safe space

December 6, 2017

Inside Cox’s Bazar’s settlements where childhood and laughter still exist

Almost each day these days, I wake up and make my way to the makeshift camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar, the site of the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis of recent times. Life in these settlements is brutal- I see the struggles of the women, men and children who have recently arrived, most exhausted and traumatised.
April 20, 2016

How do we empower the next generation of girls? With girls.

When Sa’a jumped from the moving truck, she wasn’t thinking about her education that had just been cut short. She was fleeing for her life.
March 10, 2016

How do we get more women into workplaces?

Women in the workplace make sense. According to the World Economic Forum, companies with a strong track record of gender diversity are 15 per cent more likely to have higher earnings than their peers. The Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women on their boards significantly outperform the others.
July 17, 2015

African schoolgirls: Dropped out, but not left behind

We face tremendous problems keeping girls in school as they transition through adolescence. In Sierra Leone, 30 per cent of reported rapes take place in the school environment, and a recent ruling banned 'visibly pregnant' girls from school. When the school itself becomes a hostile setting, it should come as no surprise that dropout rates shoot up.
April 16, 2015

Technology for gender justice

Since its inception in 1972, BRAC has been all about empowering women. Efforts to improve gender relations within the organisation itself resulted in the gender quality action learning programme and ‘mon khule kotha bola’, a forum where all staff members, especially women, could share their opinions with the management. BRAC Gender Justice and Diversity has always been quick to respond to programme participants with questions about issues of violence, sexual harassment and women’s health. The following is an example of one such case received from a BRAC school student.
March 23, 2015

Non-hierarchial learning at SSCOPE: Expressing through the arts

To create a more fluid space in the classroom, where learning is not hierarchical, lessons on sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender (SRHRG) and psychosocial counselling are designed to be more art and activity-centric at SSCOPE schools. These schools are designed by the Institute of Educational Development of BRAC University to address the high level of dropout at secondary schools.
January 5, 2014

How do you break the cycle of poverty? These girls found an answer

Uganda is the youngest country in the world. But in safe spaces far from family pressure and male attention, girls are turning the energy of youth into a forc