Membership & Youth Development

Membership

The membership of YWCA of Bangladesh with a mission to defend human rights and ensure social security is open to any women or girl who desires to be associated with the world wide fellowship of the YWCA. She should have sympathy with the core Aim of YWCA and will be committed to its vision and activities as well. The membership of YWCA is available under the following category-

Any woman of sixteen years of age or over being possessed of a great sympathy with the Purpose and Functions of the YWCA may, on payment of the requisite dues, become a Member.

To be affiliated with YWCA of Bangladesh, any local association has to maintain and fulfill some well-defined conditions set forth below:

Every Association shall signify in writing its acceptance of the Constitution of the YWCA of Bangladesh.
Every Association shall file an official, dated copy of its constitution and Bye-laws with the National Board, and secure its approval for proposed amendments to it.
Every Association shall confirm to requirements set forth below and include them in its constitution.

i. The basis of YWCA of Bangladesh must be quoted in full in the Constitution of affiliated Associations.

ii. Every Association shall embody in its Constitution the following statement of Aim:

a) To bring women and girls into a worldwide Christian fellowship

b) To provide opportunities for the growth of the spiritual, intellectual, social and physical welfare of women and girls

c) To train and to provide women and girls with opportunities of service

d) To make women and girls aware of their own situation and help to change and develop their situation.

Every association shall pay annually a share of the expense of the National Association in accordance with a plan adopted by the National Assembly.
Every Association shall send to the National Board Progress Reports of its work, the Annual Report and audited financial statement.
Every Association shall appoint its own General Secretary whose appointment will be ratified by the National Board.
Every Association shall use the approved membership form prepared by the National YWCA for the enrolment of members.

Members amounted to 2257 at present are the true driving force of YWCA.

Through the YWCA, the inner beings of women are being stimulated to discover their potentials, become leaders and use their power for attaining pragmatic change. The main strategies being followed are:

Increasing members’ involvement in management of organizational activities.
Enlightening the members through workshops, seminars, discussion sessions, etc on relevant issues.
Developing women’s leadership qualities through training, exchange program, exposure visits at home and abroad.

As an effective tool of empowering women, YWCA invests significantly on the development of its members and organizes various capacity building activities under the stewardship of life skill development programs through out the year.

Achievements

Some of the major achievements under this program are:

Increased strengths and dynamism in leadership among the members
Increased number of active and dedicated members
Increased ownership of the members on organization development.

Youth Development Program

Youth development program mapped out by YWCA of Bangladesh is to ensure multidimensional youth development comprising a process of human growth & development, a

philosophical orientation to social & community development as well as a programmatic framework for youth services. It provides mentoring, life skills training, tutoring resources and exposure activities to the young women with an emphasis on acquiring the following skills, abilities and competencies required to navigate their life towards prosperity –

Social competencies: like family life skills, problem-solving skills, communication skills
Moral competencies: like a sense of responsibility and citizenship (including participation in community service that is to say development activity)
Emotional competencies: like a sense of personal identity, self-confidence
Physical competencies: like lifelong physical health & fitness
Cognitive competencies: like knowledge, reasoning ability, creativity.

Under youth development program, YWCA of Bangladesh is trying to provide a safe and supportive environment, positive perception as well as dedicated role models to mentor youth as they transition into adulthood. During 2009-10, life skill development activities were carried out by this program uniquely designed for youth regardless of their social and developmental level. So, the target groups were made meet the challenges of adulthood through a structured, progressive series of activities and experiences which helped them obtain social, emotional, ethical, physical, and cognitive competencies. To stop young people from engaging in risky behaviors, it mobilized communities on a great scale to create positive goals and outcomes for the youth.

Through youth development program, YWCA of Bangladesh has been providing young people necessary supports, guidance and opportunities for making them involved in the development activities through its holistic and participatory approach. It organized different kinds of interactive activities like training, workshop, orientation, seminar, exchange visit, idea sharing, cultural program and so on in 2009-10. With this continuation, YWCA promoted and complemented the efforts of youth, adults, communities, government agencies and educational institutions to provide opportunities for youth to enhance their interests, skills and abilities into their adulthoods. Thus, it is creating supportive communities for the young people and at the same time, engaging youth to contribute to the well-being of their larger community. Over the reporting year, its achievement was upto the mark with carrying out the following major objectives:

To provide training and exchanged knowledge to the youth member to develop their leadership skill and expertise
To encourage and provide support to strengthen youth activities as well as to attract active and committed youths for increasing the number of youth
To strengthen youth network & partnership with other youth organization
To ensure 25% of representation at the Executive Boards of YWCAs in Bangladesh.

The strategies were

empowering youth to become the best person they can be through developing positive voice and self advocacy skills supporting in acquiring necessary interpersonal communication skill that youth may be able to properly communicate and express themselves
assisting youth to build their self-esteem and raise their sense of self-worth, their level of commitment and responsibility as a whole
helping youth look toward sustainable future, set goals in pragmatic point of view and achieve those goals.

The number of youth members of YWCA of Bangladesh is about 665 for 2009-2010 which is little lower than last years number as because few local branches has reviewed their youth membership on the basis of active participation and paid membership fee.

