ARTICLES / PROJECTS: Children make the news in Bangladesh

Children are generating, writing, shooting – and headlining – a popular primetime television news programme in Bangladesh.

By Arifa S Sharmin

DHAKA, Bangladesh, 27 February 2013 – “This is Shampa Islam reporting from the slums of Geneva Camp, Mirpur, Dhaka, for ATN Bangla.”
With that, the journalist signs off her television news report on the unhealthy and unsanitary living conditions of children in Geneva Camp, a low-income housing area.

It has been a good piece of television reporting. But what grabs the viewer’s attention is that the reporter is only 16 years old.


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VIDEO: Meena, India's Dora the Explorer, Helps UNICEF Promote 'Child Rights'

UNICEF launched its annual Child Rights Week this week in Bangladesh. The program is a part of an ongoing grass-roots initiative to educate children and their families about urgent social and public health concerns that range from neonatal health, nutrition, and early childhood education to the practices of dowry and child marriages.

In a country where the literacy rate is still a struggling 53 percent, and the average age that a child drops out of school is 8 years old, mass media as an instructive tool is vitally important. The cartoon heroine Meena, an Indian girl around the age of 10 who lives in a rural village with her family, is the stand-in for a multitude of girls and boys across the subcontinent facing the same issues highlighted by UNICEF — issues which Meena routinely dramatizes on her show.

"Meena is now a daughter not only of Bangladesh but the whole of South Asia," said the UNICEF representative to Bangladesh, Pascal Villeneuve, in a statement on July 27. "She talks about issues affecting girl children in particular, such as education, early marriage, and unequal distribution of household chores."

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NEWS / PROJECTS: UNICEF launching children's news service

Dhaka, Sep 5 (bdnews24.com)—The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and bdnews24.com, the first Internet newspaper and the largest news agency of Bangladesh, are jointly launching a news service for children. 

The programme will be launched on Thursday through signing of an agreement by the two organisations at a ceremony at the newspaper's Mohakhali office. 

UNICEF is considering the initiative as an opportunity for children to contribute in making a child-friendly news industry and for strengthening their rights. 

Children can participate in the service through browsing http://kidz.bdnews24.com, a section devoted for children by the newspaper.

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RESEARCH / NEWS: Children's rights to media not protected (BANGLADESH)

The country's existing media policies do not protect children's rights to media due to the absence of specific provisions ensuring children's participation in media and their right to information, says a study.

Though the government is obliged to protect children's right to freedom of expression according to international convention, it, alongside private television channels and radio stations, give less importance to children's programmes and related news.

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NEWS: UNICEF releases 2 'Meena' episodes (BANGLADESH)

Dhaka, June 21 (bdnews24.com) — UNICEF has released two new episodes of Meena cartoons in a bid to strengthen the power of the iconic animated character in influencing children's mind.

The new episodes, released at the Shilpakala Academy on Tuesday, are 'Jadur Pathor' (The Magic Stone), which features hand-washing practices and 'Rupkathar Deshe Meena' (Meena in Fantasy Land), which is about new-born care.

Unveiling the episodes, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh Carel de Rooy said, "Research shows that as a brand, the character Meena is recognised by 97 percent urban children and adolescents and 81 percent of children and adolescents in rural areas of Bangladesh."

Acting chief of the communication and information department of UNICEF, Arifa S Sharmin, told bdnews24.com that Meena, a popular animated character of Bangladesh, is used as a tool of campaign on children's education, health, safety and rights.

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NEWS / AWARDS: UNICEF Announces Nominees for 2010 ICDB Award

UNICEF is proud to announce the nominees for the 2010 International Children’s Day of Broadcasting Awards. The winners will be announced at the ICDB Awards Ceremony on 2 November 2010 in New York.

The nominees for television include ATN Bangla (Bangladesh), Ethiopian Radio and Television Services, TV3 (Malaysia), C7 Sistema Jalisciense de Radio y Televisión (SJRTV) (Mexico), SOREAD/2M (Morocco), Télévision Togolaise and UzNTT (Uzbekistan).

The nominees for radio include Radijojo World Children’s Radio Network (Germany), All India Radio, Tejarat Radio (Iran), TRAXXfm Radio Televisyen Malaysia, Radio y Televisión de Aguascalientes (Mexico), Voice of Nigeria and Maputaland Community Radio Station (South Africa).

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WORKSHOPS: Sixty-second stories - Workshop on filmmaking by UNICEF (BANGLADESH)

Sixty-second stories - Workshop on filmmaking by UNICEF

UNICEF, in association with European Cultural Foundation and the One Minutes Foundation, held a five-day workshop (from May 31 to June 4) on filmmaking for youngsters. The project aimed at enabling the youths (aged 12-20) to narrate their stories in sixty-second videos. The premier of the videos produced at the workshop was held at Goethe Institut-Bangladesh on June 4.

A total of 17 adolescents -- Abu Sayeed Nisan, Sadiya Tabassum, Sabrina Haque Saba, Masud Al Kawsar, Sazi Sami, Mobasshera Tarannum, Shamima Akhter, Rahian Ahmed, Laila Noor Chaity, Rani Khan, Nishi Akhter, Sharmin Akhter, Shahnoor Azad, Mosammat Shumi Akhter, Md. Imran Hossain, Ayubur Rahman and Yasin Rahman Shumon -- from different backgrounds were selected for the workshop. Children's Film Society and Children's TV Foundation-Bangladesh were the facilitators of the event.

Over five days, the participants learned how to tell a story in a one-minute video. Topics were chosen by the young filmmakers, who were also the actors and behind the camera.

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