From: DAVE FOWLER <dfowler41@msn.com>
Subject: Bangladesh Journal #3
To:
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 5:59 PM
Greetings from Dhaka…Day 4, Wednesday
Today has been a difficult day…not physically but mentally…for what I have seen and heard.
The little boy I told you about yesterday…3-mo old Mostola Mahbob…the one who was sick after surgery…is getting better every hour. I had a chance to visit with his mother this morning to find out about the family. Mostola will probably go home tomorrow because he is now much better. They live in a small village about an hour from the hospital here in Dhaka and found out about the AfS clinic during a regular visit to this hospital…Dhaka Shishu Hospital…the only children’s hospital in the city. Dhaka Shishu Hospital is widely known for it’s services.
Mostola’s father is a kindergarten or 1st grade teacher in their small village and makes the equivilant of $65 US per month. His mother does not work.
Even the physicians in the Shishu hospital make very low wages compared to elsewhere in the world. Dr Mitul, whose portrait I have included, is the #2 Dr and associate professor in the hospital and told me that he makes less than $350/mo US.
The hospital is quite old but is one of the best in Dhaka for children. I have included some photos of the front of the hospital and the scene on the sidewalk at the entrance. Note the goat eating trash from the gutter. There are also scenes inside the hospital ward, one of the man who comes around to re-fill the patients’ bowl of some kind of corn soup….one of mothers listening to instructions on how to care for their children when they get home…and one of a mother cooking something on a small stove outside the ward on a small charcoal stove.
The last few photos are of mothers with terribly deformed children…one who we will be able to help and another whose deformities are so severe that no hope may be possible. I want you to look at that baby and mother and remember them the next time you think you’re having a bad day. The worst day for any of us in America is much better than the best day of some of the people we see here.
There is one photo of a mother sitting with her face in her hands. The 16 yr old mother sat outside the entrance to the operating rooms and cried, and cried and cried. She was so afraid for her child and could not understand that the child was going to be just fine.
There is just so much poverty here that it is overwhelming. We found that over 50% of the population of nearly 160,000,000 people in Bangladesh is age 15 and under so the level of poverty is only going to get worse with so many children to take care of and no good jobs for the families for their support.
Yesterday we did 12 more surgeries which brings our total to 36 for the mission…somewhat behind what we would like to see. But, there were 15 new patients we saw yesterday afternoon and most of them will be scheduled for yet this week or next.
We still have not been allowed to go anywhere except the hotel and the hospital with Rotary escort. I am hoping to get on one of the busses tonight to go do a little shopping.
fowler
