FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2006

Adolescent Reproductive Health and Life Skills Workshop for
Communication Professionals Begins in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A six-day workshop designed to strengthen the skills of public health and communication professionals working in Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) is now underway in Dhaka.

Sponsored by the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP), the workshop — Strategic Communication: Building Life Skills & Improving Adolescent Reproductive Health — opened April 22 at the Hotel Abakash, Dhaka, Bangladesh with 29 participants, including two from East Timor. It offers participants new skills and knowledge in ARH with direct application to program development and implementation.

The course uses the Know Yourself Bangladesh ARH communication program as an example to illustrate guiding principles, approaches, and techniques. The Health Communication Partnership (HCP) — based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs — implements the Know Yourself program with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

Lynn Gorton, Director PHN Team, USAID/Dhaka kicked off the workshop to welcome participants and acknowledge BCCP’s work in ARH.

HCP is a global communication initiative based at CCP in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, and Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. In addition to the five core partners, HCP works with leading Southern-based health communication organizations as well as global programming partners from the corporate sector, international media, academic institutions, and faith-based organizations. For more information, visit the HCP web site.

For more information, contact Kim Martin at 410 659-6140 or kmartin@jhuccp.org.