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STORY: UNFPA / BANGLADESH GAIBANDHA ED VISIT
TRT: 5:24
SOURCE: UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNFPA ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / BANGLA / NATS
DATELINE: 14 MAY 2024, GAIBANDHA, BANGLADESH
UNION HEALTH CENTER, SHAPMARA
1. Wide, girls dancing and singing in a line
2. Medium wide, Dr. Kanem walks through corridor
3. Medium, Dr. Kanem joins girls in the community to dance in a circle
4. Closeup, dancing and smiling
5. Closeup, women writes in ledger
6. Closeup, Dr. Kanem walks down corridor
7. Medium, a newborn baby with a midwife and the mother
8. Closeup, mother lays baby down
9. Medium, mothers with children
10. Medium, Dr. Kanem meets with a mother holding her baby
11. Medium, Dr. Kanem speaks with a midwife
12. Medium, mothers with children
13. Closeup, a mother with her child
14. Closeup, two girls
15. Medium, mothers with children
16. Closeup, Dr. Kanem claps with a midwife
17. Med, Dr. Kanem talks with a girl
18. Closeup, midwives
19. Medium, Dr. Kanem shakes hands with a midwife
20. Medium, Dr. Kanem with midwives and a baby
21. Wide, Dr. Kanem walks through a corridor of girls dancing
SADAR POLICE STATION, GAIBANDHA
22. Medium, police officers greet Dr. Kanem
23. Wide, Dr. Kanem enters the police station
24. Medium, Dr. Kanem enters the service desk
25. Medium, Dr. Kanem talks with police station staff
26. Wide, briefing in service desk room
27. Medium, Dr. Kanem listens to police officers
28. Medium, Dr. Kanem listens to police officers
29. Wide, Dr. Kanem listens to police officers
30. Medium, Dr. Kanem listens to police officers
31. Wide, female police officers
32. Closeup, female police officers
33. Medium, Dr. Kanem with a female police officer
34. Wide, female police officers
GANA UNNAYAN KENDRA (GUK) GUESTHOUSE, GAIBANDHA
35. Wide, Hijra community introductions
36. Wide, Hijras seated
37. Wide, a member of the hijra community speaks
38. Medium, members of the hijra community
39. Medium, a member of the hijra community speaks
40. Med, Dr. Kanem listening
41. Wide, Dr. Kanem listening
42. Medium, a member of the hijra community speaks
43. Medium, a member of the hijra community speaks
44. Medium, community members
45. Medium, a member of the hijra community speaks
46. Closeup, a member of the hijra community speaks
47. Closeup, a member of the hijra community speaks
48. Wide, group listening
49. Wide, Dr. Kanem listening
50. Wide, group listening
51. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Natalia Kanem, United Nations Population Fund Executive Director: “The truth is that Hijra people are beautiful. Sometimes it’s hard to feel that way because society may not approve or they can be mean and disrespectful. But that doesn’t change the fact that Hijra people are quite beautiful, beautiful hearts.”
52. Medium, Hijra women listening
53. Wide, group listening
54. Wide, Hijra women dancing
55. Wide, Hijra women dancing and singing
56. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Natalia Kanem, United Nations Population Fund Executive Director: “In meeting with a group of transgender individuals from this community, they tell me that during times of stress, when you need access to urgent emergency services, discrimination excludes them. UNFPA is working hard to end the stigma and discrimination that affects key populations and to defend the right to health for everyone together.”
The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Natalia Kanem visited Gaibandha, a priority district for UNFPA, due to its complex vulnerabilities and challenges, including frequent flooding during the Monsoon season.
At the Shapmara Union health center, Dr. Kanem met with midwives from the indigenous Santal community, which has high rates of maternal mortality. Santal women have not traditionally given birth in health facilities, due to their customs, language barriers and other issues. Since July 2020, UNFPA has trained these Santal midwives to support facility-based births, and to help the Santal overcome language barriers when visiting healthcare facilities, resulting in an increase in the institutional delivery rate from 3 to 20 percent.
Coming from the Santal community, these Santal midwives have built trust with the Santal women, treating them with respect and dignity. They speak the local language; understand local customs; and enable women to deliver safely, and with dignity.
Next, at a police station in Gaibandha, the Executive Director visited the service desk for women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities. UNFPA piloted these service desks at 15 police stations to support survivors of gender-based violence with legal support and safe referrals to other essential services, taking a survivor-centered approach.
The success of this programme led the Bangladesh Police to extend it nationwide. The desks now operate in 653 police stations across Bangladesh, including 7 in Gaibandha. Last year, more than 5,000 women and girls received assistance from service desks in Gaibandha District.
Concluding her visit, Dr. Kanem met with members of the hijra transgender community, who face social and economic exclusion and stigma. Barred from most jobs, educational services and usually their families, the hijra are socially isolated and very vulnerable.
During the annual monsoon flooding, they are often excluded from evacuation centres and cannot access relief and emergency services. In 2020, UNFPA implemented an anticipatory action programme in northwestern districts of Bangladesh including Gaibandha district - the first of its kind in Bangladesh. Ahead of the monsoon flooding season, UNFPA provided the hijra community, as well as elderly people and disabled women with financial support and more than 6,000 dignity kits to enable them to prepare and/or relocate prior to the disaster.
UNFPA is part of the fight against the stigma, discrimination, and taboos around gender identity that transgender individuals face during natural disasters, to ensure no one is left behind.
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