Education & Capacity Building Project
Introduction: The National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh in brief NCYB was established in 1974 with the collaboration of 5 Local YMCAs after the liberation war in 1971. This newly liberated country called People’s Republic of Bangladesh became independent on December 16, 1971. The economy of this newly born country was completely destroyed due to nine-month long civil war. However, the economy of this country was not developed at all in the earlier of the independent due to depriving economy policy applied by West Pakistan who ruled the country from the inception of Pakistan in 1947.
Seven (7) more Local YMCAs were formed in a different part of Bangladesh by the direct initiative of National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh. It is now 12 Locate YMCAs associated with the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh. The National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh played an important role during post liberation of Bangladesh by implementing schooling, vocational training to create self-employment among unemployed young people, relief projects to help disaster victims and other need-based community development projects. Many funding partners from Europe, USA and Asia extended their cooperation with the funding supports to implement the above-mentioned community focussed projects. Children Schooling Program is one of the oldest projects which has been able to create huge impact increasing the literacy rate (which is now above 65%) in Bangladesh which was around 26% literacy rate during post liberation in 1975. We acknowledge that Tokyo YMCA is one of our oldest funding partners who till now continuing their partnership with National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh. Last one decades Tokyo YMCA is providing generous funding support in implementing again an Integrated Community Development Programme, the project components are (i) Non-Formal Primary Education Program in brief NFPE and (ii) Capacity Building Projects (earlier supported for Dahapara Health Clinic) through 7 Local YMCAs are associated with the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh.
The Non-Formal Primary Education and Capacity Building will be reflecting only at this last quarter report. It can be mentioned that the seminar/workshop on Mental Health and Total Wellbeing and Good Governance and Etiquette have already been included at the third quarter reports.
- Non-Formal Primary Education Program (NFPE): Children schooling program named Non-Formal Primary Education Program in brief NFPE is one of the old projects. This is launching to introduce the initial education service among the children of poor and marginal households who could not go to formal schools due to proper care and economic constraints. The aim of this NFPE project is to provide easily accessible initial education service especially for the children who are from underprivileged and marginal family background, has the commitment to develop school going attitude both among the children and parents.
This project is continuing this year 2022 with the generous funding support of Tokyo YMCA. We are very much grateful to Tokyo YMCA to support Humanitarian Assistance Project 2021 which was targeted to provide food assistance to the parents who were unable to earn enough income during Covid_19 pandemic to meet basic need of the family. General Secretary of seven (7) Local YMCAs reported us that parents of our children acknowledged their thanks and gratitude for the assistance of food commodities which really helped them.
Goal of the project: Providing value based education program among the children with the aim to build them as human resource and eradicating the illiteracy from Bangladesh.
Project Objectives: To attain the project goal project objectives are;
- To create decent learning environment in conducting daily class so that they can access the education with joy;
- To provide minimum literacy for the children of marginal and destitute families;
- To inspire and create enthusiasm among the learners about education and to establish moral, humanitarian, religious, cultural and social values in personal life;
- To ensure that all children receive the educational materials in the beginning of the schooling year.
Project Location: This calendar year of 2022 the project named Non-Formal Primary Education Program (Children Schooling Program) is implementing at 7 Local YMCAs affiliated with National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh as earlier. The name of Local YMCAs is (a) Birisiri, (b) Edilpur, (c) Jessore, (d) Gopalgonj, (e) Barisal, (f) Kaligram and (g) Savar located at different parts of Bangladesh. As earlier the same premises are being used to run this Children education project. The local YMCAs have reported that the same female teachers are given sole responsible to conduct daily classes and manage schooling project.
Project Activities: The project activities highlighted as follows;
- Student enrolment at individual school: The initial project activity, enrolment of children at seven (7) schools completed within January 20, 2022 reported seven (7) Local YMCA. The teachers of NFPE schools applied the similar strategies as earlier, went to visit the local community where the schools are located, told the parents the importance of education and motivated to send their children for schooling. The most of the children are from poor and marginal background, the parents have less motivation to send their children to school due to poverty.
