Results for: Bangladesh.
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Mar. 13 2011
© Tdh
Although Bangladesh is going through a period of rapid growth, there are a number of serious problems affecting the wellbeing of the nation’s children. One of these problems is acute malnutrition, which greatly increases the risk of child mortality from normally benign ailments such as diarrhoea and common infections…
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Dr Charulatha Banerjee (right)
Dr. Charulatha Banerjee joined Tdh in India as its Manager of Programmes in 2007. Born in South India, Dr. Banerjee lives now in West Bengal. In 1990 she qualified as a Medical Doctor and after a varied experience from neurosurgery to medical administration made a paradigm shift and moved into public health work. Her work with children and women mean for her an opportunity to give back something to those who have not had opportunities which she considers herself blessed to have. Herself mother of a 15 year old she says “ It makes me more appreciative of what I have – this introspection is tough but necessary”
I come from the part of the world that is home to half the world’s malnourished children. They are part of scenery for me – but even for me what I saw yesterday was hard to digest.
Ignacio Packer and myself are in Kurigram North Bangladesh where Tdh has been battling malnourishment for the past 30 years beginning from the time of Edmond Kaiser. We stepped out of the campus last evening and less than an hour away and just outside of the town we went to the slums of Kurigram.Young women with children in their arms or straddling their hips rushed out to meet us hoping we would enlist their children’s names for something- anything. I counted up to 6 children who were all under 30 days old – definitely not weighing more than 1.5 kgs. A day old baby was asleep in her mother’s arms but swaddled in a dirty rag that defies description The woman told me “I was in labour for 2 days and have no milk to give the child- I have given her sugar water”.