Project Name : Creating Women Leadership for Resilience of Munda Adibashi Community project

Doner : Community Chest of Korea (CCK) & Oxfam in BD

Sector : Development

Area : Shyamnagar, Satkhira

Time Line : July2023 to 31 December2025

Brief of activities :

Project Name : Speak Up! Empowering CSOs to protect children and youth's freedom of expression by capitalising on the opportunities and addressing the challenges of the digital space in Bangladesh (SPEAK UP)

Doner : European Union (EU)

Sector : Child Protection

Area : Satkhira Sadar Upazila, covering the municipality and four unions (Alipur Union No. 7, Duliher Union No. 8, Agardari Union No. 10, and Balli Union No. 12).

Time Line : Mar, 2025 to Feb, 2028

Brief of activities :

Breaking the Silence is a child rights-based, non-profit voluntary organization established in 1994 and legally registered under the Department of Social Services and the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh. The organization believes in a policy of “zero tolerance” toward violence against children and women and is committed to building a society where children can grow up free from abuse, discrimination, and fear.

Due to the increased accessibility of information and communication technology, internet usage in Bangladesh has grown significantly. As a result, people from all segments of society including children, adolescents, and youth are becoming more easily connected with the world. While increased internet use has created greater opportunities for children and youth to access information and education, it has also exposed them to various risks. The lack of digital literacy and limited awareness of online safety further exacerbate these risks. The misuse of the internet is having a negative impact on the mental and social development of children and youth, which is a matter of serious concern.

Based on the Government of Bangladesh’s child development priorities, and with financial support from the European Union (EU) and technical assistance from Terre des Hommes Netherlands, Breaking the Silence is implementing a three-year project (March 2025 – February 2028) titled “Speak Up! Empowering CSOs to protect children and youth's freedom of expression by capitalising on the opportunities and addressing the challenges of the digital space in Bangladesh.”

In Bangladesh, children and youth are constantly exposed to risks online due to sexual harassment, violence, and a lack of digital experience. Although online platforms provide opportunities for freedom of expression, online violence and exploitation particularly against adolescent girls significantly limit their ability to express themselves and participate. The project aims to encourage the active participation of children and youth and to contribute to the prevention of cyberbullying and online exploitation.

Project activities are being implemented in Satkhira Sadar Upazila, covering the municipality and four unions (Alipur Union No. 7, Duliher Union No. 8, Agardari Union No. 10, and Balli Union No. 12). While direct project activities are limited to specific areas, there are plans to include the entire upazila through advocacy initiatives with civil society actors.

Project Objectives:

1. To strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) so that they can work on the rights of children and youth and support their online safety.
2. To enable children and youth to express themselves freely in safe online spaces and to participate in various social and cultural activities.
3. To ensure the active participation of civil society organizations in legal and policy reforms related to online safety.

Project Name : Blue Economy and Inclusive Development for Climate Justice (BID4CJ) Project

Doner : Oxfam in Bangladesh and Australian Aid

Sector : Gender Justice and Climate Change

Area : Shyamnagar and Assasuni Upazila of Satkhira District.

Time Line : January 2023 to June 2027

Brief of activities :

Project Goal:

The goal of the BID4CJ project is Local Ecosystem Restoration and Green Business Expansion through Gender Equity Based Climate Action in Coastal Regions of Bangladesh

Objectives:

The Blue Economy and Inclusive Development for Climate Justice (BID4CJ) project aims to empower coastal communities to nurture healthy ecosystems and a climate-just economy in southwest and southeast Bangladesh through feminist climate movements, ecosystem restoration and ethical businesses development.

Specific Objective:

1. To enhance the capacity of coastal communities, especially women and marginalized groups, to make decisions affecting their lives and livelihoods and to exercise their due responsibilities in ecosystem management and economic development.
2. Capacity building for marginalized communities to fulfill their responsibilities on revitalizing eco-system equitably benefit and economic development.
3. Supporting coastal communities and their associated green business development through climate and gender equitable economic development

Project Locations:

v  Satkhira District: Shyamnagar and Asasuni Upazila

v  Khulna District: Koyra Upazila

v  Cox’s Bazar District: Chakaria and Moheskhali Upazila

Project Duration: February 2023 to June 2027.

Expected Outcome:

Outcome 1. (Feminist climate movement building): Coastal communities, especially women and marginalized people have increased power over decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods, and practice stewardship on ecosystem management and economic development.

(At least 10,000 marginalized people (including women, people with disability and indigenous communities) will be supported to access climate finance, to raise grievances to duty bearers if rights are violated, to be included in coastal ecosystem management and to influence policy of the government and private sector in the coastal region for climate justice and natural resource rights).

Outcome 2. (Ecosystem restoration): Revitalized ecosystems equitably benefit the most marginalized people in the community.

