Successful World Migratory Bird Day Oct Event 2020 – Bangladesh (Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural Univeristy (SAU))

World Migratory Bird Day Webinar poster ©SAU

Event title:

Raising awareness among university and college students through online discussion, digital art competition and developing promotional materials for bird conservation

Organizer:

Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) in collaboration with Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Science Club (SAUSC), a voluntary science based students association of SAU; Bangladesh Biodiversity Conservation Federation (BBCF), a local voluntary organization for the protection of biodiversity to introduce field-based practices; Muktir Bondhon Foundation, a local NGO that helped us to execute all events accordingly like arranging Road meetings, human chains and distribution of Poster, Flyer and Leaflet among local people

Participants:

Digital Art competition:

Reach people: About 1,400 peoples

Total participants: About 400

Country: Bangladesh, India (Bengali speaking Indians Like West Bengal, Assam, Tripura etc.)

Online discussion:

(i) Direct Participants (in ZOOM and Facebook Live)- About 400 peoples from different districts of Bangladesh

(ii) Total watch: About 3500

consisting of students from universities, colleges, school and madrasha, community people, civil society representatives, NGO representative, birds hunters, Forest Department officials, researchers and policy makers etc..

Outcome:

Art is such a language that can understand by all categories of people. We are able to raise awareness among university and college, school and madrash students through arranging effective digital art competition on conservation of birds.
We are able to educate and aware students and community people through developing educative and promotional materials like video, poster, flyer and leaflets.
We are able to focus policy makers and government agencies to encourage work together in conservation of birds, implementation of laws.

Summary:

1) Digital art competition:

SAU arranged an online based art competition on the theme of World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2020 for students of university, colleges, school and Madrasha. SAU categorize the competition into three (3) groups so that all students from different class can join.

Group A: For students of university and college

Group B: For students of school and Madrasha (Class 1-5)

Group C: For students of school and Madrasha (Class 6-10)

Students from Bangladesh and India (Bengali speaking Indians Like West Bengal, Assam, Tripura etc.) are participated. About 400 art works were submitted and we evaluated the art works with help of expert judges.

Judges were:

Mirza Hasanuzzaman, Professor, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Yousuf Hira, Senior Asst. Director, University Grants Commission, Bangladesh
Shapla Singha, Lecturer, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh
Mir Mohammad Ali, Lecturer, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka

After evaluation we selected nine (9) winners (3 winner from each group) based on highest mark. SAU awarded the winners with Certificate and Crest. Besides winners, SAU also gave e-Participation Certificate to all participants. SAU have also given Crest to honourable judges as token of honour.

Art Competition Winner ©SAU

Art Competition Winner ©SAU

Art Competition Winner ©SAU

2) Developing educative and promotional materials for bird conservation:

SAU made an educative 5.32 minutes long video on common migratory birds in Bangladesh. Also developed and printed poster with theme of WMBD 2020 in Bengali (2000 copies), flyers in Bengali (2000 copies) and leaflets in Bengali (3000 copies). The materials were distributed to universities, colleges and school and local community through volunteers of SAUSC, BBCF.

World Migratory Bird Day poster in Bengali ©SAU

World Migratory Bird Day flyer in Bengali ©SAU

World Migratory Bird Day leaflet in Bengali ©SAU

3) Online discussion session on WMBD

SAU have organized an effective webinar on Birds Connect Our World using ZOOM software and the program was live in Facebook. About 400 peoples from different districts of Bangladesh were participated using ZOOM and Facebook Live. About 3500 people watched the webinar.