In our country, 32% of all girls are married before they reach the age of 15. Forced child marriages usually result in higher chances of the girl experiencing complications during pregnancy, getting infected with HIV and facing domestic violence at the hands of older husbands. Both Mitu and Tania ran the risk of being forced into an early marriage, but over time through the Adolescent Development Programme (ADP) and with support from Brac staff, they were able to convince their parents to prevent the process.
In August of 2014, Mitu and Tania attended and spoke at the DFID Youth For Change event which preceded the first ever global Girl Summit.
After its initiation back in 1993, as a subset of Brac’s school for older children, the Adolescent Development Programme have come a long way in awareness building and promoting extra curricular activities. It works with Ministry of Women & Children Affairs (MoWCA) and Department of Youth Development under the Minisry of Youth and Sports. Furthermore, MoWCA signed an MoU with brac to emulate the ADP model at the country’s seven districts of seven divisions, where ADP is providing its entire technical support.
The ADP in Manikganj was created on March 25, 2012 and it has been going quite strong since then. This is a girls-only club, comprising 25 to 35 adolescent members ranging between the ages of 10 to 19 years, or as we are more familiar with the phrase, between grade 6 to their intermediate exams. The club welcomed everyone in that age group regardless of whether they went to school or not.
The ADP club house turned out to be a neat one-storey construction made almost entirely out of tin. It appeared to hold ample space inside, but what caught the eyes instantly were the shoes that were neatly arranged in a semi circle outside on the edge of the doorway. It showed discipline with a hint of childish playfulness.
Right upon entering the club house, we stepped onto an all too humble but quite clean and rather large carpet on which teenagers wearing everything from regular, causal clothes to school uniforms were seated calmly, bordering the edges of the wall. This sitting arrangement, as we later discovered was called “The big team” which comprised the entire room full of club members inclusive of a subset of four “small teams.”
Soon enough our attention was drawn to the three walls besides the one housing a huge blackboard. The walls had areas depicting team names and where they are supposed to sit, there were also pull outs from books printed in large letters posted beside them, but what held the attention were the array of drawings that filled the walls. It simultaneously told of who were drawing them and what idea inspired them to draw such images. The subjects mostly revolved around teenage girls becoming independent and self aware.
Sessions as we later found out, were conducted by instructors who had previously received training from Brac training facilities and subsequently approved. These sessions were held twice a week, two hours a day, always on a Thursday and on any other day of the week that all the members agreed upon. Classes revolved largely around awareness regarding education, exchanging views and experiences, recreation, indoor and outdoor sports, socialising, singing, dancing and stage performances (theatre) - activities that were mostly frowned upon in their homes.
After a brief conversation with the instructor, it was revealed that heavy emphasis was given to social issues, relating to violence and illegal acts upon women. There were text books called “Apon” books that elaborated on these subjects.
APON stands for Adolescent Peer Organised Network (Life Skill based Education) and this form of education had 11 primary topics or ingredients as they like to put it. They were: decision making, contemplation, problem solving, innovation, right communication, relationship maintenance, exercising empathy, insights into situations, knowledge about the self, surviving under emotional pressure, and surviving under mental pressure.
This list is followed by a longer list of 19 social issues on which club members were educated and made aware as well. The social issues are: children rights, gender discrimination, dowry, child marriage, divorce, adolescence, menstruation cycles, dream disorders, pedophilia, rape, acid attacks, narcotic substances, addiction, terrorism, child smuggling, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV Aids, pregnant woman care and family planning.
Apart from these two lists, focus is also given on issues revolving around responsibility towards the disabled and the autistic, and on disaster risk management.
This particular instructor with her nearly flawless penmanship with a chalk, made heavy use of the blackboard, much like what we used to encounter during the early 90s in our own classrooms back in school. The first session started with a musical enactment of the subject matter from the previous class, which was divorce.
Three girls from group 1 namely, Parvin, Sumaiya and Nupur, performed admirably which showed that the members of the club were, jolly, creative, supportive and valued practice in whatever they pursue.
