ContentsDAM at work

Smoking claims 57 thou-sands lives in a year

DBL group donates Tk 1 crto AMCGH

TMD Division organisestraining courses for DAMproject officials

Scholarship checks distrib-uted among poor adoles-cents

Int’l Day of Disaster Miti-gation observed in Barguna

Thematic Focus

Bangladesh Reading Asso-ciation

DAM in Frame

Snapshots of 2nd NationalConference of Teachers 2013

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OCTOBER2013

AUST Gets Permanent Certificatefrom Edn Ministry

As the first private university, Ah-sanullah University of Science andTechnology (AUST) on October 7,2013 got the ‘Permanent Certificate’for establishing own permanentcampus and giving proper directionto the students by the university. The university was shifted to its per-manent campus at Tejgaon in 2008and UGC approved the permanentcampus of AUST in 2009. After es-tablishing private university act2010, AUST authority applied toEducation Ministry and followingthis UGC investigators visitedAUST campus. Finally, on October7, 2013 AUST got the certificate asthe first private university gettingthis in Bangladesh. Facilities of the Permanent Campusare - Lifts : There are 6 lifts, 3 forstudents (54 passengers), 2 forTeachers (34 passengers) & 1 for ad-ministrative block (8 passengers); 5(five) stairs, 3 (three) for students, 1(one) for teachers and 1 (one) for ad-ministrative block; One sub-stationincluding has trucking for 2500 Kvacapacity for each; 2 (two) standbygenerator of 1000 Kva for each; One4th dia Tube-Well; Air conditioningsystem; each & every room willhave Air Conditioning system

Although the quality of educa-tion has been improved butthere is no research universityin Bangladesh and no remark-able research work seen at theexisting different public andprivate universities.Education Secretary KamalAbdul Naser Chowdhurymade the opinion as the chiefguest at the Second NationalConference of Teachers-2013at city’s Ahsanullah Universityof Science and Technology(AUST) Auditorium on 4 Oc-tober 2013.He said, government has dis-tributed 92 crore books in pri-mary and secondary level inlast four years in free of cost.As there is no learning assess-ment in those levels, it is beingimpossible to get clear ideaabout standard of education.This is why, government isplanning to launch SchoolBased Assessment (SBA) sys-tem. He stressed on includingnational history and civics intext book. He also informed about the in-ternal assessment system toensure quality education in

universities. Bangladesh Reading Associa-tion (BRA), in collaborationwith Dhaka Ahsania Mission(DAM), Campaign for Popu-lar Education and Interna-tional Reading Associationorganized the conference forsecond time. At his presidential address,DAM President Kazi RafiqulAlam said, professional skillof teachers should be devel-oped to ensure quality educa-tion. Social media can to playsignificant role for disseminat-ing education.Professor of Bangla Depart-ment of Dhaka University,Abul Quashem Fazlul Huqpresented the key-note paper.DAM Executive Director DrM Ehsanur Rahman delivereda speech on ‘Education Philos-ophy: Khan Bahadur Ahsanul-lah’. Former Director ofCPEIM Unit of EducationMinistry Prof. Nurul Islam de-livered the welcome address.At the first day of conference,some parallel sessions wereconducted on the prevailingproblems in primary education

and action to solve this. More-over, conference conducteddifferent session includingpromoting Education PolicyDialogue, Learning EnglishWithout Grammar etc. On the second day, same typesof parallel sessions were con-ducted on different issues. Bangladesh Reading Associa-tion was established by DhakaAhsania Mission (DAM) in2005 as a Nation al Affiliate ofBRA.The BRA was approved byIRA officially in July 2008and has been working for thestudents, teachers educationalresearchers and publishers etcto develop the capacity onreading instruction and creat-ing a culture of reading in thesociety till then. IRA is organizing training onimproved teaching learningprocess for the teachers/educa-tors, publishing results of sig-nificant research/investigations and practicesof reading, teaching learningprocess and potential issues onliteracy and education.

