Thanarbaid Health Care Center - Jason Morgenson

A Summary of My Experience in Bangladesh

July 1999

***Here's the link to Thanarbaid Health Care Centre in Bangladesh http://www.geocities.com/jwmorgen/index.html

Learning Experience

Learned about the history of the Thanarbaid Clinic and Dr. Edric Baker's (MBBS) involvement over the past 16 years.
Learned about the clinic's philosophy and mission, which is health care for all by all. Paid workers receive no more payment than local day labor in order to not separate them from the poor that they serve.
Learned about the major diseases treated at the center, including malnutrition and diarrhea.
Went on a village round with one of the health care workers, seeing how she kept track of the village children's growth using a scale and growth chart.
Attended one of the health worker training sessions in which Dr. Baker tried to resolve a personnel problem through discussion of the problem and its parts.
Observed Dr. Baker while he saw and treated several patients.
Learned about the culture of the people through interaction with clinic workers and local people. Local cultures include Bengali Muslim, Tribal Hindu, and Tribal Christian-all of which are seen in the clinic staff and patients.
Visited the Kailakuri TB and Diabetes Subcenter and learned about their programs. TB is treated via WHO recommendations for Bangladesh. Diabetes is treated by a program of Dr. Baker's design which serves almost 100% Bengali Muslim. The subcenter is, according to Dr. Baker, the only place in Bangladesh where a person, rich or poor, can receive diabetic control. Almost all patients are illiterate. He says the diabetes program should be studied so that what makes the program work can be found out and so that the program can be replicated.

Volunteer Involvement

Updated the Thanarbaid Clinic donor address list.
Transferred the Health Worker Medicine Dosage Books to computer (see attached copy, note that it is in "A4" format). The original books were handwritten by Dr. Baker for the staff and are about 16 years old. The books were falling apart, needed updating, and needed transfer to computer. The first step of 3 was accomplished, namely updating present material, adding some material, and transferring all of it to computer for printing. The second step will include adding more material to the book (which is a mix of medicine dosages and disease treatments). The third step will be getting the book translated into Bangla. I will probably have no further involvement with the book unless I return to the clinic next summer.

A photo of me, Fr. Doug Venne, and some of the boys in Doug's village. Doug is my mom's cousin, and he arranged the trip for me. He is a Catholic priest who has been a missionary in Bangladesh since 1975.

Mukalesh (the man at far left) and some of the women who work in the village program. The women go out to the villages to assess maternal and infant health. One of their tasks is to weigh children and keep track of their growth on growth charts. If the child is not gaining weight or is losing weight, intervention is needed. Because of their work, malnutrition has disappeared from the immediate surrounding village. Malnutrition is slowly disappearing from the villages located farther from the clinic.

Dr. Edric Baker, Rasheed (white cap), and one other Thanarbaid staff member making a list of things to do for the day. Dr. Baker has been at the rural clinic since the early 1980s. There are about 50 staff total at Thanarbaid, and none of the staff have a high school education. Dr. Baker does all of the staff training. Staff see about 16,000 patients a year, most of whom are from the surrounding 10 villages.