A daylong fair for the wives and mothers in-law was held on the premises of Bharatkhali Union Health and Family Welfare Center under Saghata upazila in the district on Wednesday.

SKS Foundation, an NGO, arranged the fair under MAMOTA Project being implemented by the NGO in cooperation with Save the Children with the financial support of KOICA (Korean International Cooperation Agency).

The theme of the fair was ‘Say No to Home Delivery, Ensure Institutional Delivery’. A discussion meeting was also held marking the fair. Local lawmaker Mahmud Hasan Ripon addressed the function as the chief guest.

Presided over by local Union Parishad chairman Md. Faruk Hossain, deputy director of department of family planning here Prosenjeet Pronoy Misra, upazila family planning officer Md. Zakirul Islam, representative of Save the Children here Dr. Shamima Bilkis, deputy director of  SKS Foundation Khadakar Zahid Sarwar, upazila coordinator of the project Harun-or –Rashid addressed the function among others.

The speakers in their speeches emphasized for institutional delivery in lieu of home delivery to check child and mortality rate in the country in a bid to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2031.

They also urged the staff of the health, family planning department and the project to conduct awareness activity among the pregnant women, their mothers in- law and guardians so that the delivery activity was not done at homes.

Earlier, the pregnant women and their mothers in-law and guardians were briefed about the negative impacts of home delivery elaborately.

After discussion, the wives and mothers in-law coming from different villages gave their commitment to do delivery activity of the pregnant women institutionally to attain the cherished goal of the project.

A large number of wives, mothers in –law and local elite including journalists attended the function.