Speakers at a press conference yesterday underscored the need for integrated national effort to establish safe night shelter centres for the street children.

Incidin Bangladesh, an NGO working for the street children, organised the press conference on their advocacy programme on 'safe night for the street children' at the Jatiya Press Club in the city.

Describing the development of their advocacy activities, Ratan Sarker, an executive director of Incidin, said they involved six government ministries and four international NGOs with their current programme.

Ratan said child rights programmes cannot be successful without active participation of the children and keeping it in mind we conduct joint advocacy programmes with Child Brigade, a local organisation working with children.

Nasimul Ahsan, advocacy chief of Incidin, said a national plan of action is essential to improve the life style of the street children.

With a view to formulating a national action plan to ensure a safe night for the street children, Incidin and its partner organised a two-day long training programme and two workshops with the children, where an advocacy strategic paper was formulated. 26 government and non-government organisations participated in the programme, he said while reading out a written statement.

“It is not easy to establish a safe shelter for the urchins but we will continue to work until we achieve our goal", he added.