BHP– Update January 2026

Since BHP began in 2004, hundreds of individuals have participated as visiting faculty, home-based resource persons and donors. You deserve a BIG THANK-YOU! for your support. Having completed our initial task to start a nursing college, we now support specific requests from various Bangladesh partners. (Our website and our blog have much more information.)

1.    In Bangladesh our partner, Oasis for Posterity, delivers various programs in the village of Balagram. We support operating costs of Bluebell Primary School (Kindergarten to Grade 6) and OfP Institute of Science and Technology [OIST] a vocational college offering courses in engineering and computer technology. We are very pleased with OIST student performance on recent government exams.

2.    In the twenty years since BHP helped start the IUBAT College of Nursing [CoN] demand for nursing education has increased dramatically. Presently we are focusing on system-level supports for nursing practice, including research to update our monograph, “Advancing Nurse Education in Bangladesh”.

3.    The IUBAT Masters of Public Health Program has over fifty students enrolled; the first batch recently graduated. BHP Directors John Richards and Alex Berland teach and support program development.

4.    Other BHP activities. After US-AID abruptly de-funded public health programs earlier this year, we created “Public Health Café” as an on-line space where public health professionals could learn and network with others. We have also continued work with Sajida Foundation, supporting their innovative mental health programs through weekly training and mentoring sessions. An IUBAT CoN graduate supported by our donors completed his first degree at Oxford University and is applying for his next research position. There are more updates on various activities on our BHP website blog.

5.    Your contributions make a difference! This is how your donations were spent:

·         A major on-going expense is salaries for teachers at Bluebell and OIST. Bluebell serves very poor families and charges no fees. OIST charges fees but most students now receive grants or loans to cover some portion. Over time, OIST will be self-supporting, but we are not there yet.

·         Our next greatest expense is teaching equipment for OIST as we upgrade Computer Technology and Civil Engineering labs to match student learning needs. Teaching materials for Bluebell are also an on-going expense.

·         We support OfP to provide basic health screening services for people suffering chronic illness. Health and education bursaries are a lesser expense but extremely important for the ultra-poor recipients. For instance, cataract surgery in one eye costs about $50; a bursary to keep a female student in high school is $40 per semester .

6.    100% of your donations are spent on BHP programs; all administration and personal travel costs are paid by the Directors. Vancouver’s Mid-Main Community Health Centre continues to host BHP activities and issues CRA charitable donation receipts for health programs. You can donate here or for more information, please contact us.

Thank you again for your support to communities in need. We welcome questions and feedback.  And please subscribe to our blog for the latest updates.

Impact of US-AID cuts

In a recent news segment, the American TV network PBS profiled Dr. Nazmul Huda, Chair of the MPH program at IUBAT, speaking as the former Country Project Director, Health Systems for Tuberculosis. This now-shuttered USAID-funded project, was intended to wean Bangladesh’s T.B. program off foreign funding. As Nazmul explains to the interviewer, “My project was about to prepare the government to take the responsibility of managing and financing the tuberculosis program. The project ended abruptly at a very crucial time for the country in terms of technology transfer. Whatever we have achieved in the last few years, we will not be able to transfer that result.” The setback not only stalls Bangladesh's path toward self-reliance, but also threatens to reverse progress made, as fewer cases are detected and many that are diagnosed do not complete their treatment regimen. As Nazmul commented, “TB requires long treatment. And if there is interruption, more complexities might happen, for example, in the form of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.”

A Nursing Development Strategy for Bangladesh

In a Health Systems Matter blog post, BHP director Alex Berland proposes a strategy to enhance the contributions of nurses: “Increasing and improving production of nurses is widely discussed in Bangladesh. There are obvious benefits from meeting national health care needs as well as from the remittances by nurses who emigrate. There are also risks and hazards for funders, for population health and for nurses themselves. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way forward that may mitigate the risks and also achieve the benefits of strengthening the nursing profession in Bangladesh.”

Alex’s post outlines the case for action, a systems-level approach and recommendations for immediate action.  He recommends (1) a National Nursing Task Group to create the nursing development strategy based on an update to previous reports on health human resources (2) a process to engage with development partners concerning their input and support and (3) a process to engage nursing stakeholders and civil society representatives.

Photo credit: Health Systems Matter