Country needs research university

DAM at work DAM E-Bulletin2

Fifty Seven thousand peopleare dying and 12 lakh peopleare being ill in a year and espe-cially women are badly af-fected due to smoking. Thisinformation is revealed from aview exchanging meeting withmedia personalities, held at theDhanmondi, Mission BhabanAuditorium in the city on 2October 2013.Speakers opined, according tothe amended tobacco controllaw, print and electronicsmedia can play a significantrole to keep smoke-free at pub-lic places and transports.Speakers also informed, sec-ond-hand smoking is badlycausing impact on women.This is why, they are sufferingfrom different diseases includ-ing breast cancer.Parliament member of con-stituency Dhaka-11 Asaduzza-man Khan Kamal MP waspresent as chief guest while

President of BangladeshRestaurant Owners Associa-tion Kamaruddin Ahmed,Media and Advocacy Coordi-nator of Campaign for TobaccoFree Kids Taifur Rahman andPresident of MANAS and Sec-retary of Bangladesh Anti To-

bacco Alliance (BATA) DrArup Ratan Choudhury werepresent as guests. DAM Assis-tant Director Iqbal Masud fa-cilitated the programme.It is mentionable that througha collective initiative with gov-ernment Tobacco ControlLaw-2005 had been amendedon 29 April 2013. In theamendment, a smoker is finedfor Tk 300 increasing from 50

and restaurants have been de-clared as public places.Notwithstanding, due to lackof public awareness, the cam-paign is not being imple-mented properly.Dhaka Ahsania Mission, inline with tobacco control law,is implementing ‘Smoke FreeDhaka City’ project to boost uppublic health by keeping pub-lic places smoke free.

Smoking claims 57 thousandslives in a year

Project inception meeting ofDIPECHO-7 was held atDhaka City Corporation(North) office, Gulshan in thecity on 10 October 2013. Dhaka North City Corporation,Concern Universal and Dhaka

Ahsania Mission jointly or-ganized the meeting. The program was chaired byAkhter Hossain Bhuiya, Ad-ministrator, Dhaka North CityCorporation and the Chairper-son of City Corporation Disas-

ter Management Committee(CCDMC) while AssistantProject Manager of ConcernUniversal Runa Jesmin waspresent as special guest. DAMAssistant Director JahangirAlam was present among

other. Environment, ClimateChange & Disaster Manage-ment Circle superintendent andMember Secretary of CCDMCDr Tariq bin Yousuf DhakaNorth City Corporation moder-ated the meeting. Members of civil society andschool level representativesurged government to includeward level disaster manage-ment committee in govern-ment’s disaster managementpolicy. It is mentionable that the firstmeeting of Dhaka City Corpo-ration was held at the sameconference alongside projectinception meeting. The speakers said, Govern-ment has taken initiative tomake 60,000 volunteers in allcity corporations across thecountry to confront disastersincluding building collapseearthquakes. Disaster resilience culture isnecessary for striving with cli-mate change.

Project inception meeting ofDIPECHO-7 held

As a part of corporate social re-sponsibility, Bank Asia has do-nated Tk.50.00 lac to AhsaniaMission Cancer and GeneralHospital for construction ofPatients Waiting Lounge - Pro-cedure and Surgical Ward inthe second floor of the hospital

building. A. Rouf Chowdhury,Chairman of Bank Asia handedover the Banks donation toKazi Rafiqul Alam, Presidentof Dhaka Ahsania Mission forconstruction of Patients Wait-ing Lounge - Procedure andSurgical Ward in the second

floor of Ahsania Mission Can-cer and General Hospital, Ut-tara. Vice Chairman of theBank Mohammed Lakiotullah,President & Managing Direc-tor Md. Mehmood Husain,Deputy Managing DirectorsAminul Islam, Humaira Azam

and Md. Arfan Ali and Re-source Mobilization Coordina-tor of DAM Md. Abdul Hyewere present on the occation.The handing over ceremonywas held through a simple cer-emony at the Banks CorporateOffice at Rangs Tower, Paltan,Dhaka today on 6 October2013.

DAM at workDAM E-Bulletin3

DBL Group donated Tk 1 croreto the construction fund of in-ternational standard AhsaniaMission Cancer & GeneralHospital (AMCGH) which isunder construction at Uttara inthe capital. DBL Group Chair-man Abdul Wahed handedover the cheque to the Chair-man of the Governing Body ofAhsania Mission Cancer andGeneral Hospital BarristerRafique-ul Huq at the boardroom of DBL head office atBGMEA Complex building inthe city on 21 September,2013. While handing over thecheque, Chairman of DBLGroup said “We feel happy forbeing able to participate in thisnoble initiative”.Managing Director of DBLgroup MA Jabbar, Vice-Chair-man MA Rahim Feroz, DeputyManaging Director MAQuader, Advisor Md Ishaque,General Manager (corporate)Mohammed Zahidullah, Presi-

dent of Dhaka Ahsania Mis-sion Kazi Rafiqul Alam, Coor-

dinator of ResourceMobilization Md Abdul Hyeand Head of Finance (Institute)Monzur Md Kawser were pres-ent at that time. In context of

this donation, a 12-bed recov-ery room in OT support service& procedure unit and a 8-bedCCU will be named in memoryof their (DBL group Chairman,MD, Vice-Chairman andDMD) parents Mrs Jinnater

Nessa and Abdul Matin.President of Dhaka AhsaniaMission Kazi Rafiqul Alamsaid, work on the 15-storiedhospital is now at the final

stage of completion. Moremoney needed to complete thehospital. He appealed to welloff people of the society tocome forward with generoushelp for commissioning of thehospital. The hospital will be

run on “no profit no loss basis”and Thirty per cent poor anddistressed patients will gettreatment free of cost, he alsoinformed.

