Assam: Workshop on child-friendly spaces concludes in Guwahati city

Guwahati: The state-level capacity-building workshop in three  batches for district-level teams on Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) during emergencies have been concluded today with a successful lesson learnt by the participants.

The workshop started on June 3, 2024 at the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj –North Eastern Regional Centre (NIRDPR- NERC), Guwahati. The workshop has been organized to strengthen the district level Key Resource Persons (KRP) from Department of School Education (DoSE) and Women & Child Development (WCD) of all the districts for further disseminating training to district/circle/block level functionaries for conducting basic in situ- camp level awareness programmes for children in relief camps or children whose education continuity has been impacted by disaster.

The workshop was organized by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) in collaboration with UNICEF, Assam. ASDMA has planned to capacitate the relief camps in the districts with “school in a box kit/CFS kits” which will be handed over to the school authorities which are used as relief camps with an objective to strengthen the camps with materials and resources to run the camps smoothly. ASDMA has also planned to strengthen the camps by installing sanitary napkin vending machines with incinerators for women and adolescent girls in relief camps subjecting to fully functional vending machines and duly replenished with sanitary napkins during camp operation. During the valedictory session today, Dr. Om Prakash, Mission Director, Samagra Siksha Assam, appreciated ASDMA, UNICEF and NIRDPR for making the workshop successful. He emphasized on the importance of identifying and addressing multiple needs of children including continuing the education of the children, protecting children from abuse and exploitation in camps as well as post disaster risks of school dropouts, trafficking, child marriage etc. Reducing the psycho-social trauma faced by the affected children is also one of the most important fact to be addressed by the CFS. In his special remarks, Prof. T. Vijay Kumar, Associate Professor, NIRDPR-NERC cherished ASDMA for leading this kind of innovative initiatives for disaster risk reduction of which CFS is one. CFS would help to bring the resilience of the children with special needs also, a press release said.

Also Read: Maternal and Child Death Rates Decline in Assam During Financial Year 2023-24: NHM Workshop Reveals (sentinelassam.com)

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