future Leaders

As part of the continuous endeavor to empower students to become good citizens & leaders as well as promote a peaceful society by acquiring tolerance management and life skills, BCCP with the help of Information Support Team (IST) of U.S. Embassy have successfully conducted 15 theme-based workshops in 5 batches. Participants from University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Rajshahi College & nominated police members from Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) have attended the workshop titled "Student Leadership Development Workshops" under the project of “Rajshahi Student & Police Engagement ̶ Student Leadership Development Workshops”. The Student Leadership Development Workshops in Rajshahi started in last week of January 2021 and continued till the 2nd week of March 2021.
The presence of the honorable Police Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), Mr. Abu Kalam Siddique as Chief Guest made the event more enchanting. Team members of IST have attended the workshop multiple times and provided their useful guideline. SLDW team were very lucky as the honorable U.S. Ambassador His Excellency Earl R. Miller graced the occasion with his presence in the inaugural session of the workshop of the 5th batch. It was also our pleasure to have the Director & CEO of BCCP Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan in the SLD workshop on multiple occasions. Besides, members of The International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), representatives from RMP, workshop educators, previous SLD leaders, journalists, team members of BCCP and other stakeholders attended the workshop as well.

Currently there are more youth then there are adults in our country, so the youth must have an active role in peace building. While the number of young people is overwhelming, it is ironic that their contributions to build a peaceful society is mostly ignored. Therefore, to make the youth more responsible in their duties Student Leadership Development Workshops were carried out to foster a positive change among the youths and make them the future leaders.

Team BCCP was overwhelmed from the support they got from the participants throughout the workshop. This workshop has taught everyone important issues like patriotism, inter-faith dialogue, public speaking, role of youth in community development, community resiliency, policing in Bangladesh and important life skill lessons and hopefully by capitalizing on this knowledge, they will become the future leaders.

DIMAPPP Wins World Bank Award

DIMAPPP Wins World Bank Award

The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) has won the World Bank's Directors Award for Most Innovative, Collaborative and Impactful Governance Global Practice Operations for its "Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP)".
The CPTU of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division under the Planning Ministry has been implementing DIMAPPP since July 1, 2017 with support from the World Bank. The development objective of the DIMAPP Project is to improve public procurement performance and enhance capacity for implementation monitoring of development programs/projects. Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) has been providing social awareness and communication service to CPTU in popularizing Public Procurement Rules 2008 (PPR-2008) and Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) and bring shift in the mindset of the stakeholders in the country since 2009. Currently BCCP is implementing Behavior Change Communication (BCC) component of DIMAPPP.

“This communication component has a direct impact

“This communication component has a direct impact on achieving our development objective.”

Ms. Swarna Kazi, Task Team Leader, Special Guests, The World Bank

As the Communication and Awareness Consultancy Service (CAS) Team of Emergency Multi Sector Rohingya Crisis Response Project (EMCRP), BCCP organized a half-day long Sharing and Endorsement meeting on the Communication Strategy was organized to discuss the various components of the strategy, receive feedback on the strategy and action plan; and endorse the strategy through stakeholder input. The workshop held on February 02, 2021, 10.30 am -12.30 pm. through Zoom platform.

Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP) has been awarded as Communication and Awareness Consultancy Service (CAS) to complement and strengthen capacity of LGED and DPHE to undertake Behavioral Change Communications (BCC), develop and implement an integrated communication strategy under the EMCRP project, being implemented by Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). EMCRP is a World Bank financed development project.

The objective of the EMCRP Communication and Awareness Strategy is to create awareness by sharing timely, relevant, and consistent information through effective media to persuade people to take part in beneficial responses; and promote enabling skills, social cohesion, and conducive community environment so that people can act.