DBL group donatesTk 1 cr to AMCGH

Bank Asia donates Tk 50 lac to AMCGH construct fund

DAM at work DAM E-Bulletin4

Training and Material Devel-opment Division extends train-ing facilities and developstraining materials, according torequirements of various proj-ects and associate organisa-tions of Dhaka AhsaniaMission.As part of its activities, theTMD division extended train-ing facilities and developedtraining materials in four sec-tors during July-September,2013 period.Monthly magazine ‘Alap’‘Alap,’ a monthly magazinepublished in easy language,giving due importance to opin-ion of people at grassrootslevel. The July-2013 issuegave priorities on micro-creditand development of womenentrepreneurship. Manywomen entrepreneurs haveemerged as big entrepreneursafter taking small initiatives.Alongside business, women at-

tained social dignity. This issuedwelt on women’s strugglinglife, stories and poems. The title of the cover page ofthe magazine’s August-2013issue was ‘Sabai Mile Sa-cheton Habo, BhezalmuktoKhabar Khabo’ (Let us all be-come aware of food, we shallnot take contaminated food).The topics were contaminatedfood and our duties, chemicalin fruits and our duties, con-

taminated food is a majorhealth problem, consumers’rights and law. The issue also contained sto-ries, rhymes, poems and puz-zles.The September issue of ‘Alap’magazine was published giv-ing priorities on InternationalLiteracy Day. This issue dwelton contributions of Dhaka Ah-sania Mission in increasing lit-eracy rate in Bangladesh anddevelopment of conituing edu-cation, DAM’s role in main-streaming the school dropoutsin hill areas. A message of ed-ucational programme of neigh-bouring India was alsoincluded. The 16-page maga-zine was printed in fourcolours.Amader Patrika-Wall-magazineThe July and August issue of2013 was jointly publishedunder supervision of Sonali

Provat CRC of Narsingdi dis-trict. The magazine was devel-oped and printed containingwrite-ups of community mem-bers and their paintings. Themain topics were Eid-ul-Fitrand Literacy Day. The maga-zine also contained rhymes,poems, paintings, puzzle andjokes.UCLC- East Alokon project teachers’ training courseTeachers’ training plays an im-portant role in raising the stan-dard of education and teachersas well as establishing dignityof teachers. Quality of educa-tion is ensured through teach-ers’ training that developsprofessional skill of teachers.With this aim in view, a five-day training course was organ-ised for 34 trainees in twophases to raise professionalskill of teachers under UCLCand East Alokon project bothat primary and secondary levelrecently. The training course was organ-ised by Dhaka Ahsania Mis-sion’s Training and MaterialDevelopment Division.

TMD Division organises training coursesfor DAM project officials

DAM at workDAM E-Bulletin5

An orientation course on rightto information act was held atAKM Abdul Khaleque Memo-rial College auditorium in De-wanganj on September 26,2013. Dewanganj Pourasabhamayor Abul Kalam Azadpresided over while Dewan-ganj upazila nirbahi officer(UNO) Md Aminul Haque su-pervised the orientationcourse. Md Asadullah, area co-ordinator of ACCESS (Health& Empowerment) Project ofDhaka Ahsania Mission coop-erated in making the orienta-tion course successful.Participants got a first handknowledge on right to infor-mation act, objectives of itsformulation, information on

right to information act 2009and other issues. Among others, upazila agricul-ture officer Sakhwat Hossain,upazila health and family plan-ning officer Md Nurul Amin,upazila project implementationofficer Ariful Haque, upazilaprimary education officer MdLutfar Rahman, upazila sec-ondary education officer MdAminul Islam, upazila jubounnyan officer Md SaifulIslam Khan, Chikazani UPchairman Md Momtazuddin,eight other UP chairmen, jour-nalists, NGO representatives,members of Ganokendra andlocal organisations were pres-ent.

