Breaking the Silence

BTS is a non-profit, non- political organization established in 1994 through committed efforts of some of the prominent development activist in Bangladesh and subsequently registered as a legal body in 2000 with the Department of Social Services (DSS) on 17th October 2000 and NGO Affairs Bureau on May 2001. Much of the work was done voluntarily by the founder members to break the silence in the community. The members of BTS have taken upon themselves to raise awareness to protect the children from sexual abuse.

BTS is recognized a specialized organization focusing on prevention of child sexual abuse by CBOs, CSOs, NGOs, government and development partners. It has developed window method based protection education for its program delivery. In the method, step by step the children are capacitated to develop their life skill to protect themselves. They are made aware on their development and rights special focus on sexual abuse. Gradually the method is popular within development actors. It is also utilized by Save the Children Denmark, Red Cross International and Denmark government in their child protection program. For the continue advocacy and lobbying, the government adopted protection education in school curriculum. In the meantime, protection education is included in the subject “Physical Education and Health” in Class VII and it is in process to include in the text book of other classes.

Besides, BTS is working with local government to include children in their governance and allocate resources for the wellbeing of the children. Children in those areas participated in decision making process in budget allocation, formulation of code of conduct, initiation of complaint and response system and service monitoring for child protection. Local government representatives are playing active role to create child friendly environment through provision of education, healthcare, child protection and recreation facilities in the community. With more than two decades experience, BTS is confident and committed to work as a national organization with children, community, CBOs, NGOs, CSOs, media, government and Development Partners.