Specific objectives are to:  Implement a robust communication strategy to generate awareness and motivate the Displaced Rohinga People (DRP) to be engaged in activities to benefit from the project interventions.
 Facilitate two-way communication, engagement, and consultations with key stakeholders, including the DRP, host communities, religious leaders, civil society, and other government & non-government agencies.
 Complement and strengthen the implementing agency (LGED and DPHE) capacity to undertake BCC.
 Inform the affected communities, including the host community regarding the necessity and the benefits of project interventions with a focus on maintaining social cohesion and address potential resistance and mitigate any evolving risk of opposition.
 Create broad-based consensus for the project intervention.

The strategic approaches have suggested how the communication objectives will be achieved and provide the guideline to plan specific activities.

At the opening of the workshop Mr. Mohammad Shahjahan, Director & CEO, BCCP welcomed the attendees and mentioned the nature of the work of BCCP. He also mentioned the key points of the strategy, the theory and the model followed to develop the strategy. Mr. Shahjahan requested the workshop participants to observe the presentation of the Team Leader, CAS on strategy and also requested to share their opinion.

As a special guest Ms. Swarna Kazi, Task Team Leader, Special Guests, The World Bank termed the context of funding by World Bank to this issue. In her speech, she shared the objective of EMCRP project. She mentioned “This communication component is an excellent initiative under this project. We see this as a fundamental element of our work. Which has a direct impact on achieving our development objective.”

As a special guest, Mr. Mohammad Shamsud Douza, Additional Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (Deputy Secretary) mentioned that at Cox’s Bazar the activities of this project are ongoing at a satisfactory level.

Mr. Javed Karim, Project Director, Special Guests of this workshop mentioned that BCCP is trying to continue the work even in COVID 19 situations. He advised sharing the minutes of this workshop with all participants.

As a special guest, Ms. Mehrin Ahmed Mahbub, Senior External Affairs Officer, The World Bank says that the language of Messages/Materials and Street Drama should be Rohingya for the DRP and Local for the Host Community. She expects the rehearsal of street drama will bring an excitement. She recommended to keep a scope to adjust the strategy as needed.
The chief guest Mr. Md. Ali Akhtar Hossain, Additional Chief Engineer (Water Resources Unit), LGED declared formally the opening of this workshop. In his speech, the chief guest expressed his happiness to know that this strategy has developed based on research findings. He hopes a long way in reaching the objectives of the project.
Ms. Khadija Bilkis, Team Leader, EMCRP/BCCP made a presentation at the meeting on the communication strategy. There were 30 participants from different stakeholder group and professionals working with DRP.

We need to build healthy people to build healthy nation

We need to build healthy people to build healthy nation through quality health services by improved behavior of the service providers

Mr. Zahid Maleque MP, Minister, MoHFW

An HPN Best Practice share fair event was held on March 08, 2021 in the Zoom virtual platform. This event was participated by 15 government and non-government organizations who are working in the HPN fields to share their Best practice/Success Stories that demonstrates an improvement in designing, implementing and administering for a result that have gone through a recognized process of selection and these are documented with evidence of improvement. There were pre-set criterions for submission as a Best Practice/success Story and key points includes;

 Advance a practice through innovation, solve a problem and/or meet a defined need which requires to be evidence-based that followed an established communication theory, model and process.
 Be replicable and/or adaptable in Bangladesh context and cost-efficient. Also, to show the impact and demonstrate sustainability.
 Best Practice can be about one of the themes as; SBCC related case studies, research, lessons learned, materials, broader adoption, effective use of theories and models, pilot program, etc.
Following the government circular, the submission of these organizations was grouped in four categories as ICT and Innovation, Media Campaign, Community Engagement & Support System and Advocacy. The organizations with their activity title under these four categories were as below:
• ICT and Innovation
1. Distance-Based Learning: Building Field Workers Capacity: IEM Unit, DGFP
2. OSMA: Automation of HPN SBCC Materials Approval: USAID Ujjiban SBCC Project
3. Ensuring safe pregnancies through customized SMS reminders: USAID’s MaMoni Maternal and Newborn Care Strengthening Project, Save the Children
4. AGAMI: ‘dekhi-suni-boli’ a communication job aid: BBC Media Action, Bangladesh
5. 24/7 Call Centre: Role in SBCC on SRH: Marie Stopes, Bangladesh
• Media Campaign
1. Nutrition is Prosperity: National Nutrition Services (NNS), IPHN, DGHS
2. 'Niharbanu' a well-liked drama serial of ‘Sukhi Sangshar: Bangladesh Betar
3. Behavior change initiative improved nutritional status of pregnant women: Nutrition International (NI)
4. “Change of Lifestyle Promote Healthy Life”: Lifestyle, Heath Education & Promotion and Bureau of Health Education, DGHS

