UNICEFBangladeshIssue 8, December 2007

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rPeople inPatuakhali districtuse unsafe pondwater for washingand cooking.

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Growing up in the rural village of Tetulia, DilshadKamrunnahar (18) has first hand experience of life

without proper water and sanitation. As a child shewashed in dirty ponds, used open latrines, trekkedkilometres to collect arsenic-free water and sufferedbouts of diarrhea.

The problems in Tetulia are the same today. There is onlyone water pump out of thirteen that is not contaminatedwith arsenic. Because of this, many women are forced towalk a long way for clean water. Others, who are not ableto travel so far, drink the tainted pump water or collectpolluted water from the ponds and ditches that dot thevillage.

Latrines sit precariously on the banks above these ponds.Children going in and out are not wearing shoes and havenot properly washed their hands. Other children defecatein the open because more than 60 per cent of householdsdo not have access to sanitary latrines.

Yet Dilshad is determined that all this will change. Newlyappointed as a community hygiene promoter (CHP), aspart of a UNICEF funded project, Dilshad is workingwith the inhabitants of Tetulia to develop healthy hygienepractices and establish practical water and sanitationsolutions.

Although many of the problems in Tetulia stem from alack of proper water and sanitation facilities, it is clearthat Dilshad’s role is vital.

She explains that although some new facilities have beeninstalled, people are unaware of how to use them

properly. “Many people do not understand how pitlatrines work. When the toilet is blocked, instead offlushing down the blockage, they break the water seal. Ihave explained to them how the toilets work and they arelearning the proper use and maintenance.”

Changing behavior is the key to Dilshad’s new job. Sheexplains that many women throw their household wasteinto the road or ditch, or leave it to rot around the house.Meeting with women and explaining how flies can landon rubbish and spread disease is slowly convincing themthat proper waste disposal is important.

During her first six months, Dilshad has met witheveryone in her village. “I visit house to house. I alsomeet with adolescent girls’ groups and speak withteachers about menstrual hygiene.” Dilshad knows firsthand that this is one of the biggest problems facingyoung women.

“When I was at school, most of us would miss class forthe first two days of our period.” By speaking to teachersabout improving access to latrine facilities and explainingto girls the importance of maintaining clean sanitary rags,Dilshad hopes that fewer students will be forced to missschool as she did.

She also reminds community members to use soap or ashto wash their hands after using the toilet and beforeeating. While soap can be expensive, wood ash is anatural cleaning agent that is freely available. She says,“Even though I am young, they listen because I am fromthe same village and because I teach good things”.

“Sometimes it is hard and I feel pressure because peopleask me to give them tube wells and latrines when I visitthem, but I tell them I can’t.”

Although Dilshad is unable to procure funds for waterand sanitation infrastructure, she works with villagers todraw maps of the pumps and latrines currently in the

village. According to these maps, thewhole community discusses the use ofthe current facilities and what newpumps, arsenic filters and latrines areessential requirements.

The UNICEF program that fundsDilshad’s post and those of 9011 otherCHP workers will be providingsubsidized filters and other clean watersolutions to 5.1 million people invillages like Tetulia over the comingyear. Even so, it is important thatenthusiastic and knowledgeable peoplelike Dilshad are out in the communityteaching people how to use them.

Dilshad says, “I do not care about thesalary; it’s the opportunity to work forthe community that I like. I am tryingto do my best.”

Donor: DFID Dilshad (in green) works with villagers and other community hygiene promoters to mapout the water sources and latrines in Tetulia village.

Changing HerOwn Village

By Kathryn Seymour

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There are 24 million children under the age of 5 inBangladesh; they make up 17% of the population.

On Bangladesh’s National Immunization Day (NID), thisyear held on October 27, all of these children are calledto temporary immunization centres across the country toreceive free polio vaccines and vitamin A capsules.

Immunization centers are easilyidentifiable by the yellow

Moni banner which has beenthe symbol of the NIDsince the first vaccinationday in 1995. It seems thateveryone in the countryrecognizes the flag which

shows a small child,surrounded by black arrows.

We asked Shefali, a girl of tenwho was walking past the lane that

lead to the vaccination site in her village,whether she knew what the yellow banner represented.‘Of course’, she retorted. ‘It’s Moni for the NationalImmunization Day. I am the youngest in my family sonone of us need to go.’