The graph below shows the average scenario of youth membership as against the total membership:

Different prongs of youth activities of the YWCA of Bangladesh:

Uniting youths in groups
Participatory learning /Knowledge building seminars/ workshops/ gatherings
National and international exposures
Participation in organizational decision making process.

Youth activities in 2009-2010

1. Visit of Youth team from Buskerud YW/YMCA

For more than 12 years, the YWCA of Bangladesh is having a dynamic partnership with the Buskerud YW/YMCA of Norway.

Every year this partnership brings new opportunities and hopes for better collaboration and cooperation. This partnership mostly engages youth of the both organizations to strengthen the capacity and relationship of the organization and at at the same time provide support to bridging the gap of information sharing and understanding of each others issues. This partnership facilitates an Youth Exchange program, two tensing partnerships (with Lier & Drammen) between this two countries YW/YM organizations.

Under this partnership 10 members of Buskerud YW/YMCA and 2 members from Norwegian Children and Youth Council visited YWCA of Bangladesh and its activities from 26 September – 05 October 2009. During their visit, they have visited Dhaka YWCA and Gopalgonj YWCA . They have also participated in the Girl’s Seminar 2009 which was organized by the Bangladesh YWCA.

2. YWCA Girls’ Seminar ’09

With the theme “ Leaders Creating Leaders’, the Girls’ 2009 Seminar was held from the 1-3 October 2009 at CCDB Hope Training Centre in Savar, Dhaka. Altogether there were 90 participants participated in this seminar. The objectives of this year’s seminar were: “To increase knowledge and leadership skill”, “to have an exposure to YWCA movement in Bangladesh” and “to enjoy the spirit of Youth”. According to the feedback of the previous Buskerud group, this year the Girls’ Seminar was organized with different types of participatory workshops and activities.

3. Visit to Buskerud YWCA/YMCA by Youth Members of YWCA of Bangaldesh ’08 and 09

Under the partnership between YWCA of Bangladesh and Buskerud YMCA/YWCA, 4 young women were invited by the Buskerud YW/YMCA to visit the youth activities in YW/YMCA in Norway from 11th June – 03 July 2010. The participants were: Mery Christina Sarker from Dhaka YWCA, Florina Rupa Sarker from Khulna YWCA, Deborah Mouri Sangma from Birisiri YWCA and Flora Jui D’Costa from Pabna YWCA. The participants visited the youth activities of Buskerud YW/YMCA, participated in the challenges courses, took part in the Y-Global Week, Tensing Festivals and Fund Raising Programs.

4. Visit of Lier Tensing and Tensing Seminar

As a part of the partnership between YWCA of Chittagong and Lier Tensing, a group of 8 members from Lier Tensing visited YWCA of Bangladesh, particularly Chittagong YWCA from 20-28th February 2010. During their stay in Bangladesh they have visited Savar YWCA, Dhaka YWCA and Chittagong YWCA and participated in several programmes of YWCA of Bangladesh.

Savar YWCA: 21st February was the International Mother Language Day. The Savar YWCA organized various programs on the day. The Lier group took part in all the events.

These programs were: joining procession until the Martyrs Monument in the morning, assisting in the student’s art competition of Savar YWCA school, taking part in the youth program etc.

Dhaka YWCA visit: On 22nd February 2010, the above mentioned group visited the programs of Dhaka

YWCA which included Dhaka YWCA office, craft centre and school visit, meeting with the youth committee of Dhaka YWCA.

Chittagong YWCA Visit & Lier Tensing Seminar: From 23 February 2010, the Lier Tensing Group left Dhaka for Chittagong YWCA and stayed till 28th of February to visit their programs and to take part in the Lier - Bangla Tensing Seminar in Chittagong.

The Lier Tensing Group visited the following programs of Chittagong YWCA at Lalkhan Bazaar and Patenga area:

Skill Training and Income Generating Activities
Community Health Program
Micro-Credit Programs
Education Programs: Schools (free school and paid schools) of Chittagong.

From the evening of 25th February to 27th February, the group participated in the Lier- Bangla Training Seminar which was organized by Chittagong YWCA and supported by Lier Tensing and YWCA of Bangladesh. There were altogether 70 participants participated in this seminar including participants from Norway and participant from Chittagong YWCA.

The aims of this seminar were to strengthen the local to local partnership between Lier Tensing and Chittagong YWCA, to encourage the young people with the light of Gospel and love of Jesus Christ, to establish a mechanism for cultural exchange and obviously to develop leadership skills amongst our youths. Particularly the seminar was very much significant for the youth of Chittagong YWCA, as they are already sharing the partnership with Lier. Moreover this seminar has given the young people that exposure to know about Ten Sing very well and how to organize it.

At the end of this Seminar, there was a small cultural gathering, organized by youth members of Chittagong YWCA for the members and staff of Chittagong YWCA who enjoyed that gathering very much.

Achievements

Increased level of understanding of the role of youth in the organization and in the community
Developed wider network among the youths within and outside the country
Increased number of young activist and advocate on different national and international issues
Strengthened relationship with different partners and networking organizations
Established greater accessibility to information and knowledge
Greater exposure to the national and international issues that has specific impact on their lives.

Challenges

Ensure active participation of the members
Retain youth members as they often migrate from small towns to the capital for education, marriage and career development purposes.