Thousands of potato seeds grow to perfection at BRAC’s seed processing center in Gazipur (about 23 km north of Dhaka). The engineer who ran this project was an agronomist from Peru. Speaking spanish in Bangladesh. Delight.
Village Organizations (VOs) are the heart of the BRAC model. BRAC’s 290,000 VOs represent community networks of over 8.4 million people throughout Bangladesh- VOs can be dedicated to areas such as microfinance efforts, health education, disaster preparedness, water, sanitation and hygiene, and human rights and legal services (HRLS).
I took this picture of these beautiful women after attending a VO meeting on Human Rights. The lesson that day was on marital rights, particularly when a husband takes a second wife. The HRLS leader, a trained volunteer from the community, explained that according to Muslim-Bangladeshi law a husband must seek permission from his first wife as well as the village chairman before he takes on a second wife. Without obtaining permission from both parties, the husband can be jailed or fined up to 10,000 taka (more than the average 1/2 year salary). The leader read the law out loud and used a flip chart of images to reinforce her discussion. The HR leader answered a series of questions posed by the VO participants and encouraged the women to tell their neighbors, children, and husbands about this law that afternoon as the knowledge was fresh in their minds.
fast facts: genevieve & bangladesh
Current city: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Estimated population of country: 150 million people
Population that lives on less than $1/day: half
Today’s temperature: 33c/91f (1000% humidity)
Current Dhaliwood feature film: The son of a Rickshaw driver (see photo)
Length of stay: 3 months, Dec 22 to be exact
What I am wearing: A salwar kameez (see photo)
What I ate last: Fuschka (pronounced Fooosh-kah) Think baked somosa-type ball stuffed with spicy chick peas and lentils with a tart tamarin sauce. In a word. Delicious.
Favorite drink: Chai and lassi (cool. refreshing. yogurt. pro-biotics please)
Where I live: Niketon Society (Pronounced Nee-kah-tong)
Where I am working: BRAC (formerly known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)
What I am doing: For the next four months I have the joy and honor of working on a joint partnership and graduate research fellowship with BRAC’s Water/Sanitation and Disaster Preparedness Division, BRAC University’s School of Public health and George Washington University’s, Department of Global Health. I will look at how disaster-affected communities define well-being, how they prioritized relief supplies and how these findings can serve as an input for a psychosocial support program being developed by a partnership with BRAC/Netherlands embassy.
Favorite/Most terrifying experience here in Dhaka: rick shaw ride home during afternoon traffic
New and delightful friends: Shazia and Nabeela (UK), Min (Nepal), Skye and Garret (Michigan), Tonmoy, Waliullum, Baky (BRAC office mates- engineers and GIS specialists, from Bangladesh), Adrienne (Canada research student), Sharmeen, Rosie (Bangladesh)…
Favorite place in the city: my rooftop at sunset when the Imam is calling azaam (evening prayer). Cooling down, soft yellows and oranges
Bangladesh is No.1 in the world for the production of a fibrous plant called jute. When dried and woven, it makes a fine-looking basket
السلام عليكم
- Suggested readings on Bangladesh and its two, huge south asian neighbors:
- War and Succession: Pakistan, India and the Creation of Bangladesh
- By Richard Sission and Leo E. Rose
- Songs from the River's Edge
- By Katy Gardner
- -Field notes from a cultural anthropologist living in the northeast region of Sylhet
- Lojja
- By Tasalima Nasarina
- -When the Barbri Mosque at Ayodhya, India, was destroyed by Hindu fundamentalists on December 6,1992, fierce mob reprisals took place against the Hindu minority in Muslim Bangladesh. These incidents form the backdrop for Dr. Taslima Nasrin's explosive and courageous book, Shame, describing the nightmarish fate of one family within her country's small Hindu community
- The Golden Age
- By Tanhmina Ahman
- Historical fiction: A compelling story from a widow's point of view regarding the political-cultural context of West bengal before the war of independence in 1971
Two new friends I met on the Old Dhaka tour. Homaira and Romain. Homaira runs the Campaign for Heritage Conservation in Dhaka. A kind and urnest advocate. His name is Romain. Calm. Collected. German.
Rezaul Karim is now 90 years old. This photograph was taken on his wedding day in 1946, a year before the Partition between India and Pakistan. I had the honor of meeting this cheerful man when we visited his beautiful home in Puran Dhaka. His family has lived there for six generations and has earned the title: Bag Bari (meaning Tiger house). Apparently, Mr. Karim’s great grandfather used to keep a Bengal tiger in their courtyard!
These photos were taken last weekend when I took a walking tour of Old Dhaka (Puran Dhaka) with a retired architecture professor named Taimur Bhai. We visited the beautiful and crumbling old homes of historic Dhaka. The sharp-angled arches inside the home’s courtyards hinted of the Mogul influences of Shan Jahan and other powerful Muslim warriors coming from west during the 17-18th century. Taimur Bhai proudly shared that Shan Jahan (the creator of India’s famous Taj Mahal) tried for 40 years to conquer West Bengal (presentday Bangladesh) with no success.
Most of the homes you will see in this series were owned by wealthy Hindu families who fled Dhaka during the 1971 War of Independence. Some returned once Bangladesh was established, but many are currently disrepair, being taken over by dark green moss and vines. Taimur Bhai and Homaira are leading a campaign for the heritage conservation effort, lobbying the government to establish Old Dhaka as a historic zone as well as apply for status as a UNESCO (United Nation’s Education, Science, Culture Organization) World Heritage site. Two passionate historians and advocates: Please let me know if you’d like to know more information about their campaign and efforts.
Fozila has worked for BRAC as a village worker for primary care (or shasta shabika in Bangla) for 9 years. She has been trained to recognize the most common communicable diseases according to WHO’s guidelines and coordinates her visits and educational sessions with other planned village organization meetings (as seen in the photos above). In 1994 a collaboration between BRAC and the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) began. At the central level, the NTP trains BRAC technicians and maintains quality control on the diagnostic procedures. The government provides drugs (which BRAC gives for free to patients), salary, transportation costs as well as laboratory equipment and supplies.
BRAC recruits shasta shabikas, like Fozila, under the reasoning that local recruitment and assignment increase social and cultural compatibility and worker efficiency. In addition, to promote staff retention BRAC has a special incentive scheme linked to shasta shabikas in the villages. The performance-based payment system has been met with success in the village setting as it provides extra income for the households with limited resources. In Directly Observed Treatment (DOTS) against Tuberculosis the patient has to pay an upfront fee for treatment. Part of the fee is returned to the patient upon successful completion of treatment, but part is returned to the shasta shabika as an incentive for patient compliance.
The USAID Report on Linkages among the Public Sector, Private Sector and Community Networks explain the following results:
BRAC shows that community health workers can help deliver primary care, categorical programs, or a combination of the two. Performance-linked financial incentives can help imbue public service values, a sense of purpose, and social recognition. Although detection rate is shy of the WHO target of 70%, it has dramatically increased to 62% since the implementation of the BRAC TB DOTS program. In 2001, the treatment program had reached a cure rate of over 90% (above WHO 85% target), an increase from the cure rate of 66% at the inception of the program.
Took a day trip to Sonargaon, 23 km north of Dhaka. Ancient capital of Bengal. There is a crumbling, old home you can see behind the feathery wheat. It was so nice to be out of Dhaka for the day! To breathe! To stretch the eyes!