Public awareness of the NID is impressive. When askedwhat day it was, Syed Ali, a sixty-year-old fromRazarkalta village, told us that a TV spot that had aired afew days before had reminded him that it was NID. Hehad taken his grandchildren to be vaccinated againstpolio and receive vitamin A that morning.

There are many ways in which the government letspeople know that the NID will occur. TV and radioannouncements are frequent in the days leading to theevent. Grameenphone network sends a text messageannouncing the NID to all customers. Loudspeakers arestrapped to bicycles in thousands of villages acrossBangladesh on the day before the NID, broadcasting the

details of local immunization centres.

Following a 2006 polio outbreak, the first in five years,combined government, NGO and UNICEF vaccinationefforts have increased. UNICEF supports the NID toprocure vaccines, manage media campaigns and monitorprogram sites.

Donors: Rotary International

Immunizinga Nation

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An infant in Chandra,Tangail district,receives the polio vaccine .

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In her mother's arms, a girl clutches her immunization record at aNID centre on the outskirts of Dhaka.

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UNICEF goodwill ambassadorchampions universal birth registrationTravelling through a maze of narrow lanes, national

table-tennis icon and UNICEF Goodwill AmbassadorZobera Rahman Linu made her way through BaoniaBandh, an impoverished embankment quarter of Dhaka.Children were dressed in their colourful best, waiting at thelocal NGO-run school to receive birth registrationcertificates from the 16-times national table tennischampion.

Guinness World Record-famed Linu inaugurated the birthcertificate distribution ceremony by handing over 32certificates to underprivileged children of the area.“Birth registration is essential for every citizen of thecountry,” Linu told the audience. “It ensures the right ofevery citizen to an official identity that is recognized bythe State. Everyone should, therefore, have their birthregistered and carefully preserve their certificates.”

“We never thought we would see her [Linu] so close. Butthis programme has brought her to us,” said Khadiza, 11,daughter of a housewife and a rickshaw-puller, and astudent of grade five.

Khadiza said that she understood the importance of thebirth registration ceremony. She explained that birthcertificates are the only proof of a person’s age and thatthey can help protect children against social vices likeearly marriage, child labour and legal injustice.

Organized by local NGO, the Association for Realizationof Basic Needs (ARBAN), and supported by theGovernment of Bangladesh, Terre des Hommes (TDH)Foundation, Italy, and UNICEF, the event was attended

by local residents, donor representatives, developmentpartners and implementing agency officials.Linu said that she was deeply touched by the warmth of thepeople and their strong conviction in promoting UniversalBirth Registration (UBR). She urged them to availthemselves of the fee-free registration that the Governmentof Bangladesh has guaranteed until July 2, 2008.

“Although we are targeting universal birth registration by2008, we still haven’t even registered half our population.It seems that we have a lot of turf to cover within a veryshort time,” she reminded.

Mohammad Ali, 10, who received a certificate from Linu,felt inspired that the national star was championing thisissue, which to him was only a “commoner’s concern”.

Laura Giani, Country Representative of TDH Italydescribed the certificate awarding ceremony as animportant symbolic gesture to consolidate child rights. Shesaid that with UNICEF’s assistance, the TDH Foundationis supporting NGOs like ARBAN to provide birthregistration for 22,000 children.

In the five wards of Baonia Bandh, ARBAN has alreadycollected the data of 10,690 children aged 0-18.

Before departing, Linu promised the children that shewould donate a ping-pong (table tennis) table to theARBAN school on her next visit.

Donors: Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlandsand the European Commission

National sports star and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Zobera Rahman Linu with the recipients of birth certificates at a distributionceremony in Dhaka.

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By Iftikhar Ahmed Chowdhury

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Two trafficked childrenRasheda* was two years old when her mother Maleka took her to India. Maleka, at sixteen, was a child herself.

Lured by the promise of better pay, Maleka agreed to leave her home when a male friend offered to find her ajob across the border. The man smuggled the pair to Mumbai, but instead of finding Maleka a job in a factory, hesold her to a brothel.

Maleka was forced to work as a prostitute. Rasheda slept in the same room in which her mother worked. Themother and daughter lived in the brothel for over a year before they were able to escape.