• Community Engagement & Support System
1. Multipurpose Health Volunteer: reaching the grassroots’ community: Community Based Health Care unit, DGHS
2. Mother Support Group- a pave to improve of Maternal and Child Nutrition: Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation (BBF)
3. Delaying childbearing of newly married couples: USAID funded Shukhi Jibon project
4. Primary Health Care Services Close to the Community: Population Service & Training Center (PSTC)
• Advocacy,
1. Successfully creating next generation tobacco control researchers: Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP)
2. Involvement of social institutions: improve hand washing practices Collective Impact for Nutrition: CARE Bangladesh.
All these submissions were made and submitted in pre-recorded video played on serially followed by announcement by category as mentioned above.


With the technical assistance from the Ujjiban SBCC Project, the Health Service Division of the MoHFW organized this event by issuing a government circular inviting entire GO, NGOs and Development Partners to participate this share fair event in the Zoom virtual platform on March 08, 2021 at 12:30 P.M. A total of 131 spectator/viewer from different GO/NGO/DPs attended this event while a number of 199 persons had been registered. The event was jointly facilitated by Mr. Md. Amanullah, Assistant Director, NNS, DGHS and Ms. Ishrat Jabeen, Population Communication Officer, DGFP.
The event was graced as Chief Guest by the Minister, MoHFW Mr. Zahid Maleque MP and was Presided over by Mr. Nitish Chandra Sarker, Additional Secretary, ME & FWD, MoHFW. The occasion was also attended as Special Guest by Mr. Md. Abdul Mannan, Secretary, HSD, MoHFW and Md. Ali Noor, Secretary, ME & FWD, MoHFW.
At the beginning Ms. Nilufar Nazeen, Joint Secretary, PH, MoHFW made an address of welcome along with describing the objective of the event followed by the inauguration of the event was declared by the Minister, MoHFW Mr. Zahid Maleque MP. Following the inauguration, the Special Guests made their greeting remarks.

In his speech as Special Guests, Mr. Md. Abdul Mannan, Secretary, HSD, MoHFW termed the sharing of Best Practices will promote healthy lifestyle and practice oriented program interventions to undertake in the HPN fields. He said that we have many good practices to highlight so that good examples of the health field could have brought forward. He thanked the government and non-government organizations and the development partners to take part and participate in this share fair. He also thanked USAID-Ujjiban SBCC Project to provide their technical assistance in organizing this event.

In his greeting remarks Mr. Md. Ali Noor, Secretary, ME & FWD, MoHFW expressed his happiness that this eMela could have been organized amid the current difficult situation. He mentioned that capitalizing the advantage of ICT, the eToolkit and eLearning courses could have been brought to the community to provide health and family planning information. He termed the categorization of 15 Best practices in to four groups as a good strategy and also labeled this virtual event as a step forward towards Digital Bangladesh.

As Chief Guest of the event, the Minister, MoHFW Mr. Zahid Maleque MP opined to have this SBCC Best Practice event as a good effort to conduct through virtual medium. He told that our health system, specially combatting the Covid-19, have been a great success led by the Prime Minister. Our health service delivery system could have been improved and sustained with the improved behavior of the service providers. We need to build healthy people to build healthy nation through quality health services by improved behavior of the service providers. We need to provide ANC, PNC, Safe Delivery, Nutritional Information, denouncing Child Marriage and intake of balanced food to the people and community. He mentioned that Covid-19 has again started rising and reminded everyone to wear mask, wash hands and maintain social distancing.

