Bangladesh Health Communication Springboard Launched
With huge interest and enthusiasm among the participants the Bangladesh Health Communication Springboard launched through a kick-off event jointly organized by BCCP and Bangladesh Knowledge Management Initiative (BKMI) on Thursday May 08, 2014 in a city hotel, Dhaka. About 350 people who are related to health communication in Bangladesh participated in this event.
BKMI is a USAID-supported project implemented by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU.CCP), Baltimore, USA.
Professor Ainun Nishat, Vice Chancellor, BRAC University officially launched the Bangladesh Health Communication Springboard through signing in on the online platform available at www.healthcomspringboard.org
The program started with the welcome address by Mohammad Shahjahan, Director & CEO, BCCP. Mr. Kojo Lokko, Deputy Director, Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3), JHU.CCP made a presentation on global Springboard to introduce the Springboard ideas to the participants and orient them to the existing virtual Springboard and discuss on the need of an even wider network of health communication practitioners in Bangladesh. Then Ms Rebecca Arnold, Project Director, BKMI shared information about Bangladesh Springboard and its importance. She emphasized on the need to expand a broader forum for health communication practitioners in Bangladesh.
Special guest Ms. Melissa Jones, Director, Office of the Population, Health, Nutrition and Education, USAID Bangladesh also spoke on the occasion.
Health communication practitioners from Vietnam, Indonesia and India also participated in this event to observe the process so that they can replicate the concept of Springboard in their respective countries. Earlier, a huge number of participants signed up and navigated through the existing virtual Springboard platform.
The Springboard is a space that provides opportunities for practitioners with common interests to connect both on line and in face-to-face activities to share ideas, resources and learn together to improve the practice of health communication. It will support and nurture regional (Asia, Africa and others) communities of health communication practitioners, scholars and policy-makers. Springboard participants can share and tap into existing expertise and resources, develop their own health communication capacity, and discover or contribute innovative solutions.
The kick-off event is expected to encourage the health communication practioners to register on the Springboard website to engage a broader practitioners’ community both in country and in the Asia region. Health professionals of Government and Non-Government institutions and representatives of NGO, media and other sectors were present in the event.
Bangladesh Springboard will be part of a global forum led by HC3. In addition to the global forum, regional Springboards have also been planned and BCCP will act as the secretariat of the Asia region Springboard.