St
Aidans
School Students’ visit to Bangladesh
Three 6th
form students from St Aidans School, Sunderland visited Bangladesh
for about four weeks in July and August 2007.
The primary purpose
of the trip was to visit the Wear-Surma Clinic, which is located in a remote village in North East Bangladesh.
The Students were accompanied
by four adults, 3 of the adults have previously been to Bangladesh
(one of the adults is Bangladeshi) and the adults returned to the UK
after about two weeks, leaving the Students in the care of friends in Bangladesh.
The climate in Bangladesh
at that time of year is Tropical Monsoon and can be very unpredictable. It can swing from very hot and sunny (40c +) to long
periods of torrential rain accompanied by high humidity and extensive flooding.
The vagaries of the
weather could affect travel plans and our itinery and so we had contingency plans in place. We did not anticipate that
the problems would be great in the towns, but special arrangements were made for the stay in the village, where conditions
are primitive and access difficult even in fine weather.
The Students were given
advice about appropriate clothing and accoutrements. This included some emergency rations for the 7 days in the village if
the local market became inaccessible.
The floods generate
a large number of “creepy crawlies” ie snakes, cockroaches and lizards etc. not generally of concern, except
to the squeamish. However, there are real risks. This a mosquito area and all must take advice from their GP about prophylaxis
for malaria and inoculations against other local diseases. The Clinic doctor was on hand to deal with any emergency while
in the village.
A Risk Assessment was completed between
the Students and the school.