The following table will show number of students enrolled at seven individual schools at seven Local YMCAs;
| Name of Local YMCA | Class | Student Enrolled | Total | |
| Boys | Girls | |||
| Birisiri YMCA (Usa) | Class Level I | 16 | 14 | 30 |
| Barisal YMCA (Prothom Alo) | Class Level I | 14 | 16 | 30 |
| Edilpur YMCA | Class Level I | 15 | 15 | 30 |
| Gopalgonj YMCA (Matribhasa) | Class Level I | 17 | 13 | 30 |
| Jessore YMCA (Ongkur) | Class Level I | 16 | 24 | 40 |
| Kaligram YMCA (Surjomukhi) | Class Level I | 14 | 16 | 30 |
| Savar YMCA | Class Level I | 14 | 16 | 30 |
| Total | 106 | 114 | 220 | |
- Distribution of Educational materials among the enrolled students: All the children who enrolled at the seven schools received educational materials during the months of January, 2022. The text books are respectively Bengali, Elementary Mathematics, English, Elementary Science, Social Science and Art published by Education Board under Primary Education Ministry, People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Children have also received pencil/pen, eraser and khata which they use in daily classes to perform the assignments given by the class teachers.
- Highlighting Daily Class Activities: Teacher of each school used textbooks (Bengali, Elementary Mathematics, English, Elementary Science, Social Science and Art) to conduct daily classes. The Teachers applied appropriate teaching methods like poster paper, charts, books, animal pictures, black board and marker pen in conducting daily classes. The topics that we taught under each subject of this section are as follows;
Daily Classes: Bengali Subject: During this reporting period the Bengali Subject aims to explore the weakness and remedies for achieving Bangla language and literature skills of Class One in the Non-Formal Primary Education project. The following poem/rhymes, story and class test exercise has taken in the project by using textbook of Class One: Listen and say story watching picture from text book ( like_ Kaka jai, Dab Khai, Dim kini jhil chini) Poem/Rhymes: all students learn the poem Vhor Holo, Dor Kholo written by Bangladesh National Poet Kazi Nazrul Ismal. Students can recite this poem by individually and they are also able to write in their notebook. – Ak ar Dui, Joba ar Jui, Tin ar Char Mayer golar har, Story: a) revision previous story of Shuvo and her Grand Mother and learn the word meaning of this story, practice question and answer through this story. Also, they learn the famous story which name is Rubir’s Garden. Our project students can learn through this story a few flower names like- Rose, Red Joba flower, Marigold Flower, Water lily etc. Through this story, students encourage to involve in their family’s creative work like making seedbeds of flower with elders, taking care of the garden with their parents etc. After that, they learn another story which is name “Mother Loves”. Through this story, they learn about the bird’s mother’s loves and that human should not destroy birds’ nest by cutting trees. They read also another interesting story which name is “Mumus Seven Days”. Through this story they learn about the seven days names and how Mumu spent her seven days with scheduled work. All students are introduced a disciplined life with the story.
Elementary Mathematics Subject: For elementary mathematics, students were taught to sum and deduction math (11 to 30 numbers). During this period the Non-Formal Primary Education (NFPE) project has received tremendous response and the excellent result after implementing the method of the game in this project to teach students mathematics. The NFPE teacher randomly sele cts few students from the classroom and makes the pupil a king or a queen. Every other student then gets five replica notes of Tk. 100. The king or queen, who knows the total amount of replica money in class, asks others to perform basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Students then solve math problems in a fun and interactive way by exchanging replica notes of Tk100, 10 and 1 with the teacher. This is one among dozens of such games designed to help students learn math in an engaging process. The king or queen, who knows the total amount of replica money in class, asks others to perform basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication (from 2 to 5 digits) and simple division. After introducing these fan games for learning math students are happy to come to school and learn math.
