Report on Divisional level sharing workshop- Zilla Parishad, Chittagong

On April 12, 2011 Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), one of the partner NGOs of Concern Universal organized a Divisional level sharing workshop in Chittagong Zilla Parishad, Chittagong.  It was a part of the activities of Capacity strengthening on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation project of Concern Universal.

           A total 105 participants attended in this workshop.  Additional Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong Division was the chief guest, Deputy Director of Fire Service & Civil Defiance of Chittagong and Director of Local Government in Chittagong Division was the Special guest and Director of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital was the president in this workshop. Others participants were ED of different NGOs, representatives of NGOs, CUB representatives, representatives from Scouts, Red-Crescent, representatives from Educational & Medical Institution, representatives from Chittagong City Corporation, CDA, WASA, District level officials in Chittagong Division, Ms, Khaleda Begum, Team Leader of YPSA was moderator in this program.

At the beginning of the workshop, moderator Ms, Khaleda Begum presented welcome speech on behalf of Young Power in Social Action (YPSA). Ms. Kanika Chakraborty delivered welcome message on behalf of Concern Universal – Bangladesh. Mr. Masud Rana, Assistant Project Manager of CUB presented a documentary on different types of hazard of Chittagong division. After that, he discussed total project activities by showing slides in power point. Climate is changing day by day, so we ought to adopt to the situation. This is the platform to share personal opinion how to adopt with the change and what should we do to reduce the disaster risk- his requested was to the audience.

After this session participants contributed to open discussion. The followings are participants' opinion in open discussion:

• At first one has to know about the hazards and disaster, and consequently have the responsibility to inform it to others.
• We are not following the rule of building code, we ought to follow it.
• We should change our medical system with climate change.
• We should work together for reducing disaster risk.
• We need to build strong community or the strength of community
• It is very important to inform every body for awareness building.
• We can reduce the risk if we all try together. 

        Mr. Mostafizur Rahman, Director of Chittagong Medical College and Hospital & president of this workshop, articulated that from this workshop we learnt a lot, and now we need to replicate it to our organization and our community. We need to create cultivatable land and plantation areas. We should maintain building code. Finally he thanked all for active participation before concluding the workshop.

Reported by,
Masud Rana
CU-Bangladesh