Maleka’s tale grows confused as she tells the journalists what happened in the two years after she fled the brothel.She says that this is because of the different stories that she told to the police, government and NGO workers whodealt with her at a camp for illegal immigrants and then sent her back to Bangladesh.

Now living in a centre for trafficked women and children, run by the Bangladesh National Women LawyersAssociation in Dhaka, Maleka would like to go back to her old job in Chittagong; but her husband and family donot want her because of what happened in India. Like many trafficked women, Maleka also suffers severepsychological problems.

Many trafficked women and children never return to Bangladesh. The stigma attached to trafficked girls makes itextremely difficult for those that do come back to return to their families and communities. UNICEF is workingwith the government in India and Bangladesh to develop strategies for the rescue, repatriation and reintegration oftrafficked women and children.

*Names have been changed.

German Journalists Visit Protection Projects

Each year in the month running up to Christmas,Munich’s daily newspaper TZ features a series of

articles on UNICEF’s activities in a particular region.This year their focus is Bangladesh.

Supported by the German National Committee, TZjournalists Michael Westermann and Simone Herznervisited northern Bangladesh, hard-hit by floods inAugust. They also travelled to Faridpur to see thedistribution of UNICEF family kits and speak withrepatriated camel jockeys who had been trafficked to theArab Emirates.

In Dhaka they spoke with children in urban slum schools,young patients in the burns unit at Dhaka MedicalCollege Hospital and child labourers in tanneries and atthe Demra garbage dump. They found the conditions ofthe children engaged in trash picking to be particularlyhorrific.

“Whenever I see children I want to reach out to them andplay with them, whether they have dirty noses, areinjured or are covered in dust,” said Simone Herzner.“But I did not want to touch the children in the rubbish,

even though I know they are still children. This meanssomething to me.”

“I asked one 12-year-old boy at the dump whether he hadany hopes for the future. He replied that it didn’t makesense to have any hopes. What kind of life is this when,at twelve, you can’t have any dreams?”

Despite this sad encounter, the visitors met manychildren who aspire to lives beyond their poverty. Monir,a 9-year-old boy who attends a UNICEF-funded schoolfor hard-to-reach working children in the morning andcollects scrap in the afternoon, told the journalists, “I likereading and drawing. When I grow up, I want to be anengineer and build ships and launches.”

Every day throughout December TZ will include onepage of stories that highlight the lives of children likeMonir. The newspaper hopes to raise 400,000 Euros fromsubscriber donations that will be donated to UNICEFBangladesh.

The following two stories in this newsletter, chronicle thelives of some of the children visited by the journalists.

Sonya and ShumiLegs crossed under her, Sonya (13) continues with her cutting even as the journalists bend down to

talk to her. Her eyes downcast, she works her scissors around the shapes stenciled onto the leather.She has six more thumb pieces to cut that will later be stitched into gloves by the men at the front of theworkshop.

There are an estimated 7.9 million working children between the ages of five and seventeen inBangladesh. Their work is often hazardous, but their families rely on them for support. Working fulldays excludes these children from education, which further traps them in a cycle of low-skilled, lowincome work and leads to intergenerational poverty.

Sonya is luckier than many child workers because she attends a UNICEF-funded school for hard toreach working children. Because both her parents and her employer have agreed, she is able to take offtwo and a half hours every afternoon to attend her classes.

Shumi (11) works with Sonya in the leather workshop. She used to attend the hard-to-reach school, butnow works a full day. Shumi earns 800 taka a month ($12 US), 100 taka more than Sonya, because ofthe extra hours she puts in. Shumi says, “It’s not much, but the extra money contributes to my family’sincome.”

Shumi’s case highlights the need for community development in line with the hard-to-reach schoolprogrammes. Family support to access the schools is essential to the success of the programme and thefutures of thousands of working children.

UNICEF and the Government of Bangladesh, with funding from the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, opened 1,310new schools for hard to reach urban working children in August, bringing the total number to 3,310.They plan to open another 4,000 schools by next May.

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For two and a half hours every day, Shanta attends theUNICEF-funded school for hard-to-reach working children.

All of Shanta’s classmates are also working children from aslum in Kamrangirchar, Dhaka.