English Subject: During this reporting period all students start their lesson with greetings each other and their textbook name is “English for Today”. All students learn how to greet and introduce by themselves in English especially by mentioning their name and class. They also revise lesion through the Textbook chapter Unit 2 (Letter a Lesson 4-6), Also they revised lesson learning Unit 3 (Saying Good Lesson). Finally, they learn two new lessons of this period- a) Number Lesson 2 and b) Commands lesson too. Poems/Rhymes: a) Ring Ring .. .. it’s the phone, Hello Hello! From this rhyme, they learn the alphabet U, V, and W. They learn some new words like Umbrella, Van, Water etc. After that they also review the previous lesson of the Alphabet Song- a, b, c, d .. Now I know my A B C. All students learn a few more new words like-Tiger, Book, Window, Hand, Fish, Jar, Moon and Ant through this alphabet song. Prose/Story: Little Tiger: to learn about Bangladesh cricket’s glory and learn few famous cricketer names like- Mushfiq, Shakib and Tamim.
Elementary Science Subject: The Elementary Science subject’s main aim is to create sound knowledge; attitudes and skills from early childhood for creating a perfect society. During this period the teachers review the previous lesson, for example- the invention of the Computer, a very brief biography about Scientist Jogodish Chandra Bosu who invented the tree has life, National Symbols and Animal Zoo. After that teacher introduce the Human body’s parts and describe how the human body function. Students can learn through this lesson the most important parts of human bodies and they can identify and tell the human body parts names by watching photos.
Social Science Subject: During the reporting time all NFPE students were taught by the Elementary Social Science Subject to learn about the community and its diversity. The experience of Teachers of NFPE project help increase of students’ understanding of their local, national and global communities. So, students begin to explore themselves and the world around them using the essential questions: like- Who am I? Who are we and what is our community? Students can identify themselves through these question’s answers. They also taught about their school, school rules, teamwork in one’s classroom and on the playground. The teacher also reviews previous lessons like- our society (Amader poribesh), surrounding environment, Identifying cardinal directions and animal lessons.
Art Subject: The art (drawing) class is my favorite class in the project. Students can learn how to draw many different pictures and can identify many shapes or colors. The teacher taught the students how to join dots and after joining all dots students finally find out a completely simple picture of house, animal and village pictures. To draw or join dots students do not need to bring material but all things provided by the project. So they learn to draw something step by step and draw animals, flowers pictures. Through this lesson students also learn about different shapes like- straight, Zig Zag, Wavy, Dotted and Curly. They also introduce the words horizontal (when a line runs side to side, like the horizon), vertical (when a line runs up and down), and diagonal (when a line runs on an angle) too.
Class Test: Usually, teachers arranged monthly class tests on each subject. The following table will illustrate the number of examinations that have been conducted under each subject: –
| # | Subjects/Topics | Number of examination |
| 1. | Bengali | 3 |
| 2. | Mathematics | 3 |
| 3. | English | 3 |
| 4. | Elementary Science | 3 |
| 5. | Social Science | 3 |
| 6. | Arts | 3 |
Parents Meeting: The seven Non-Formal Primary Education Project arrange three times parents meeting in the school premises. Usually, the meeting takes place with the concern of parent’s suitable time and the teacher conduct meeting for the 15-20 minutes. During the reporting period, teachers requested in the parents meeting that parents can make their children free to join daily school activities. The teacher also humbly requests all parents to clean children’s uniform regularly, provide sandal/slipper, maintain school time and not engage their children in hard work like- carrying a younger baby, bringing drinking water in a big jar etc.
NFPE Project Management: Each Local YMCA has a Project Committee to assist the board which is assigned to look after all the affairs of project development and implementation. The General Secretary of the Local YMCA is the CEO who delegates the responsibility among the staff members under his/her close supervision. So, the management of NFPE project is part of the supervision of that project committee. One teaching staff is solely responsible to conduct daily classes following the syllabus and textbooks. It has been reported that each school has been able to maintain high attendance of enrolled children at the classes. The General Secretary of 7 Local YMCAs supervised day to day works of NFPE teachers and put in necessary efforts to attain project goals and objectives and update from time to time the progress of project implementation with the project committee. Teachers and General Secretary collectively took the responsibility to ensure all students received educational materials during this reporting period. Teacher and General Secretary of Local YMCAs shared the monthly report with the headquarter of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh on time.
