Article in The Daily Star

JCI Bangladesh pledge towards a 'smoke- free” world

May 31st is Anti Tobacco Day and all over the world many organizations take up many initiatives to renew their pledge towards a 'smoke- free” world.

Wouldn't you be surprised that given all the negative info, cancer threats et al that we have going around about smoking tobacco the number of smokers never diminish. Every day more and more young people are drawn into the habit of smoking primarily due the glorification of smoking in pop culture and reinforcement by those we idolize among our peers and seniors.

The truth remains that death risk increases in proportion to number of cigarettes smoked, number of years smoked, and earlier the age at which smoking is started.

JCI Bangladesh ( Dhaka East chapter), a non-profit, networking organization for young professionals, has taken up an interesting way to engage with the younger generation in Bangladesh to gather their thoughts on smoking among youth.

Separate Cartoon and Photography contests has been organized where the competition will be judged by distinguished photographers, cartoonists and artists. Three top entries in each category will be considered for reward. All those between the age of 15 to 25 are encouraged to send in original works of photography and original hand painted/ computer generated cartoons by May 27th 2007. The size of individual entries should be not smaller than A4 when printed. The theme for both the contests is:

“Making the choice : life or cigarette?”All participants MUST register by emailing your name and the education institute you belong to at jcibde@gmail.com

For more information on JCI and on this campaign you can visit this blog:

http://www.jci-anti-smoking.blogspot.com

You can send in your entries via email to: jcibde@gmail.com

or snail mail it to :

JCI Bangladesh Dhaka East

C/O SREL

2nd floor, House 49, Road 7

Baridhara ( Diplomatic Zone), Dhaka