Year long film show for youths ends

Organised with the aim to engage young people as change agents in ending violence against women and girls and raise university students' awareness on gender issues, yearlong gender seminars and documentary screenings by USAID and US-based media company Independent Television Services (ITVS) ended yesterday.

Addressing the closing ceremony, US Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat said, "Young people have immense power to influence change."

She cited as an example the countrywide dialogues on treating women and girls with more dignity which were triggered by young people protesting the sexual assault on Pahela Baishakh this year.

Launched in the capital's EMK Center on December 10, International Human Rights Day, last year, the "Gender Seminar and Women of the World Film Screening Series" saw documentary screenings on accomplished women worldwide.

Meanwhile, gender issues were discussed on International Women's Day, Mother's Day, Environment Day and International Youth Day. The closing coincided with that of the "16 Days of Activism to End Violence against Women and Girls".

Mahmuda Rahman Khan, senior program development specialist, USAID, Bangladesh explained that the ITVS-developed documentaries were initially screened at secondary schools as part of USAID's Women and Girls Lead Global project in Bangladesh to promote girl's education and end child marriage.

The project was implemented in four other countries to inspire change, she said.

She said the university student were incorporated "as they will be the leaders and policymakers" and hoped the series would bring about a behavioural change. Nine documentaries dubbed in Bangla are being screened in 398 schools of nine upazilas, informed Mahmud Hasan, Bangladesh engagement coordinator, ITVS International. He said the documentaries inspired school students to find solutions for their own problems. At the closing, an ITVS-funded and locally developed documentary, "Inner Strength", depicting a father's fight against poverty to educate his daughters, was screened. ITVS funded 14 other documentaries related to issues affecting Bangladesh.