Engaging communities to protect children and adolescents in Bangladesh
The context and the challenge
Many children worldwide experience violence, exploitation, and abuse. In Bangladesh, establishing community-level child protection systems is essential to guard against threats including child marriage and gender-based violence.
UNICEF’s Accelerating Protection for Children (APC) project in Bangladesh works with child rights facilitators, Harmful Practices programme coordinators, children and adolescent club organisers, community facilitators, peer leaders, and social workers. The challenge was ensuring that communities were fully involved in supporting children to protect themselves.
The approach: From Mastertrainer sessions to community workshops
UNICEF commissioned MDF Bangladesh to roll out the Journey of Life modules: community-level workshops that raise awareness of children’s needs and how communities can help prevent or address problems. MDF developed facilitation guides and trainer notes, and conducted training for Mastertrainers and core trainers.
As a result, community facilitators have begun engaging a broad range of community members on how to better protect children and adolescents from violence and harmful practices. The project aims to reach at least 4,000 people.
