Theme of 2020

The theme of the 5th Knowledge Fair is ‘SRHR for Adolescents and Youth’ reflecting the SDG goal 3 -‘Good Health and Well Being’. The context is to ensure healthy lives for adolescents and youth of Bangladesh in terms of their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Our vision is to see a world in the future where men, women or people of other gender will not face any kind of shame, stigma or discrimination regarding their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The first step to achieve this vision is to invest in today’s adolescents and youth by giving them the opportunity to raise their issues, to ask questions, and supporting them by fulfilling their demands according to their necessities.

One fifth of the population in Bangladesh are adolescents – about 36 million. Adolescence is the most vulnerable period in a person’s life, as during this period they go through many changes related to physical and mental growth. However, the cultural context of Bangladesh does not allow them to ask questions about their own bodies, they have no clear ideas from where they can seek services. This leads to adolescents engaging in risky behaviour, such as practicing unsafe sex and wto browse harmful sites in the internet that may misguide them or to provide them wrong/unscientific information about their body and sexual desire. A few adolescent friendly health services are available in Bangladesh but their catchment and awareness both are limited. Therefore, adolescents suffer from lack of information and services and they fail to develop a congenial service seeking behaviour.

SRHR is an essential part of young people’s lives. They are in the best position to draw everyone’s attention to the most pressing concerns being faced by them, and can offer innovative practical solutions. Share-Net Bangladesh has actively involved with young people through its activities of Youth Hub, Young Researcher Fellowship and a Community of Practice (CoP) Meeting. With the central focus of this year’s knowledge fair, we aim to contribute towards improving adolescents’ and young people’s SRHR by providing more opportunities,which will enable them to know their rights, share their knowledge, and create networks for the improvement of their own SRHR. Shortly, we want to create YOUTHPower!!

(This Knowledge Fair will focus on adolescents and the youth aged between 11-25 years.)