Orientation course on right toinformation act at Dewanganj

Dhaka Ahsania Mission hasdistributed checks of scholar-ship among 100 adolescents inSadar upazila and Amtoli up-azila of Barguna district.The checks were distributed tothem after a two-day trainingcourse on life skill develop-ment and small entrepreneur-ship conducted in four venues.The training course was aimedat improvement of lifestyle ofadolescents and making themeconomically self-reliant. The check distribution cere-mony was held at JagoroniPathsala and KeorabuniaMCRC on October 22 and atM Baliatoli Union Parishadand Amtoli Ideal Free CadetHigh School on October 24. Dewan Sohrab Uddin, head ofHuman Rights and Social Jus-

tice Sector of Dhaka AhsaniaMission presided over thecheck distribution ceremony atJagoroni Pathsala while it wasattended by the DistrictWomen Affairs Officer of theDirectorate of Women andChildren Affairs, MeherunNahar Munni, as chief guest.Among others, District SocialService Deputy Director MdAbdul Mannan, UNICEFRRepresentative Feroz Mah-mud, Press Club PresidentMonir Hossain Kamal andBarguna NGO Forum Presi-dent Motaleb Mridha werepresent.The Director of Training andMaterial Development Divi-sion of Dhaka Ahsania Mis-sion, Rabeya Sultana, presidedover the check distribution cer-

emony at Amtoli Ideal FreeCadet High School. Amtoli Up-azila Nirbahi Officer EngineerAbdullah was present as chiefguest. Among others, PressClub President Paritosh Kar-maker and Dhaka AhsaniaMission’s ACCESS-CAFODProject Coordinator Abdur

Rakib attended the function.Each ultra-poor adolescent gotTk 15,000 as scholarship sothat they can continue studiesby pursuing vegetable cultiva-tion and running small busi-ness, said Dhaka AhsaniaMission representatives.

Scholarship checks distributedamong poor adolescents

International Children’s Daywas celebrated at Dewanganjin Jamalpur district on Septem-ber 22, 2013. Marking the Day,Children Education and Com-munity Care (CECC) projectchalked out befitting pro-grammes at Children’s Learn-ing Centre and CRC. Childrenof CLC, representatives ofGanokendra, CRC, govern-ment and non-government or-ganisations took part in variousprogrammes.The programmes includedcake cutting, painting compe-tition, jari gan (people’s songs)on child rights, cultural func-

tion and discussion. It is worthmentioning, pre-primary andprimary (multigrade) educa-tion system were introduced inthe ganokendro (people’s cen-tres) being run under the afore-said project at Dewanganj. It is expected, the activitieswill help create people’sawareness and turn thehapless families self-reliant.In the long run, the down-trodden families will be ableto improve their living condi-tion. At the same time, theywill contribute their mite to-wards development of thecountry.

Int’l Children’s Day celebratedat Dewanganj

DAM at work DAM E-Bulletin6

ACCESS-CAFOD-II Projectof Dhaka Ahsania Mission ob-served the International Day ofElderly People in 86 Ganok-endro (people’s centres) andfive CRCs in Barguna Sadarupazila and 20 Ganokendroand several CRCs in Amtoliupazila of Barguna district onOctober 1, 2013. This year’s theme was‘Probinder Prottsae AmaderBhabissat’ (our future and eld-erly people’s expectation).Various programmes werechalked out to mark the occa-sion. Programmes includeddiscussion, rally, human chainand free health camp.Elderly people spontaneouslytook part in all the pro-grammes. Discussants stressedon increase in number of eld-erly allowance and its amount,paying more attention to eld-

erly people’s health and nutri-tion, involvement of elderly

people in various income-gen-erating activities and related is-sues.A total of 2,470 people tookpart in the programmes. Ofthem, 1,659 were women and

811 men. Besides elderly peo-ple, participants includedwomen, adolescents, GMCmembers and representativesof civil society as well as peo-ple’s representatives.

Int’l Day of Elderly Peopleobserved in Barguna

The International Day of DisasterMitigation was observed in Bar-guna district on October 13, 2013.Barguna District Disaster Man-agement Committee organised theprogramme in association withDhaka Ahsania Mission, PlanBangladesh, the European Union,Concern Worldwide Bangladesh,

