Ms. Diana K. Myers

At the end of meeting ECDO gave her some publications on indigenous peoples & she thanked to ECDO for giving that publications. Dr. Nizam Uddin Ahmed Director, HIV/AIDS Sector & South Asia Program Advisor, HASAB’s representatives & others were accompanying with her. ECDO authority was very pleased to get her in ECDO office. Mentionable that ECDO organized Master trainers training, Peer educators training, Gate keeper meetings with young peoples guardian, Condom seller training, conducting young peoples Life Skills Education sessions, conducting youth counseling sessions through youth friendly health corner etc. to make aware on HIV/AIDS & STI particularly for young peoples within the age limits of 15-24, since 2008 with support from Save the Children USA through HASAB consortium in Sylhet, Bangladesh. ECDO believes that the activities of this project already have made a good impact at community level.

The main objective of the project is to:

• Organize workshops on Child and Reproductive Health,
• Traditional Birth Attendance (TBA) Training
• Organize group discussion on HIV/AIDS and Child nutrition.
• Awareness building for Education and Birth registration

Indigenous people of Northeast Bangladesh are not sensitized on the above issues and there is need to disseminate information on these topics. Without birth registration the indigenous people may be deprived from a total of 16 government facilities such as school enrollment and government service jobs. In the area of nutrition ECDO is helping the indigenous people to make them understand that there are cheaper vegetables that are available locally which are good for their health. The proper ways of hygiene are taught to the community people by ECDO, as well as this organization stressing the need for check-ups for pregnant mothers and offering suggestions on the government and visiting private health centers closer to their residence to increase their access to health facilities. ECDO has also given training on TBA to 25 women from different indigenous communities. These were women practicing child delivery, so the workshops were to add to their knowledge and skills. Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials like posters and leaflets on reproductive health and nutrition have also been disseminated to different indigenous communities in their own mother language.