There was a good level of interactions took place between the spectator/viewers with the organizers and amongst the spectator/viewers. Except few technical interruptions, which becomes very common in the virtual events, the general views of the spectator/viewers were that the organization of the virtual event along with its facilitation, video presentation and the Best Practice topics were well planned and conducted in efficient manner. They also termed this event becomes a good source of learning. The announcement of virtual stalls displaying the SBCC materials along with the presentations made in this event by respective participating organizations drawn-up attention of the spectator/viewers. It is expected that the digital stall will be visited by a large number of people beyond today’s spectator/viewers.

Mr. Nitish Chandra Sarker, Additional Secretary, ME & FWD, MoHFW made his closing remarks by saying that SBCC approaches is an important issue in the HPN fields to provide unified, integrated and consistent information to the people and community and involve individual as well as the community to practice model health behavior. The SBCC of the MoHFW is following the comprehensive SBCC strategy and its framework will supplement the government and non-government organizations in their SBCC efforts. He acknowledged USAID-Ujjiban SBCC Project for their technical support and thanked all participating organization and the event attendees for their great presentations and participation in the event.
Youtube link of HPN Best practice eMagazine video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jv-fnpVKXA

BCCP STAR OF THE MONTH

BCCP STAR OF THE MONTH

In continuation with staff members recognition for their commendable performance distinguishing them as “BCCP Star of the Month”, three more BCCP Stars have been awarded during January to March, 2021 quarter.

Md. Mohsin, Administrative Officer (BCCP Star of the month for January 2021)
Mr. Mohsin is the Administrative Officer of BCCP goes beyond his assigned job for the better result to attain for the organization. He always displays a welcoming attitude while staff goes to him and remains very caring to perform any additional responsibility. He termed as a dependable person while any organizational events were organized. He is a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies. Reciting from holy QuerAan is his passions.

Mr. Abu Mohammad Nur Khan, Facility Care Assistant (BCCP Star of the month for February 2021)

Mr. Abu Mohammad Nur Khan, Facility Care Assistant of BCCP is known to all as a ‘Smiling service provider’. He used to undertake higher responsibility and established his image as good record-keeper for admn. and financial documents. As a quick service provider, he is also recognized as a responsible person who deliver jobs with the quality and trustworthiness. Personally, he is a pious person.


Mr. Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Finance and Admin Coordinator, BTRF “A sister organization of BCCP” (BCCP Star of the month for March 2021

Mr. Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Finance and Admin Coordinator, BTRF is providing his extended service on Finance & Admin issues for all the sister organizations of BCCP. His financial analysis and reporting out of the head and quickly bringing up financial reports is really extraordinary. His expertise in designing and implementing systems to achieve financial discipline is adding value to the organization. He is a Master’s in accounting.

SAMCS Success Story

Ershad Hossen: An Inspiring Family Planning Inspector

by Laboni Rahman

Ershad Hossen is a Family Planning Inspector (FPI) at the Jangolkhain Union Health and Family Welfare Center in Patiya upazila of Chattogram district. Ershad has been an FPI for nearly eight years. In his role as an FPI, he mentors Family Welfare Assistants (FWAs) to provide better care to the community, conducts follow-up visits with patients to ensure that FWAs are providing services properly, tracks the status of pregnant women, and follows up on referred cases.

In 2019, he participated in the training on SBCC Activity Monitoring Checklist for Field Supervisor (SAMCS). The SAMCS app aims to strengthen monitoring of SBCC activities at the field level. The training provided field supervisors, like Ershad, with the technical knowledge to use the app and ensure that their staff are conducting SBCC activities as planned and that people in the community are receiving the services they are entitled to.


Having used the SACMS app for almost a year now, he appreciates the effectiveness of the app, how it is saving him and his team’s time from doing loads of paperwork, and how it is helping him to recognize the counseling needs of individual patients. “SAMCS is a fantastic application! The app has not only helped me to efficiently monitor the activities that are being done by the FWAs, but has also helped me to identify patients who need prompt counseling,” said Ershad.