Save the Children-Bangladesh,RDF, Sushilan, Sangram andDSK. The theme of the Day was‘Protibondhider Sathe Rakhbo,Durjog Sahansil Desh Gori’ (weshall remain beside physicallychallenged people, we shall builda disaster- resilient country). Programmes included colourful

rally, discussion, painting compe-tition and drill. A colourful rallyled by Barguna Deputy Commis-sioner Abdul Wahab Bhuiyan pa-raded different streets of thedistrict town. This was followedby a discussion at Barguna ZillaSchool. It was presided over byUpazila Nirbahi Officer Md Nur-e-Alam and attended by theDeputy Commissioner. Speakershighlighted the significance of theDay. This was followed by a simulation

on tornado and earthquake at theZilla School ground. Later prizeswere distributed among the win-ners of the painting competition.Among others, Barguna PressClub President Monir HossainKamal, Plan Bangladesh represen-tative Shahrukh Sohel, DistrictNGO Forum President Md Mo-taleb Mridha, District Relief andRehabilitation Officer ProkashChandra Biswas and District Edu-cation Officer Nikhil Chandra Dasattended. ACCESS-II Project ofDhaka Ahsania Mission also ob-served the Day at Ganokendro,CRC and MCRC levels. A discus-sion was organised at NilpadmaGanokendro where the News Edi-tor of Dainik Saikot Sangbad,Birendro Kishor was the main dis-cussant. He said, “Our Bargunadistrict is disaster-prone areawhere natural calamity strikes anymoment. This is why, we shallhave to remain ever vigilant. Un-derstanding the signal, we shallhave to hurriedly rush to the dis-aster shelters. If we remain alertthen our losses will be minimum.”A total of 2,618 people took partin various programmes. Of them,2,427 were women and 191 men.Participants included women, chil-dren, adolescent girls and boys,GMC and CAG members, repre-sentatives of various educationalinstitutions, civil society membersand people’s representatives.

Int’l Day of Disaster Mitigationobserved in Barguna

Thematic FocusDAM E-Bulletin7

Literacy is an essential prerequisite to ac-cess to today’s knowledge based societies.To get access in the printing world andavail other opportunities to learn and toacquire new skills inevitably require liter-acy. Literacy is apart of our basic rightsand it facilitates the attainment of otherrights. Nothing has been more necessaryfor all kinds of development than Literacy.Reading, writing and critical thinking arethe main components of literacy. We reada text in order to derive meaning from it.Literacy development is one of the poten-tial mandate of DAM and working on it inthe last five decades. DAM has beenworking to develop literacy through vari-ous activities and right roots level to inter-national level. DAM initiates innovativeand effective approaches for developmentof literacy since long. DAM’s recent ini-tiative is the establishment of theBangladesh Reading Association (BRA)to improve literacy, teaching profession,teachers network, reading instructions,reading research etc.BRA established by DAM in 2005 as aNational Affiliate of the InternationalReading Association (IRA) aiming to de-velop literacy and to create network of lit-eracy personnel. IRA is an internationalnetworking organization operates fromUSA and established national affiliates in92 countries in all over the world. It has

created a global network of teachers to de-velop professional development and toimprove quality of education emphasizingreading promotion. IRA is publishingjournals and educational materials forteachers/educators. BRA became part ofIRA’s global network in 2008 under theleadership of DAM and started working inBangladesh. BRA is working for the stu-dents, teachers/educators, educational re-searchers, publishers etc. to developcapacity on reading instructions and cre-ating a culture of reading in the society.Reading is one of the most potential skillsto improve quality of education. It is anattempt to absorb the thoughts of authoror text and know what the author or textis conveying. Quality reading is the inter-pretation of reading texts. Reading habitsand skills are particularly important for theearly grade students to continue learning,whose needs include phonics, fluency, vo-cabulary, listening and comprehension. Itis generally assume that in Bangladesh thequality of reading instruction is low andnegatively affects the overall educationalachievement. Teaching is directly a national activity anda teacher is a person who provides educa-tion for students of different ages and in-spires them to develop the habits and aspirit of research and criticism. There aremore than a million of teachers in the

country right from the non-formal educa-tion to higher education. Teachers, likeother professionals, need to stay informedabout new knowledge and technologies,network within the professional field,knowledge management of teachers andmany more.There are lots of teachers who have greatpotentials, innovative ideas, and effectiveteaching techniques. Their experiencesand good practices should be disseminatedwidely for the benefit of teaching learningprocess of our country. Considering theseneeds BRA is specifically emphasizing onprofessional development of teachers inBangladesh through various activities.Currently BRA is implementing a profes-sional development project on DiagnosticTeaching Techniques & virtual mentoringthrough mobile phones for the primaryschool teachers, organizing yearly Na-tional Conference of Teachers to sharetheir ideas, good practices, problems,teaching techniques etc., publishing aclassroom practiced based quarterly jour-nal the “Classroom Teaching” because arelevant journal can update and/or exploreteachers knowledge or activities of theirclassroom and can be influenced to im-prove classroom teaching, action researchon problems & practices of teaching etc.toidentify current situation of teaching.

Nafiz Uddin Khan, Project Manager, BRA

Bangladesh Reading Association

DAM IN FRAMESnapshots of 2nd National Conference of Teachers 2013

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