A sports program titled “Amake Khelte Dao” took place Wednesday afternoon to empower children and teenagers in the school that was attacked in Tentultala village of Batiaghata upazila of Khulna.
The two-hour event was organized by Unicef with the support of local administration.
Slogans including “play for development through events”, “end terror”, “end violence on children”, “speak up”, among others were focused in the event.
The program included awareness-raising speeches, football games, karate education and self-defence training and kabaddi games.
Through this, Unicef aimed to train the attacked teenage footballers and other girls in the village with self-defence techniques.
On September 13, the training started at Tentultala Government Primary School ground. A total of 120 teenage girls including Sadia Nasreen, Mangali Bagchi, Hajera Khatun and Jui Mondal were present in this four-day training.
Through this, teenagers were motivated and energized. In continuation of this, the event was organized on a large scale in the afternoon of Wednesday.
Apart from the players of Tentultala Super Queen Football Academy, other children and teenagers of the village gathered in the school field on Wednesday afternoon. Sanjida Akhtar Moumi, a black belt, taught them various self-defence techniques. Teenagers learned the tricks with great interest.
Ritu Bairagi, captain of Tentultala Super Queen Football Academy, said: “It is important to learn self-defence techniques. We are all happy that Unicef has taken the initiative. Apart from the players, other girls of the village are also very interested now. If someone harasses us, we will resist.”
Md Nazrul Islam, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, spoke as the chief guest at the event. Special guests included Emma Brigham, deputy representative, Unicef Bangladesh, Elisa Calpona, child protection manager, Unicef Bangladesh, Batiaghata Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sheikh Nurul Alam, Batiaghata upazila Chairman Md Ashraful Alam Khan, Chief Unicef Khulna Field Office Md Kawsar Hossain, among others.
Md Baktiar Rahman Gazi of Khulna District Sports Association gave the welcome speech.
Academy General Secretary Debashish Kumar Mondal said that on Wednesday, the youth and sports secretary came to the village and observed the training program.
Elisha Kalpana of Unicef said that Unicef has taken a program for the development of sports in Bangladesh since last year. It has been organized in 22 districts. Through this, children will play, stay healthy and safe.
He said that statistics show 45 million children in Bangladesh are victims of torture in various ways. 38 million girls are victims of child marriage. There are 40 million child laborers. For this reason, Unicef has taken this initiative for children and adolescents.
He thanked all the parents in the village who allowed the children to play. Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Md Nazrul Islam said: “Bangladesh government is working for the protection and development of children. Unicef operates worldwide. Bangladesh is also working on child protection.
We are all active in child health and safety. But what has happened in this village is unexpected.
Care must be taken to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the future.”
Four teenage footballers – Sadia Nasreen, Mangali Bagchi, Hajera Khatun and Jui Mondal of Tentultala Super Queen Football Academy were beaten up on July 29 for playing football in half pants and jerseys.
In this incident, on July 30, Sadia Nasreen filed a case as the plaintiff at Batiaghata police station, accusing four people.
The three accused threatened to throw acid on the faces of the girls if the case was not withdrawn. Then on July 31, Sadia filed a General Diary (GD) at Batiaghata police station. The accused in this case are in jail.