(Aiming to raise the collective economic value of ecosystem goods and services created for the community (i.e. carbon sequestered, non-timber forest products, fish-stock etc) and limit climate risks through ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, targeting potential losses avoided equivalent to 1.5 million AUD).

Outcome 3. (Resilient livelihood and private sector engagement): Coastal communities and businesses benefit from climate- and gender-just economic development. Working with the government, private sector and local communities, BID4CJ will develop participatory and inclusive business models that include the interests of the community, the environment and of the enterprises themselves.

Project Name : Strengthening Partnership Agreement (SPA)

Doner : Save the Children

Sector : Child Poverty

Area : Satkhira Sadar

Time Line : January, 2018 to December, 2022

Brief of activities :

Breaking the Silence (BTS) is a Child Rights based organization and the organization was built up by a group of activities. BGD Danida Strategic Partnership Agreement Project is working in Satkhira Sadar Upazila under Satkhira district. This project focused deprived adolescent and youth in targeted rural areas of Bangladesh have improved their economic, social and political status with active support from strengthened CSOs. Because of adolescents and youths are agents of change in their own lives but are not organized in a common platform to raise their voice and communicate their needs. In reality, 30% of the population is not considered in the development agenda in Bangladesh. They are excluded due to social and cultural barriers. There is also lack of opportunities to build capabilities of deprived adolescent and youth that makes them vulnerable in terms of decision making about their own lives at family, workplaces and the societies, leading to early marriage, violence, exploitation, abuse, child labour, exclusion, gender discrimination,  The active involvement of deprived adolescents and youth will increase their ownership of the program activities and will increase their motivation to acquire the skills needed for social and political empowerment.

Project Name : Institutionalization of Horizontal Learning Program in Bangladesh (HLP)

Doner : National Local Government Institute (NILG)

Sector : Local Government Devision

Area : Satkhira district's All Upazila & 78 Union Porishad

Time Line : February, 2019 to December, 2022

Brief of activities :

Children are particularly vulnerable during their journeys and when they reach their destinations because often they move to a place where they do not know anyone to whom they can turn for help and where they might even be seen as not worth helping. Both in transit and at destination, they are often unconnected to the communities through which they pass or settle, either permanently or temporarily. Their lack of documentation, language barriers or the stigmatization against them often means that they deliberately avoid contact with others and have difficulty in accessing basic services. Their isolation makes them particularly vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violence.

Supporting children in transit is challenging, however anecdotal evidence suggests this is not impossible given that there are well-known transit hubs in Bangladesh that demarcate the rural-to-urban trajectory. Tracking children can push them into looking for more invisible and potentially dangerous routes to evade detection, especially if they suspect that the aim is to control or interrupt their journeys. Because these children are difficult to reach, they are often underserved.

For obvious reasons, information on the number of children who move is very scarce, and their reasons for moving and the challenges they encounter during transit and upon arrival are widely variable. Such difficulties are further compounded by the complexity of developing programmes that protect children while they move, since most protective services are fixed in one location. Because migration routes are not linear, it is difficult to devise responses that can provide for children at each stage of their journeys, especially when protection systems are either absent or undeveloped, or when they struggle to reach the community level.

Analysis of children’s movement has been limited in two main ways. On the one hand, children’s movement has been considered largely within the limits of the debate on child trafficking. On the other hand, in the broader debate on migration, children’s movement has been researched mainly as part of their parents’ movement. Both frameworks are inadequate. As a result, the framework for children on the move opens more space for interventions that genuinely respond to their needs and that are respectful of children’s rights, including children’s right to express their views, and to access services and other support to promote their best interests.

Project Name : Core Support Model (CSM)

Doner : Save the Children

Sector : Child Rights Governance

Area : Satkhira Sadar

Time Line : January,2022 to December, 2026

Brief of activities :

The local governance framework is very important because this level of government is most closely in contact with children. Strengthening this framework has the potential to benefit all children in Bangladesh but will particularly benefit the most disadvantaged through better planning and increased investment targeting the most disadvantaged groups. While a number of organizations have provided support to strengthen the capacity of local government, no agencies have systematically addressed the relationship between local government and children.

The CFLG Project aims to create systematic sustainable changes in the processes of local government decision making for better realization of the rights of children. To emphasis the process, the project has implemented different activities and events for incorporation of CFLG indicators in the LGI’s performance indicators, circulation by Local administration and UZP of an official order to UPs requiring them to make a special allocation of budget for children, ensure children participation in the planning and budgeting processes and setup complaints and response mechanism at the school, UP, Municipality and UZP level. However , the project designed to achieve the following specific objectives between January to December 2018:
CFLG is a strategic framework placing children at the center of the agenda of local bodies, government line agencies, and civil society. It is built on a two-fold approach that simultaneously increases the capacity of local government, and empowers children, youth and their networks to engage with the authorities.