Shanta embroiders clothing, earning 20 taka(30 US cents) per kameez (long tunic).

Shanta Akter (10) and her mother make paper bags for a sari shop. They earn 200taka ($3 US) for every 1000 bags.

Shanta likes to play patch ghuti (knucklebones) with her friends. In the evening, Shanta does her homework before going to bed.

Photographer Naser Siddique followed Shanta Akter, one of Dhaka’s working children, for an entire day.

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Skin and feathers littered the tables and drains. Thedirt floor, impossible to disinfect, was caked with

blood. There was no running water. Drainage problemsmeant that waste was sloshed into the street or left topuddle.

A recent visit of UNICEF and FAO staff to wet marketsin Rangpur highlighted a range of biosecurity hazards. Italso uncovered an enthusiasm in the Rangpur marketcommunity to clean up their markets and help preventavian influenza (AI) outbreaks.

Wet markets are the areas in produce markets where meatand livestock are sold. Because refrigeration is notavailable, live animals are slaughtered and dressed infront of the customer.

Poutry arrives at the market from many different farms,which makes it easy for AI to move from one flock toanother. Infected matter can be picked up on tyres andsandals, spreading the virus. Because markets are built inareas of dense population, the risk of humans contractingAI from poultry is also very high.

Judith Graeff, UNICEF’s programme communicationofficer, says “In the event of an AI pandemic, long beforethere is any health danger, we are going to havedevastating economic repercussions.”

61 per cent of rural Bangladeshis are involved inbackyard poultry businesses, raising anywhere from oneto twenty chickens. Women are the instrumental businesspeople, encouraged by microcredit schemes that promotethe backyard rearing of poultry. The extra income fromeggs or the protein provided when poultry is included in

the diet may well be what keeps many families healthyand out of poverty.

In order to minimise economic and health risks, UNICEF,FAO and the Bangladesh Government are working on anational AI prevention plan. Part of the strategy is tocreate safe wet markets.

Posters and banners inside the markets, structuralimprovements to market facilities, information sessionson proper biosecurity practises and consumer educationon what constitutes a safe market are all part of the FAOand UNICEF AI prevention programme.

“The bad news is that the wet markets are a key hub fortransmission of the virus. On the other hand, they’re alsoa key hub for prevention and control,” says Graeff.“Lower the risk of transmission at a wet market and youlower it for the entire region.”

“We found really motivated people in Rangpur, as indeedyou often find in the private sector,” says Graeff. “Theywere very aware of the problem of avian influenza.”

Prevention activities will commence in Rangpur marketsin 2008. After seeing the Rangpur markets, UNICEF andFAO staff were invited to visit a nearby poultry farm,where they were allowed to drive onto the premises,enter poultry pens and were not asked to disinfect eithertheir shoes or their tyres.

When Christine Ahlers, a veterinarian with FAO,suggested that such hospitality was likely to put livestockat risk of an AI infection, the chagrin on the faces of thecommittee members and farmers was evident. “They knew that it was important to take shoes off toenter the chicken coup or walk through a disinfectantbath and that we had probably visited other poultryfarms, but still allowed us to go through,” says Graeff.

This incident highlighted a critical problem for the AIprogramme in Bangladesh. It is culturally inappropriatefor farmers and market workers to ask prestigiousvisitors, such as foreigners, government health inspectorsand local leaders to remove their shoes, wash tyres or notenter poultry yards.

The participatory approach to the wet market communitydevelopment programme will help to resolve these socialissues. The programme will assist community membersto develop solutions that are appropriate for their owncommunities and train market leaders in communicationand advocacy skills that will enable them to enforce theirown AI prevention strategies.

Donor: Government of Japan

Preventing avian influenza in wet markets

A father and son work at a wet-market stall in Rangpur.

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Ahmed Deepto was walking with his family whena mugger snatched his mother’s purse and

ornaments. Based on this incident, Ahmed wrote ashort story about a young boy’s encounter withviolence in the streets of Dhaka.

Ahmed’s story, which received the under-18s MeenaMedia Award for creative writing, was one of 22pieces to be honoured in a ceremony at the SheratonHotel Dhaka on December 10. UNICEFRepresentative Louis George Arsenault presented theawards to the winners of print and electronic mediacategories in both junior and professional divisions.

