Child Protection in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, child protection is integrated into social servcies and community development programs that are mainly offered by non-governmental agencies. "Shako" will present different child welfare agencies who are diligently working for children's right and protection, and providing services to this disadvantaged population. Apart from limited government social welfare agencies' involvement, extended family members mostly take care of children when they are vulnerable or need care. There is no foster care services present in the country. Children are protected by families from abuse where family values are still strong and dominant. Usually, family members come forward to care for their loved ones irrespective of their socio-economic status. Therefore, we need to look at socio-economic structures, institutions and values that ensure and promote children's well-being and safety in the Bangladesh setting.

• ACSR
• ATSEC
• Bangladesh Council for Child Welfare
• Children Trust
• Families for Children
• Odhikar
• Save the Children UK
• SOS Children's Village

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What is Child Welfare

Children need love, care and protection. They need help when families can not meet their needs. Child welfare is the most human response to the needs of the most distressed and vulnerable population of the society i.e.children. Therefore, child welfare is designed to protect children from harm and danger, prevent abuse and neglect, intervene when they need help and support families to grow for children. Today's child welfare has transformed to family focused services that ensure safety, well-being, and permanency. Child Welfare is no longer limited in a geogrpahic location, its mission and scope go beyond any border and geographic boundary. It provides a spectrum of services which is subject to socio-political and economic contexts that shape its delivery to the community. Shako's journey will simultaneously feature key child welfare services both in Washington, DC metro area and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two different and unrelated scenarios will bring us together to envision a universal worldview about children's issues. Shako will present:

• Child Protection Services
• Foster Care Services
• Adoption Services
  

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Why Shako?

"Shako" is a Bangla word that means small bridge. "Shako" emerges here as an e-bridge to raise awareness about children's issues and services in the United States of America and Bangladesh. I am committed to present a portrait of child welfare services in a simple format that will benefit children, parents, students, teachers, researchers, social workers, child welfare professionals and all concerned community members.

The world of children is full of suffering, deprivation, and poverty who are supposed to be cared and loved in order to grow. Shako reminds us caring children with love and protecting them are our shared responsiblity. Therefore, if our efforts help or touch at least one parent, one child, one community- right here or back there, what else we need. If Shako has already enlightened you, are you ready to help a child? Look at the resources, and get involved. After all, you should be proud as you are the one who is going to make difference today for a child. Read more!

Bangladesh beats India

Bangladesh beats India in child welfare filed. Times of India reports on December 12, 2003: "Bangladesh and Sri Lanka look after their children better than India does. Unicef’s State of the World’s Children Report 2004, released on Thursday, says they are way ahead of India and Pakistan in providing health care and education to children. Among the 160 countries covered, India fares a little better than the sub-Saharan African countries in terms of infant mortality. Net primary school enrolment is as high as 96 per cent in Bangladesh and 97 per cent in Sri Lanka. In India it is 76 per cent and in Pakistan, 56 per cent..." Read more!

Welcome to Shako

"Shako" invites everyone to come forward to help children and their families. Let's shower smile for every child. Let's make every child happy and safe. Let them grow for tomorrow. In order to raise children, we need you, your family, your neighborhood, your city and your country to come together. After all, it's our collective human responsibility. Just ask yourself, what have you done today to make a child happy and safe? Shako invites you to join hands for children to disseminate information, diffuse knowledge, break walls of ignorance and indifference, and put words into action. This following excerpt from Tagore's Gitanjali will enlighten you. Almost a century ago bengali poet Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in his Gitanjali eloquently wrote this lyric:
"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth...
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening
Thought and action ----
Into that heaven of freedom, my father,
let my country awake" Read more!