“My Community, My Responsibility”- solving problems locally by engaging communities through local youth and youth women for Utilizing the Public Space in the Digital Sphere. Creating opportunities for the youth and youth women to give alert as leaders and agents of change so that they can connect, voice, and influence the local power and help the communities for making right decisions that shapes their lives and livelihood easier.
Addressing this, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication has been implementing the “Nobo Jatra Project (NJP) -Youth Fellowship Program (NJP-YFP)” in collaboration with Winrock International, World Vision Bangladesh and the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief. On other words, the program aims to promote inclusive social and economic growth, strengthen governance of inclusive ecosystem, and strengthen community engagement for enhanced livelihoods in line with Utilizing the Public Space in the Digital Sphere.
In this connection, a day long orientation for the Fellows and Mentors was facilitated in four south-western Upazilas namely Dacope and Koyra of Khulna, and Shyamnagar and Kaligonj of Satkhira district from January 26-30, 2022, at the respective 4 Upazilas.
Digital communication is transforming our country and the multiple spaces in which we live and move. These technologies offer us new ways to connect, to inform ourselves and navigate the world, to advocate for our human dignity and rights, and for our voices to be heard.
The objectives of the orientation are promoting domestic youth and youth women employment, strengthen youth-government policy collaboration, develop evidence-based advocacy practices with the local and sub-district authorities and power structures and address local social and economic challenges to improve sustainable market-driven livelihood and drive positive social change inline with the rights and equity, skills, local resources, data, Tools and technologies, and access.
A total of 39 youth and youth women fellows and 8 mentors from the respective Upazilas and Nobo Jatra Project (NJP) Youth Information clubs, have been participated in the orientation where 19 are youth women. The orientation was designed focusing hands-on exercises so that the participants can realize their situation and identify the local problems and challenges with priority.
The sessions of the orientation were- concept of Fellowship and mentors, fellowship as a change agent, important of Fellowship, roles and responsibilities of Fellows and mentors, identification of community problems and challenges, root cause of the problems, prioritize the problems/challenges to work with, collection and analyze the data and information, engage the community and stakeholders, documenting, reporting and presenting community problems, how to prepare an article, visual report, and or power point presentation, and public skills, etc. Participants have space to raise their muddiest points and queries and facilitators addressed those accordingly.
The participants have learned practically, how to define problems/challenges, find out root cause of the problem, and prioritizing the problems to work with and way forward. Besides, how to collect data & information, cross check the data, capturing interview, script writing, editing, develop and upload digital stories/contents on their Facebook pages and You Tube as well as using mobile set as Community mobile Journalism.
They also learned how to reach the contents in wider range by using social media and You Tube. During the Fellowship period, Fellows will develop and upload 160 visual contents and 160 articles on local problems. Eight Mentors will guide 5 Fellows each and provide them time to time support for reskilling and upskilling.
Mr. Syed Tamjidur Rahman, Consultant, WINROCK Nabo Jatra Project and Mr. Mark Manash Saha, Coordinator, BNNRC have facilitated the sessions of the event