Louis Georges Arsenault congratulated participantsfor showing the same determination, creativity andspirit as Meena. He said, “There are importantissues relating to children that need attention throughthe media and there is also a need for healthy andhappy entertainment for children.”

The Meena Media Awards were launched byUNICEF in 2005 to celebrate excellence in mediaand journalism for, by and about children. Meena isa popular animated character whose storieschampion the rights of children across South Asia.At this year’s ceremony, life-size figures of Meenaand children dressed as characters from the seriescavorted amongst the audience.

Ahmed thanked UNICEF for encouraging youngwriters and called on other children to speak outagainst crime in Bangladesh.‘Let us vow here and nownever to be purse-snatchers, or involved incorruption, drugs and crime.And let us vow also never totolerate these things when wesee them, but always to speak up.’

Other winners included NazninAkhter, whose series ofinvestigative reports traced thestories of hundreds of childrentrafficked out of a Dhaka slumin the decade followingindependence, and Syed Awlad,whose television spot highlightedthe impact of domestic violenceon children.

Menna MediaAwards 2007

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UNICEF Representative Louis Georges Arsenault presentsAhmed Deepto with a Meena Media Award

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UNICEF Representative Louis Georges Arsenault and the 2007recipients of the Meena Media Award

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Children dressed as Meena, Raju and Mithu the parrot assistedLouis Georges Arsenault to present the Meena Awards

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Shaheen Akhter (16) spends everyday alone at her in-laws’ home in

Shatbaria near Chittagong. She looksafter her brother’s daughter andcompletes all the domestic chores.Shaheen was only 14-years-old andstudying grade 9 at school when shewas forced to marry Nazim Uddin,

then 26, a shopkeeper and distant relative.

“When I lived in my father’s house I never worked. Iwould go to school and study,” says Shaheen. “Now Ihave to work for my husband’s family so I get up early inthe morning and, after my morning prayers, I sweep thefloor, prepare breakfast, and cook the rice and vegetablesfor everyone in the family. I also bring water from thetube well outside and then feed the cows.”

The legal age of marriage in Bangladesh is 18 for girlsand 21 for boys. However, nearly 50 per cent ofadolescent girls are married by the age of 15 and nearly70 per cent are married by the time they are 18 years old.When a girl marries, she usually drops out of school andbegins full-time work in her in-laws’ house where shelacks status and the ability to make her own decisions.

One of the most difficult times Shaheen has experiencedwas the birth of her son. In Bangladesh, one in threeteenage girls is already a mother and a further five percent are pregnant with their first child. Maternal mortalityfor adolescents is double the national figure.

“I suffered for two days at home and even then the babywas still not delivered,” explains Shaheen. “Finally I hadto be taken to the hospital where my son was born. Buthe had pneumonia and after two days my baby died. Hegot pneumonia while he was in my womb.”

Shaheen’s experience is representative of many youngmothers in Bangladesh. Most women give birth at home,without out any skilled assistance. The BangladeshMaternal Mortality Survey 2001 found that wheremedical assistance was obtained, there were significantdelays in recognising emergencies and deciding to seektreatment. Only one in four babies survives their firstweek of life.

During Shaheen’s spare time she stitches hats at home tosell to a garment company. “Even though I feel badsometimes, I cannot go anywhere,” explains Shaheen. “Icannot do anything on my own or leave the house. Whydid I agree to this marriage? I feel sad when I think aboutthese things.”

Shaheen used to attend a nearby adolescent centre forunmarried girls and boys, run by BRAC with support

from UNICEF. Her new responsibilities make thisimpossible. When adolescent girls marry, they often losetheir friends and social networks as well as access toeducation.

At the centre, two of Shaheen’s old school friends,Mussammat Shirin Akhter and Runa Akhter, are chattingwith their friends. They are both fortunate to have beenable to continue school despite their parents’ recentattempts to arrange marriages for them.

Runa (15) says, “Last month I had a marriage proposal. Iwas very upset and cried a lot at this time. First I tried toexplain to my parents that I am still young; I am notquite ready. I convinced my mother on the merits ofeducation. If boys study why shouldn’t girls do thesame?”