- Capacity Building Project:
The calendar year of 2022 we started our everyday life with the negative affect of last two (2) years COVID_19 pandemic. Social distance and isolation helped us to prevent transmission of COVID_19 but we see now the negative affect of it that people lost their confidence and motivation especially our young people which we consider huge damage on our economy and future generation. It is now more than 60% of total population suffering from the mental health issues at different levels. People lost their motivation and inspiration which is affecting their daily life. It is now time for us to address
According to the report of the statistic impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among general Bangladeshi population shown the prevalence of loneliness, depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance was estimated at 71% (mild: 32%, moderate: 29%, severe: 10%), 38% (mild: 24%, moderate: 11%, severe: 3%), 64% (mild: 30%, moderate: 17%, severe: 17%) and 73% (mild: 50%, moderate: 18%, severe: 5%), respectively. In Bangladesh, the key factors associated with poor mental health during COVID-19 were female sex, unemployment, being a student, obesity and living without a family. The present study also identified statistically significant interrelationships among the measured mental health issues. To address the situation created due to COVID-19 pandemic the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh decided to include three (3) components; the seminar on Mental Health and Total Wellbeing (arranged on August 04-06, 2022), Workshop on Good Governance and Etiquette (September 01-03, 2022) and YMCA Youth Camp under Capacity Building Project.
- Mental Health and Total Wellbeing Seminar
Seminar Objectives: At the end of two days sessions on Mental Health and Total Wellbeing seminar all the participants will: –
- have the opportunity of knowing in new way of wellbeing for continues experience of joy and happiness in life;
- learn about science of success to experience it in individual life;
- experience the usefulness of YOGA to maintain sound physical and mental wellbeing.
Seminar Venue and Dates: The seminar on Mental Health and Total Wellbeing took place at the newly constructed YMCA Training Center and Guest House located at B-2, Jaleswar, Savar, Dhaka-1343 having modest food, accommodation and conference hall facilities. YMCA Training Center and Guest House is a new income generation project of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh. The seminar on Mental Health and Total Wellbeing was held on August 04 – 06, 2022
Participants with sex: Though the office of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh invited 33 participants from eleven (11) Local YMCAs (three participants from each Local YMCA) but we had to accept few more participants from some Local YMCAs considering their request. The following table will show the date of the Seminar and number of participants:
| # | Dates | Projected Participants | Actual Participants | Participants from Local YMCAs |
| 1. | August 04 – 06, 2022 | 33 Participants | 38 (M-27, F-11) | Eleven (11) Local YMCAs |
Seminar Sessions: The three days mental health and wellbeing seminar gave all participants a clear concept of total wellbeing and achieve steps to the science of success.
- Day One: Arrival and Registration, participants receive training stationeries (Notebook, pen, ID card, and cloths beg, etc), a brief orientation about the seminar and the program schedule.
- Day Two: Early morning Yoga Session (6:00 am), Morning devotion, Inauguration of Seminar, Ground rule setting, Objectives of the seminar, Clear concept about Wellbeing, Power of Brain, Mind and Meditation, Science of Success and the success’s five steps (Gratitude, Focus on Aim, Donation or charity, Persistence and Teamwork).
- Day Three: Early morning Yoga Session (6:00 am), Morning devotion, Recap of previous day sessions, Science of Well-Being (Control anger and Tension, Proper meditation, Balanced diet, Bad effect of social media and its proper utilization), Stress control by Meditation.
