On February 13th
2008 we set off for Bangladesh
once again!
This time, our party comprised:
Terry
Elliott
Carole
Elliott
Raju
Choudhury
Ken
Wilkinson
Andrew
Flint
David
Cox (his second visit). David came to Bangladesh
directly from Australia, where he had
been staying during part of his gap year.
Once again we lodged at the
Rainbow Guest house in Sylhet (and the weather was much kinder than it had been on our last visit)!!
Following the initial planning
meetings with our staff and friends, we made a number of daily journeys to the village by mini-bus. As well as it taking two
to three hours each way, we had to endure the kamikaze antics and constant horn blowing of every driver, including our own,
while bouncing over miles of pot-holes and ruts! There was also constant evidence of the widespread poverty and deprivation.
Arrival in our peaceful little village was always a relief!
During our visit, we made
great strides with our Projects and achieved all that we set out to do.
We bought four sewing machines
(three manual and one electric) and lots of material, threads and scissors etc. We met the three village girls who have been
selected for sewing classes, and the sewing teacher is now in charge of the Project. The school children have no uniforms.
There is the possibility that the students could make the uniforms at some time in the future, otherwise each set would cost
around $10 to purchase.
Contractors were appointed
to commence latrine construction. This will be a rolling programme over the next year or so. The first example was nearly
completed before we left. A programme of hygiene education, led by Dr Aziz, will go hand in hand with the latrine installation.
We met the deep bore well
contractor, who was surveying the site. Work could not commence until a couple of days after we left.
A Solar Oven demonstration
was given to a group of villagers.
The Clinic received a number
of requests for medical treatment which were outside our usual remit, either for cost or geographical reasons. It is very
difficult to ignore these pleas and we have been able to move forward with some.
We discussed the possibility
of a Government sponsored solar power scheme for the Clinic. This would be modest, but sufficient to light the clinic,
run a fan and a refrigerator.
There are a number of disabled
and orphaned children in the village, some of whom live a very unstructured and disordered life. We may have to think about
some sort of “social orphanage” some time in the future.
We met 6 Hindu families who
lived in semi-isolation from the rest of the village.
We met members of the Jalalabad
(Sylhet) Rotary Club and gave them a Solar Cooking demonstration. They have proposed a Project that could introduce and publicise
Solar Cooking to Bangladesh on a much
bigger scale than we could ever have hoped. Hopefully, we can move forward with this from 2009.
