Towards Education for All

A major scholarly text co-authored by BHP Director John Richards with Manzoor Ahmed and Shahidul Islam, was recently published in a low-cost version for Pakistan. (Last year, a similar low-cost version was published for Bangladesh.) The Chairman of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission attended the launch event for “The Political Economy of Education in South Asia: Fighting Poverty, Inequality, and Exclusion – Pakistan edition” in Islamabad in late August. The book explores reasons behind poor results of government primary schools in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal – particularly for literacy and numeracy. It examines the rapid expansion of non-government schools over the past two decades and compares teacher training, hiring, and management in South Asian schools with education practice in other countries. One reviewer comments, “This book is an excellent reference for education policy-makers and practitioners in all regions of the world as they struggle to make education systems more resilient and keep the SDG4 progress on track.” Read more about BHP support for primary education, throughout our blog or contact us for more information at BangladeshHealthProject@proton.me

Support for mental health services

On-site meeting of BHP Director Alex Berland with psychiatric hospital planning team

BHP volunteers have been assisting Sajida Foundation staff with planning for the country’s first private psychiatric hospital. Publicly-funded mental health services in Bangladesh are extremely sparse with only about 700 psychiatric beds in government-run hospitals to serve a population of 170 million. Moreover, there are only 0.16 psychiatrists, 0.34 psychologists, and 0.4 psychiatric nurses per 100,000 people in Bangladesh far below the WHO recommended ratio of ten psychiatrists per 100,000 people.

The Hub, Sajida's neuropsychiatric hospital, will provide multidisciplinary care to patients with serious mental illness as well as disabling neurological conditions. The aim is to empower individuals to participate in everyday activities, improve their overall function, and enhance their quality of life with psychiatric, psychological and therapeutic services. A home care program will provide follow-up and support as part of Sajida’s continuum of mental health services, which also includes training, tele-mental health, out-patient adult and child services and longer-term residential programs.

The Hub's services are a significant innovation in the Bangladesh context

Canada-based BHP volunteers have assisted the Sajida team by recommending training materials, researching operating protocols and care planning tools, and reviewing safety features of the newly-built hospital. We will continue to provide long-distance support for staff training and program development. We are also now recruiting volunteers with current experience as psychiatric care providers for on-site staff support and professional development of HUB staff. For more information, please contact us at BangladeshHealthProject@proton.me

Volunteer opportunities at IUBAT College of Nursing

The IUBAT College of Nursing is a 4-year BSN program based in an English-medium not-for-profit university in Dhaka. The Bangladesh Health Project is staffed by Canadian volunteers, under the sponsorship of Vancouver’s Mid-Main Community Health Centre. We pay program costs entirely through donations and receive no government support.

At the College of Nursing, visiting faculty volunteers support IUBAT faculty to teach the nursing content, including clinical practice supervision and curriculum development. There are also co-teaching opportunities in the Master of Public Health program. Our visiting faculty are English-speaking professional educators or nurses with various qualifications and practical experience. Several volunteers have been post-graduate students simultaneously working on thesis projects. Some volunteers have backgrounds in other health care professions, such as medicine, psychiatric social work, clinical psychology, nutrition and so on. At this time, we can only host volunteers who are qualified in a health care-related field.

We cannot pay airfare, but can offer free room and board in the university guest house close to the verdant IUBAT campus. Six weeks is our preferred minimum stay so that volunteers can feel oriented and become most useful. We arrange airport pick-up and drop-off in Dhaka and all local travel, so that you are taken care of and can focus on the task during your time there. Previous visiting faculty have enjoyed their time at IUBAT, immersed in a vibrant culture, with warm collegial relationships and secure living arrangements. If you are looking for a meaningful volunteer experience, supporting a rapidly developing country, please contact us for further information BangladeshHealthProject@proton.me .