Shirin (15) also succeeded in changing her parents’ planfor her marriage because she wished to continue herstudies. “My mother wanted to arrange my marriage andat first did not listen to me. I talked with my parents andfinally they understood because I was so unhappy.”

UNICEF supports an adolescent empowerment projectwhich trains adolescent leaders to speak to parents andother members of their community about child marriage,girls’ schooling and other problems facing localteenagers. Not only does this help girls delay marriageand stay in school, it also enhances their confidence.

Shirin and Runa both hope that after completing theirschool studies they will be able to become teachers.Shaheen is unsure about what her future will bring.

“I do not want to be a mother again,” she says. “Isuffered a lot giving birth and I do not want to gothrough that same experience again. My friends are stillstudying. I also would like to study, but my mother said Ihad to be married some time or other, so why not now?”

Donor: European Commission

Isolation and pain in child marriage

Housework prevents Shaheen from going to school.

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In Bangladesh, adolescent girls caution each other tostay away from bamboo trees during their periods

because ghosts will attack them if they go too close.Many Bangladeshis believe that if a man walks pastmenstrual rags or sees menstrual blood, some greatmisfortune will befall him.

Because of the culture of secrecy and superstition thatsurrounds menstruation, menstrual hygiene is aproblematic issue for many women in Bangladesh.Women conceal their menstrual rags by washing them,often without soap, in secret near latrines and storingthem in dark, hidden corners of the house. Water atlatrines is often unsanitary and damp storage encouragesthe growth of fungus and mildew. As a result, two in fiverural women regularly experience infections.

UNICEF is encouraging better menstrual hygiene in ruralareas through the Sanitation, Hygiene Education andWater Supply in Bangladesh (SHEWA-B) project, whichis training 9011 community hygiene promoters (CHPs)whose work will target 30 million rural Bangladeshis.

The newly trained CHPs will work with their localcommunities to develop better sanitation facilities,encourage the use of clean water supplies and promotegood personal hygiene techniques. These techniques

include hand-washing, wearing shoes in latrines andusing clean and dry menstrual rags.

Ananna Laboni, a hygiene officer in Niagri who iscurrently conducting CHP trainings in menstrual hygiene,says, “I speak to the new recruits about menstrualsuperstitions and how they can convince local people thatsuch stories are not true. I also train them in facilitatingcommunity discussions and meetings with adolescentgirls.”

Adolescent girls suffer more than any other group. Thelack of private sanitary latrine facilities in most highschools means that girls are unable to change their ragsfrom 9am to 5pm which increases the risk of infection.Many girls miss class for the first two days of theirperiods because of the lack of appropriate facilities. Suchproblems are completely preventable. Already, schoolsthat have installed latrines for students have seen 11 percent increases in attendance rates.

One of the biggest problems that CHPs will encounterwhen working within their villages is an unwillingness tospeak about menstrual hygiene. “Grandmothers, mothers,and 12-year-old girls - all generations - have no ideaabout menstrual hygiene and never speak about it witheach other. It’s a taboo subject,” says Ananna.

Training on how to broach such sensitive topics is vital.Ananna says, “Women prefer to speak with me in femaleonly groups, as they can be more open. Men say theywould like to be involved in the discussions because theyhave mothers and sisters who they can talk to. But, inreality, I don’t think that they speak with them. The onegood thing about mixed groups is that it brings the issueout in the open, makes it easier to speak about and allowseveryone in the community to understand.”

Ananna is excited to be covering menstrual hygieneissues at the CHP trainings because it means that herexperiences as a hygiene worker will benefit thosebeyond her immediate reach.“Under this project, we willreach adolescents, schools and parents who are the threemost important groups for this issue.”

Donor: DFID

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Women in Tetulia village learn about safehygiene from a CHP.

Ananna Laboni, a hygiene officer in Niagri, speaks toCHP trainees.

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In the remote villages of Raiganj, a district four hoursnorth of Dhaka, the true impact of the August floods

can still be seen in the faces of the local villagers. Almosteveryone has a story of loss to share.

Md. Kamal Pasha still finds it difficult to believe that hisone and only child Sobuj (4) is no longer with him.

