BBC Media Action UK and Bangladesh high official team including Gemma Hayman, Regional Director (Asia Pacific & Europe) of BBC Media Action; Md. Al Mamun, Country Director (Bangladesh) of BBC Media Action; Khandokar Hasanul Banna, Senior Project Manager; Shafaat Ahmed Project Manager of BBC Media Action, Bangladesh visited YPSA-USAID’s youth are Resilient, Interconnected, and Socially Cohesive and Engaged (YouthRISE) Activity at Baharchara Union in Teknaf under Cox’s Bazar District On 29th January 2024.
Jishu Barua, Program Manager, and Focal Person, YPSA welcomed the visitors to the Listening Group (LG) Session. He briefed the visitors on the progress, lessons learned, and contributions of the 1st Quarter of year-03 related to YPSA’s YouthRISE activities.
On that day, they observed a female Listening Group (LG) Audio Drama session at Puranpara ‘Youth Development Center’ in Baharchara Union of Teknaf Upazila. In this session, we facilitated Aaio Jani season-02 audio drama episode-04 among the listening group members.
Gemma Hayman, Regional Director (Asia Pacific & Europe) of BBC Media Action participated in this session and discussed various issues of the audio drama with LG members. LG Audio participants voiced their opinions throughout the episode. Also, they expressed that our society would be resilient if we are aware of the existing social conflicts in the society. Female LG participants are grateful to USAID, BBC Media Action, and YPSA for implementing YouthRISE activities in their regions. Besides, they spontaneously attended this session and will attend in the future as well.
However, under the YouthRISE Activity, YPSA worked on IR: -02 increased confidence of host community youth to engage positively and non-violently in their community to mitigate conflict from January’23 and IR:-03 Local justice systems are strengthened to reduce use of violence and solve disputes, and foster youth engagement and trust in local justice mechanisms. It is a USAID-funded Programme & BBC Media Action led the consortium. The program is being implemented to achieve the Goal: Host communities affected by the Rohingya crisis in Cox’s Bazar district benefit from reduced conflict and violence (including GBV).
Gemma Hayman appreciated YPSA’s field level YouthRISE Activity implementation and youth engagement activities in Listening Group (LG) sessions.
After that, they visited another field activities at BaharChora Union Parishod under YouthRISE Activity (IR3) which is also implementing by YPSA. There they visited Youth Group meeting of BaharChora Union. They observed the Youth Group meeting and then conversed with Youth Group members. During the discussion, the BBC Media Action Regional Director listened to the group members’ reason to involve in Youth Group, about their roles and what the roles youth members applied in their community. After the discussion BBC Media Action Regional Director conveyed thanks to every one to play their vital role for the community and their contribution.
During this time, Farhana Rob Shati, Technical Manager of Legal Protection and Rule of Law, IRC; Jishu Barua, Program Manager & Focal Person of YPSA, Nazmul Barat Rony, Project Coordinator of YPSA YouthRISE Activity (IR3) and Md. Adil Uddin, Project Coordinator of YPSA YouthRISE Activity (IR2) were present.
