Development Research Network (DNet) on Saturday organised a health camp to create awareness on sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, child marriage and hygiene and mental health among Bangladesh's fastest-growing adolescent population.
A day-long health camp was organized by Dnet at Civil Aviation School and College with technical support of UNICEF Bangladesh. Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP), Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Ministry of Education (MoE) also supported the programme.
Representatives from above-mentioned organizations and government bodies were present at the occasion.
The program was inaugurated by Mahbub Alam Talukder, Additional Secretary, Member (Admin) CAAB and President of Civil Aviation School and College.
Speakers said the government has taken some necessary steps in the past few years to recognize adolescent healthcare as one of their top priorities. However, it has been observed that, there are less interventions in terms of knowledge sharing or service seeking activities conducted for urban adolescents than rural adolescents from national level.
To address the situation by supporting the government's effort of safeguarding the aforementioned target group, DNET and UNICEF decided to hold comprehensive health camps for urban school adolescents.
The purposes of this health camp were to introduce national Adolescent Health Website and Mobile App to urban school adolescents, conduct basic physical examinations including eye check-ups by medical doctors, provide awareness on sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, child marriage and hygiene and mental health amongst the students of class six to ten studying in the mentioned school.
Doctors from DNET conducted basic medical checkup and awareness sessions while an educational psychologist provided consultations on mental health in a group.
Additionally, DNET gave an orientation of the National Adolescent Health Website and responded to relevant queries from the participating students.
Co-founder and Executive Director of DNET M. Shahadat Hossain along with Dr. Monjur Hossain from DGFP, attended and spoke at the event.
Principal of the Civil Aviation School & College, Wing Commander Md. Moniruzzaman thanked Dnet for initiating such an event and requested to arrange regular Mental Health sessions in schools.