He explains,“My house was affected by the flood watersso I put our bed on top of some bricks. One night I camehome from work at 11pm, ate some food and then wentto sleep. At around midnight my wife and I woke upwhen our son started shouting, we saw blood comingfrom his leg and I tied it with some jute cloth.”

Sobuj had been bitten by one of two cobra snakes thathad found one of the few dry places in the village - hisbed. Kamal immediately took his son to a nearby

traditional healer, who was not home, and then an hourlater a second healer was able to check Sobuj.

“I could see that he was not breathing; he was senseless.While we waited for the healer, my son was crying. ThenI became anxious when he stopped crying,” says Kamal.

The traditional healer gave the boy some air, but said toKamal, “Your son is going to die. I cannot do anything tohelp.”

In the morning Kamal’s father-in-law took Sobuj’s bodyto two further healers. It was only when the last healercut into the boy’s leg to check for blood that the familyfinally accepted that Sobuj had died.

More than 50 people were killed in similar incidentsduring July and August this year when snake numbers in

people’s homes increased when surrounding land wassubmerged with water.

In a nearby village, Delwar Hossain and Amina Khatunrecall the death of their 7-year-old son Rubel whodrowned during the floods.

“At that time there was water in our house. The only wayto get from my brother’s house to here was by raft”, saysDelwar. “On that day Rubel was in his uncle’s house withthe younger children because there was no water at hishouse. Rubel had never used the raft on his own but hemust have decided to come home by himself.”

When the family realised Rubel had not arrived homefrom his uncle’s house they searched the area in betweenthe two homes. They found the empty raft and bamboostick; however they didn’t find their son. One hour later,after using fishing nets to search the area, they pulledRubel’s body from the water.

Amina says, “We had to sell some cotton trees so that wecould pay to bury our son in another district. There wasno place in our village that was not under water.”

Only a few months before the floods, a Centre for InjuryPrevention and Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) swimminginstructor had visited the family to enrol Rubel inswimming lessons. Regrettably, Rubel had a broken handand he couldn’t attend.

“I am going to send my two older children for swimminglessons now,” says Delwar. “It’s important they learn howto swim.”

Over 720 people lost their lives in the Bangladesh floods,the vast majority of them children. At least 85 per cent ofthese deaths were caused by drowning.

An estimated 30,000 children in Bangladesh die every yearfrom injuries. Drowning accounts for 26 per cent of alldeaths nationally of children aged between one and four.

UNICEF - in collaboration with the Directorate Generalof Health Services, the Centre for Injury Prevention andResearch Bangladesh, and The Alliance for Safe Children- is undertaking research on injury prevention in threerural upazilas and one urban area to identify the bestinterventions.

UNICEF supports local governments to raise awarenessabout the need for injury prevention and ensures thatthere are adequate injury-prevention resources available.UNICEF also aims to boost parents’ and caretakers’awareness of injury through mass media, educationalentertainment and interpersonal communication. Parentsand caretakers are informed about how to make theirhomes and play-areas child-friendly and the importanceof swimming lessons and proper supervision.

Donor: Netherlands National Committee

Injuries kill many children during floodsby Cate Heinrich

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A swimming teacher from the Centre for Injury Prevention andResearch Bangladesh teaches children in Raiganj to swim as part ofa UNICEF-funded injury prevention project.

Editor: Zafrin Chowdhury (zchowdhury@unicef.org)Contributors: Kathryn Seymour, Cate Heinrich, Iftikhar Ahmed Chowdhury Cover photo: ©UNICEF/Salma SiddiqueDesign& layout: Syed Makhlesur Rahman/UNICEF

January 27 Early Recovery for Cyclone Sidr MeetingUN, Government and NGO leaders will meet to discuss and finalize plansfor early recovery efforts in cyclone-affected communities.

February 7-9 International Neonatal Health ConferenceBangladesh Neonatal Forum (BNF), supported by UNICEF, will hold theirfirst international conference on the theme Prevent Infection - SaveNewborns.

February 11 United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) JointAnnual ReviewUN Agencies in Bangladesh will meet together with governmentcounterparts to review progress against the planned results of 2007 andbuild consensus on the priority areas for 2008.

March National Launch of State of the World’s Children.

July 3 International Water DayA series of events will launch the International Year of Sanitation 2008 inBangladesh

Coming Events

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