After the musical ended, everyone sat according to the requirements of the four small groups, which were then told to turn to a particular topic in their Apon books. This day’s topic was child marriage. The members went through the text for a while until they were asked to stop, quizzed on what they had just learned, and given points based on answers provided.
Questions were asked on the different ages of legal marriage for men and women; the adversities faced due to marrying prematurely, namely, discontinued education, physical complications and pregnancy complications relating to both the mother and the child, punishments applicable from child marriage and punishments applicable for marriage that has not been properly registered. All the four teams scored brilliantly and showed genuine comprehension and interest when they elaborated on their responses.
The awareness education session then gave way to a dance performance, followed by a solo song and a group song. While the performers were not exactly performance art competition finalists, they were in no way any less than the entrants of such competitions.
After the conclusion of performances it was time for sports and since this particular club specialised in cricket, that was what we were about to witness. All the mebers of the club were directed to collect uniforms and equipments such as, cricket bats, wickets and gloves.
On our way to the field which was some way off, we couldn’t help but be aware of something unique about the way the girls made their way to the field. The word unshackled came to mind; they walked in a distinctively unselfconscious manner that we are accustomed to seeing only in groups of adult males in cities.
Upon reaching the field which appeared to have been pulled right out of a classic Bangladeshi calendar, the girls who were now barely recognizable in their two sets of uniforms, started setting up the playing ground with crease and wicket stumps.
The game started, and as soon as they started playing, the atmosphere shifted to something serious. Gone were the carefree laughter and the free flowing rise and fall of chitchats. Faces became squinted in concentration, arms swung bringing the whole body into a fluid, airborne motion.
Beyond these obvious phenomena, what stood out was the ease and clarity with which faltering steps were shrugged off putting in place fresh concentration, in a matter of seconds. They appeared to be neither sentimental nor remorseful in their mistakes, they quickly learned from them and came back with new ferocity.
An example of this became all too prominent when the ball wasn’t bouncing high enough due to a certain wet portion of the pitch, this hurdle was instantly grasped by the bowler and in the following swing was thrown with a speed and power that compensated for the damp soft patch.
The ball swung up and uprooted the middle stump with a determined impact. The batsmen on the other hand, exuded a strange combination of grace and force that we don’t see often; the braids swinging in a circular motion in tandem with the swinging bat only added to the whole uniqueness.
Over the course of our stay, we were given information on the machinations of all the ADP club houses out there; there were numerous clubs all over the country all functioning in the same manner at different stages of development. Apparently, there were two other clubs not too far away, similar to the one we encountered except for the fact that they specialised in volley ball and football, while this one focused on cricket; along with these, there was something akin to a theatre troupe. Additionally they taught safe swimming as a preventive measure for frequent drowning risks.
We even heard plans for Karate and self defence programmes in the near future. Apart from basic training, women often travel to the city to receive formal, specialised training in certain disciplines, such as running a beauty parlour, so that upon return they could then set up shop and become a highly contributing member of the community by creating work opportunities.
Club members who are in dire need of financial aid are given a stipend and training in basic computer literacy is often provided to everyone in the club. This particular literacy programme is a collaborative effort put forth by Brac and the British Council. ADP clubs often house their own journalists, trained in news media from Brac. Along with celebrating national and international days like International AIDS day and Tree Plantation day, the clubs hold an annual fair in winter involving stalls, games and cultural programmes.
There are two major community leader workshops that span the entire year: one from January to June and the other from July to December. These involve promotion and awareness campaigns relating to issues like child marriage, dowry, divorce, rape, AIDS etc.
There is something called a Community Based Child Protection Committee (CBCPC) which consists of the senior and influential members of the community, and this body plays the role of overseeing the events and campaigns enacted by the children.
Last but not least, there is an Advanced Adolescent Group (AAG) who, during the Community Leadership Workshops, receive five day training sessions, while the same training is given to the CBCPC in three days. When endeavouring to resolve a social issue and facing insurmountable obstacles, the AAG is encouraged to consult with the CBCPC so that they can be facilitated and the issue can be resolved following the path of least resistance.