Images of Dhaka Captured in Photo Blog

The Guardian recently featured a Dhaka resident in their Blogger of the Week series, a retired government worker who shares photographs of his hometown in his blog, Dhaka Daily Photo.  Ershad Ahmed started his photo blog 8 years ago, and in the article, gives a local’s insight into the evolution of Dhaka and life in the bustling city.

The myriad of images showcases many features of Dhaka living, such as urban growth, marketplace settings and interestingly enough, rickshaw traffic congestion, a mode of transport that the blogger claims is the best way to travel in the city.

Through photos, Ahmed describes Dhaka as, “…uncontrolled and unplanned urban sprawl”, but is also eager to talk about his favourite spots in the city and his optimism for the city’s future.  His vibrant pictures and knowledge of Dhaka’s history illustrate his praise and his hopes for improvement for the nation’s capital.

For the article, please click here.

Scaling Up: Creating On-Line Resources for Nurse Educators

Over the past decade, the Bangladesh Health Project has built a four year BScN program from the ground up. We have celebrated our first graduates’ registration and they are working in leadership roles in Bangladesh and Nepal, or studying abroad. So, now we are looking ahead to an even greater impact on population health by “training the trainers”.

To this end, we are scaling up the IUBAT BScN curriculum as an Online Educational Resource [OER] for nurse educators in similar settings. Our vision is to provide the complete BScN curriculum on-line, including classroom lectures, references and learning resources, assignments and exams, checklists for clinical practice, and administrative policies.

The overall goal remains the same: “To develop nursing leaders who can contribute significantly to improve population health”. We are actively seeking funding for this new OER project. We also plan to create an advisory group or “community of practice” – nurse educators from various settings who will ensure the OER remains current, relevant, and appropriately adapted for low-resource settings.

We hope you will join us in cultivating this new resource. If you are interested in details or would like to participate, please read our project summary.

VCC Student Featured in BCNU Journal

Rhonda Bennett, a BScN student at Vancouver Community College, travelled to IUBAT with other VCC students this summer. She is featured in a BC Nurses Union Journal where she reflects upon what she learned about her own nursing practice, as well as what she observed in Bangladesh.

“The education and training that we receive is an invaluable resource that I was constantly reminded of while there,” she says, “Bangladesh is a country with a rich history and is extremely different from Canada so the cultural learning I received was wonderful.”

She further states of Bangladesh, “Although poverty is visible everywhere, so is a sense of determination and desire to grow.”