Facilitators: We invited external Facilitator to conduct entire two days sessions. The name of the facilitator Eng. Pranjit Lal Shil, Organier Quantum Foundation, Mr. Sanjoy Kumar Roy, Instructor YOGA Foundation and Ms. Tilokanondini, Instructor YOGA Foundation. Quantum Foundation is a well know organization for counselling center, confidence building and mental health wellbeing.
Immediate outcomes
This time we started listening the comments and feedback from participants after first day session. Few participants came to us and excitedly told that the topics of the seminar are useful for them and they are enjoying the discussions by facilitator. One female participant told that this kind of seminar should have been arranged earlier and also this seminar needs to be arranged again and again. Because many young people need to attend at such seminar to find their life joy and meaningful. Few young people told us in the middle of second day session that it should be more than three days.
All participants were able to follow or identify the negative impact of social media and find ways to recover from it. During the seminar participants can practically learn the proper meditation methods and the recovery system from mental illness through meditation. More specifically they were able to understand the Science of success to use the human brain, proper diet and following the five steps of success guidelines. All participants received mental health educational material which they could use it with their local YMCA members, friends and relatives. They told at the evaluation session to share their learning experiences with their fellow friends and relatives.
- Good Governance and Etiquette & Manners Workshop
The aim of arranging regional based Good Governance workshop is to impart and equip the participants (youth and lay leaders of Local YMCAs) with the appropriate knowledge and information on Good Governance Practices, important areas of global operating plan so that they could practice their learning in governing YMCA in Bangladesh. This is so important to understand and practice of the principle of Good Governance is the fundamental to keep going smoothly and sustainable way our youth focus movement. This year we added new component named Etiquette & Manners which covered the basic concept of Etiquette, Manners and its importance, difference between a person who possesses the characteristics of Etiquette and Manner and a general person, the strategies and processes to be a person of Etiquette and Manners in personal, family, social, professional life and a citizen.
Both young people and elderly members of the local YMCAs are our target to disseminate the basic of good governance principles and practices and etiquette and manners, discuss elaborately the common components of YMCA constitution so that young people, lay leaders and professionals are well informed so that they could play significant role in their own Local YMCAs as well as in the community to establish peace and justice in this changing society.
Workshop Venue and Dates: The workshop on Good Governance and Etiquette & Manners was arranged at YMCA Training Center and Guest House located at B-2, Jaleswar, Savar, Dhaka-1343 where modest food, accommodation and conference hall facilities are available with reasonable price. YMCA Training Center and Guest House is a new income generation project of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh. The workshop on Good Governance and Etiquette & Manners held on September 1-3, 2022
Participants with sex: Again, though the office of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh invited 33 participants from eleven (11) Local YMCAs (three participants from each Local YMCA) but we had to accept few more participants from some Local YMCAs considering their request. The following table will show the date of the Seminar and number of participants:
| # | Dates | Projected Participants | Actual Participants | Participants from Local YMCAs |
| 1. | September 01 – 03, 2022 | 33 Participants | 39 (M-27, F-12) | Eleven (11) Local YMCAs |
Workshop Sessions:
- Day One: Arrival and Registration, participants receive training related stationaries (Notebook, pen, ID card, cloths beg, etc), a brief orientation about the workshop and discuss the program schedule.
- Day Two: Morning devotion, Inauguration of the workshop, Workshop Ground rule setting, The basic concept and knowledge of participants about Good Governance, Basic Concept of Good Governance & Good Governance Practices, Executive Committee: Its power and functions, Role & Responsibilities of Office Bearers, YMCA Global Operating Plan.
- Day Three: Morning devotion, Recap of previous day’s sessions, Basic concept of Etiquette, Manners and its importance, Basic difference between a person who possesses the characteristics of Etiquette and Manner and a general person, The strategies and process to be a person of Etiquette and Manners in personal, family, social, professional life and a citizen.
Resource Persons: The sessions on Good Governance were facilitated by Mr. Jony Hubert Rozario, President of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh and Mr. Nipun Sangma, National General Secretary. However, the third day whole day sessions conducted by Eng. Pranjit Lal Shil, Organier Quantum Foundation. Day three in the early morning at 6:00 am one hour YOGA sessions led by Ms. Tilokanondini, Instructor YOGA Foundation (female group) and Eng. Pranjit Lal Shil (male group).
