National dissemination organised about progress of ASTHA project

A national dissemination event about the progress and achievements of the project "ASTHA- Strengthening Access to Multi-sectoral Public Services for Survivors of GBV" was organised at the capital's Gulshan on Wednesday (29 December). 

Law and Justice Division Joint Secretary Ummey Kulsum was present at the event as the chief guest and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA ) Country Representative Bangladesh Dr Eiko Narita and Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Anne van Leeuwen graced the occasion as special guest and guest of honor respectively, said a press release. 

UNFPA Bangladesh GBV Cluster Coordinator Rumana Khan and Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) Executive Director Golam Monowar Kamal were also present at the event.  

"What ASTHA did is to bring many generations closer to the concept of gender-based violence and why that is wrong and why that needs to be prevented and why that requires a multi-sectoral response," Dr Eiko Narita said. 

Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Anne van Leeuwen said:  "I am very grateful that we, the embassy of the Netherlands, can play a small part in taking on this issue and trying to assist the victims and the survivors."

Senior officials of the Government of Bangladesh, UNFPA, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the implementing partners of the project "ASTHA" - Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Shushilan, Sabalamby Unnayan Samity (SUS), Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK) and Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), delivered speeches with a concentrated focus on their experiences about the concerns related to gender-based violence.

"If we can make every house a safe haven for women, then the violence against women will decrease and I have learned from you what we have to do for that. You have taken these small components to the grassroots and you have rightly addressed them," Law and Justice Division Joint Secretary Ummey Kulsum said. 

 A video documentary portraying everything about "ASTHA" project was also screened, the press release added. 

"During this Covid-19 pandemic we have seen gender-based violence has taken different forms especially online sexual harassment increased manifold due to access to technology and changing human behavior. We are closely working with relevant ministries. All stakeholders need to work together to learn and share knowledge so that gender-based violence can be reduced from the family, community to national level," Golam Monowar Kamal said. 

The project called "ASTHA" has been designed to ensure access to multi-sectoral public response services for the survivors of GBV and establish rights against gender-based violence (GBV) with a wide range of concern on child marriage, rape, intimate partner violence, domestic and dowry-related violence. The ASTHA project has already been implemented in 102 unions under 12 upazilas of 4 districts of Bangladesh - Jamalpur, Patuakhali, Bogura and Cox's Bazar.

Under this project, a total of 20,394 courtyard meetings, 1,836 women support group meetings, 504 couple meetings, 11 theater shows, 309 video shows and 50 awareness sessions have been organized to increase community outreach and raise awareness about gender-based violence.

The event came to an end with sharing of the lessons learnt from this project to reduce GBV. The speakers underscored the need for multi-stakeholder partnerships among service providers and local CSOs, men and boys' involvement in solving gender-based violence cases and use of appropriate communication channels, methods, and strategies for reducing cases of gender-based violence.