Bluebell’s Neighbourhood

Adjacent to Bluebell School are the family homes of a guchchogram or Cluster Village, a compact settlement built by the government for the families of landless agricultural workers.

The Balagram guchchogram consists of 100 family dwellings of identical design, built on raised land around the edge of a large hand-dug pond that is used for laundry and bathing.

Families live in single-story row houses built of corrugated iron sheets. Each home has two attached rooms, a kitchen, a toilet and a veranda, often used for storing animal fodder.

Many families keep a cow or goat tethered near their home.

There is limited electricity in the houses and small wood-burning stoves are used for cooking. Living close to schools and vocational training is very important for helping the younger generation escape from poverty and urban migration.

About Balagram

Balagram is in the north-west part of Bangladesh, not far from the border with the Indian state of West Bengal. Within the administrative district of Nilphamari, Balagram is part of the sub-district or upazila of Jaldhaka, which has a population about 420,000 and a population density of over 900 people per square kilometre. (The density of Canada is about 3.7/ sq.km.) Balagram and its surrounding area have a population of about 24,000 with a literacy rate of about 30%. The main source of income is agriculture - rice, tobacco, wheat, potato, jute, maize and vegetables.

Weekly Health Screening at OfP Healthcare Center

OFP now provides chronic illness screening at clinic space within the OIST building. OIST student volunteers, trained by an IUBAT BSN student, offer weekly testing for diabetes and high blood pressure. As needed they provide basic dietary advice and refer individuals with consistently high BP and glucose to a doctor. Demand is strong - over 150 community residents are being screened every week. Next steps will be developing a computerized record system with printed records for clinic visitors and recruiting more qualified heath professionals to attend clinic sessions.