Immediate Outcomes: In the concluding session, each participant was asked to give their feedback/comments regarding the workshop contents and arrangement. Participants think in attending the workshop, it helped them to increase their knowledge and clear up the concept of Good Governance, YMCA Global Operating Plan and Etiquette & Manners. All the sessions helped them to build their confidence as well as capacities. They felt the importance of good governance is deeper to make an organization active and sustainable. Most of the Youth participants expressed their sincere gratitude to relate Etiquette & Manners at this workshop because they can learn about the manner, etiquette and basic difference between the general person and the person who possess etiquette & manner. Our target is be a person of etiquette & manner.
3. YMCA Youth Camp
To goal of YMCA Youth Camp was to discuss in details about COVID-19 pandemic, our bitter and painful experiences during COVID-19, the impact of COVID-19 the prevalence of loneliness, depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance and introduces the basic awareness building measures among the participants of YMCA Youth Camp to prevent future COVID-19 transmission. The management of the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh was convinced to accommodate one day session to discuss on Mental Health and Wellbeing issues as it found huge demand from the young people and lay leaders who attended at the seminar on Mental Health and Total Wellbeing and Good Governance and Etiquette workshop in 2022.
Objectives:
At the end of two days sessions of YMCA Youth Camp all the participants will: –
- have the opportunity of knowing in new way of wellbeing for continues experience of joy and happiness in life;
- learn about science of success to experience it in individual life;
- able to learn consequences of COVID-19 and preventive measure and get the opportunity to engage civic activity.
YMCA Youth Camp Venue and Dates:
YMCA Youth Camp took place at the premises of Birisiri YMCA (one of the local YMCAs located at the Northern-East part of Bangladesh) where modest food, accommodation and conference hall facilities are available. The guest house is one of the income generation projects of Birisiri YMCA. YMCA Youth Camp was held on September 30 – October 02, 2022 (excluding arrival and departure dates).
Participants with sex: Though the original target was to invite 50 young people but considering the demand of Local YMCA we accepted 62 young people from 11 Local YMCAs at the youth camp. The following table will show the date of the Seminar and number of participants:
| # | Dates | Projected Participants | Actual Participants | Participants from Local YMCAs |
| 1. | September 30 – October 02, 2022 | 50 Participants | 62 (M-37, F-25) | Eleven (11) Local YMCAs |
Seminar Sessions: The three days mental health and wellbeing seminar gave all participants a clear concept of total wellbeing and achieve steps to the science of success.
- Day One: Arrival and Registration, participants receive training stationeries (Notebook, pen, ID card, and cloths beg, etc), a brief orientation about the seminar and the program schedule.
- Day Two: Early morning Yoga Session (6:00 am), Morning devotion, Inauguration of Seminar, Ground rule setting, Objectives of the seminar, Clear concept about Wellbeing, Power of Brain, Mind and Meditation, Science of Success and Science of Wellbeing (Control anger and Tension, Proper meditation, Balanced diet, Bad effect of social media and its proper utilization), Stress control by Meditation.
- Day Three: Early morning Yoga Session (6:00 am), Morning devotion, Recap of previous day sessions, Our Experience of Covid-19 Pandemic and Action for Future, Question and clarifications, Field work by youth participants (aware building in the communities on preventive measures of COVID-19 transmission), Feedback on field works, closing ceremony and cultural night.
Facilitators: We invited external Facilitator to conduct day one session. Facilitator Eng. Pranjit Lal Shil, Organier Quantum Foundation facilitated entire day 0ne sessions. Mr. Nipun Sangma, National General Secretary facilitated Day two (Half day) session. Mr. Biplob Rangsa, Executive Secretary for Programme was played the key role of field work program (all participants were divided into ten groups for field work include to taught the preventive measures from COVID-19 transmission