A total of nine courtyard meeting (CYM) were conducted by community radio stations with eligible couples, newly married couple and adolescents at station level during the month of December 2017 with the technical support of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC).
These meetings were held at the respective nine Community Radio Stations -Radio Padma 99.2 in Rajshahi, Radio Lokobetar 99.2 in Borguna, Radio Pollikantho 99.2 in Moulvibazar, Radio Mahananda 98.8 in Chawpainawbganj , Radio Chilmari 99.2 in Kurigram, Radio Naf 99.2 in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar, Radio Borendro 99.2 in Naogaon, Radio Meghna 99.2 in Bhola and Radio Sarabela 98.8 in Gaibandha.
The objectives of the meeting to aware & sensitize the community people about long lasting family planning methods and adolescents reproductive health & hygiene issues.
The meetings were facilitated by local Family Welfare Assistant/Family Welfare Volunteers. A total of 180 participants including women, newly married couple and adolescents (per meeting x 20 participants) were present in the courtyard meeting. The discussion issues in the meeting were -Importance on family planning focusing on long lasting methods, menstruation regulations (MR) and postpartum family planning (PPFP) & post abortion care (PAC), demerits of early marriage, adolescent’s reproductive health and mother & child health care & nutrition.
The courtyard meetings were held under the project “Family Planning in Bangladesh-Improving Quality & Access” under the coordination of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) in collaboration with the Directorate of Family Planning and Health, under the Ministry of Health and Family Planning of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh with the financial support of UKAid and technical assistance of Ipas Bangladesh.
Besides nine courtyard meetings, another 45 courtyard meetings will be held within March 2018 under this project.
It is expected that, through the courtyard meetings total of 1080 (54 Meetings x 20 participants) women, new couple & adolescents of the target areas (Nine community radio stations in eight districts of the country) will be aware family planning methods, reproductive health and create access of women in Family Planning services that will help to reduce mortality rate of child and mother and improve health condition of rural people in Bangladesh.