In the closing ceremony of the National youth conference on family planning held on Wednesday, speakers called on spreading knowledge Family Planning to ensure the participation of youths in this issue. The conference was hosted by SERAC-Bangladesh and IYAFP in partnership with UNFPA Bangladesh, RHRN, UKAID, Jhpiego and Rtm.
Dr. Sathya Doraiswamy, Chief of Health, UNFPA, said, “We have been working in many countries across the world. I haven’t seen a conference on youths like this much. It’s necessary for youths to conduct the discussion on family planning. From this conference, we can find out those youths who can play the role in developing family planning issue.”
He also called on participants of the conference to become role model to stop child marriage and early motherhood.
Dr. AFM Motiur Rahman, executive director of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh, said that the family planning campaign in Bangladesh was started by Doctors. But now, Government, NGOs are working on this issue.
Actor Nirob Hossain said “We haven’t been taught on sex and reproduction from our family or educational institution.”
He thinks that the social barriers should be omited by the involvement of youths. He assured that he would cooperate in any type of activities regarding the family planning.
Mr. Taslim Uddin Khan, General Manager of SMC said that, no one should be married before the age 18, no baby should be conceived before age 20 and after age 35 and age difference between each child should be 3 years at least.
SERAC-Bangladesh’s executive director Mr. S M Shaikat hopes that, in future, this type of conference will be held and day by day, youths will participate more. On the closing ceremony of the conference, Mr. Shaikat handed over certificates to the participants.
The two days long national conference was participated by more than 300 participants. They had 6 plenary sessions and 7 parallel training session.
Apart from SERAC-Bangladesh, several national and international organizations such as RHRN, Health21, Ipass Bangladesh, IYAFP, DGFP, Merie Stopes Bangladesh, UNFPA etc conducted those sessions.
Director of Programs, SERAC-Bangladesh, Shahina Aktar, Deputy Director, Programs, Mr. Abdul Wadud, Program Officer Sadia Rahman, Communication Officer Shakil Ahmed, Program Associate Tasnia Ahmed and Associate Program Officer Nusrat Jahan were present in the conference.
