Waves of Change: Annual Sports Competition and Beach Carnival 2025
The beach in Cox's Bazar is usually associated with tourism, movement, and noise. But during the Annual Sports Competition and Beach Carnival 2025, held from December 15–17 at Hotel Seagull, the shoreline told a different story. It became a place where girls were visible, children felt safe, and the community gathered with purpose. Under the Shopner Sharothi- Sea Shore Girls Project, the event showed how celebration, empowerment and protection can exist together in the same space.
The Context: Why This Initiative Was Needed
For many girls in coastal communities, public spaces like the beach have never felt fully accessible. Social norms, safety concerns, and long-standing restrictions often keep them on the margins. The urgency for such an initiative is rooted in reality. Across Bangladesh, violence against children remains widespread. National data shows that nearly nine in ten children aged 1–14 experience violent discipline at home (UNICEF, 2024), affecting tens of millions nationwide. Public spaces are not safer; recent reporting indicates a sharp rise in severe child protection violations, with the majority involving sexual violence, abduction, or physical harm.
Cox's Bazar carries additional layers of vulnerability. The district hosts over 1.14 million Rohingya refugees (RRRC, 2025), more than half of them children. Overcrowding, displacement, poverty, and limited access to services heighten risks of exploitation, child labour, early marriage, and abuse. For girls, these pressures are compounded by deeply rooted gender norms that restrict mobility, visibility, and participation in sports. At the same time, national figures reveal that over half of Bangladeshi women aged 20–24 were married before turning 18 (UNICEF, 2025), underscoring how early marriage continues to undermine girls' education, safety, and autonomy. This convergence of risks made one truth undeniable: empowerment and protection must advance together.
A Different Approach: Girls at the Center
The Beach Carnival 2025 responded to this reality in a practical and visible way. Rather than discussing change, it created it. From the beginning, girls were placed at the center of the event—not as spectators, but as participants and leaders.
Surfing for Confidence and Visibility
Professional surfing competitions and coaching clinics brought more than 100 adolescent Sea Shore Girls into the waves. These sessions were demanding and focused, requiring balance, strength, and discipline. Each successful ride carried meaning beyond sport. It showed the community that girls can claim public spaces with confidence, skill, and pride. The beach, often seen as restrictive, became a platform for expression and freedom.
Weaving Safety into Celebration
Safety was woven naturally into the experience. Instead of feeling controlled, the environment felt cared for. Interactive safeguarding desks engaged families in conversations about child rights and protection. A lost and found bracelet system ensured children remained secure within large crowds. To make safety messages easy to understand, the carnival used creative approaches. Puppet shows, magic performances, and bystander action dramas turned serious topics into relatable moments, showing how ordinary people can step in when they witness harassment or exploitation.
Each element of the carnival carried quiet symbolism. The surfboard represented balance and courage, standing against the limits traditionally placed on girls. The safety bracelets and visible safeguarding spaces reflected a shared promise—that child protection is not the responsibility of one authority alone, but a collective commitment upheld by the entire community.
The Sports for Development Model in Action
This approach worked because it relied on experience, not instruction. Through the Sports for Development model, confidence grew naturally. As girls succeeded in a physically demanding sport like surfing, that confidence extended into education, leadership, and decision-making. Public visibility strengthened the impact. When communities see girls performing as athletes, perceptions begin to shift, and gender-positive attitudes take root.
Impact and Outcomes
The impact of the carnival extended beyond the beach. Stakeholders committed to continued child protection awareness and referral systems. Outstanding surfers received national recognition, while JAAGO Foundation Trust pledged expanded, year-round training opportunities. Community dialogue sessions resulted in hundreds of public commitments supporting equal access to sports and action against violence.
More than 500 people engaged throughout the event, over 50 girls completed structured training, and the surfing finals crowned Anjuman Akter as champion, with top performers nominated nationally. Most importantly, the event recorded zero major safety incidents, setting a strong benchmark for inclusive and secure public programming in Cox's Bazar.
Reshaping Coastal Spaces for Girls
Supported by UNICEF and implemented by JAAGO Foundation Trust, this initiative is reshaping how the beach is experienced—not as a place of restriction, but as a space of confidence, safety, and possibility.
The Annual Sports Competition and Beach Carnival 2025 demonstrated that when empowerment and protection advance together, public spaces can transform. The shoreline of Cox's Bazar now carries a new story—one where girls are visible, confident, and free to claim their place in the waves and in their communities.