He explained further , “For example, part of my role as an FPI is to visit households to cross-check with the number of visits listed in the app by FWAs. In the app, FWAs can enter more information about a pregnant woman than they were able to in their registers or paperwork,and the app also stores a client’s history. So, before making any monitoring visits to households, I prepare my counseling notes based on the detailed information about the client available in the app. While visiting the households, I can then counsel pregnant women to seek antenatal care, to eat local nutritious food, and to deliver in the clinics/hospitals for their and the health of their baby.”

Counselling clients while conducting monitoring visits is a voluntary work that Ershad is doing. He is dedicated to the well-being of the people in his community and takes every opportunity to reach out to them directly. “Every eight out of ten pregnant mothers that I have counselled so far, have ended up visiting health clinics for check-ups and institutional delivery. This change in their behavior – from learning information to seeking services and more information – is an achievement for me,” said Ershad.

Photo Credit: Saira Nadnin/ USAID Ujjiban SBCC Project

Editorial

Editorial: Prepare for new normal situation with risk communication and community engagement

We know how acutely the Covid-19 have again been appeared with its second wave associated with a record number of daily deaths counts and infection rates. Public health experts are very much concerned about the unsafe and unhealthy behavior and practices of people remains uncared about using face mask, maintain social distancing and washing hands. In this situation communication for community awareness and promotion for increased household knowledge to inform and mobilize individuals practicing required health behavior. This will bring about a collective model of health behavior which is expected to become a social norm. Two major communication intervention can really draw peoples’ attention about their behavior measures to undertake in this situation in reducing the curse of Covid-19 effects and safe return to their social and economic life. This communication has been clustered as community engagement for ‘Risk Communication’ and social responses for the ‘New Normal’ situation. Risk communication and community engagement is a critical component of the response to any infectious disease outbreak. What this looks like depends very much on the context and the disease in question: it could range from targeted TV and radio campaigns to social mobilization in which staff having face to face discussions with community members at their doorsteps, all the way through to large mass and social media campaigns, sponsorship of public events that help describe the risks of catching a particular disease and how to protect ourselves. Community engagement is the process of supporting communities to consider themselves as partners in an outbreak response, and to have ownership in controlling an outbreak.

Governments and civil society leaders must help prepare the population for the "new normal" after the lockdown period because "business as usual" is no longer an option. We need to think of new ways to reorganize life, economy and society to ensure that people can live full lives with their wellbeing assured. Physical distancing and other precautions, including sanitary measures, will be critically necessary until the vaccine is universally available to all. Mass media and community level campaigns with the support of communication materials can be an effective way preparing community to display required behavior in the New Normal situation.

Although health experts urge caution, governments are under extreme financial pressure to reopen their economies. Now, when these measures are prompting more people to venture outdoors and even gather in groups. Public health experts had a few suggestions on what the new normal might look like.

• Wearing a mask: Bangladesh mandated for mask-wearing termed as major intervention for infection prevention.
• Physical distancing: Measures and movement restrictions are effective in slowing the spread of the virus by limiting contact between people.
• Motivations not fines: Several studies show that people have been complying with coronavirus guidelines because they’re motivated – not because of threats.
• Vaccination and search for treatments: About 5.6 million people have already been vaccinated and we now need to speed up the mobilization of vaccines to cover greater number of people and attain collective immunity in the community.

In the backdrop of above situation, we really need to inform people at their accessible points of communication by considering the hard to reach people with repeated and multi-media approaches to undertake desired and standard behavior during and immediate after the Covid-19 situation. People requires motivations, participation and engagements – not only by forcing and penalizing. When people get mobilized understanding their own well-being will be ensured with these practices they will start practicing in their household and community. Once these behaviors come as a common practice a sustained social behavior will prevail in the community.

Lancet Article

Biden administration-The Lancet Report

 

Health as a foundation for society-The Lancet Report

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