Friday, July 10, 2015

07.10.15 Bangladesh to Yap, en route

Am now in the Singapore rest area on an 11 hour layover. This is a good time to add some more information about this very successful trip to Bangladesh.

The days were very long - up around 5 so we could leave the Inn at 6 - traffic is a bear. Then most often I would go to sleep after midnight. We worked at two factories - Avant Garments and Envoy Textiles. The plan was to assess all factory workers and we came as close as you can - in total we evaluated almost 2000 workers in this week. We had a team of about 20 people - doctors, medical students, high school student, pramedics, and one engineer. The team was efficient and willing to work the long hours. We all met then took two vans to reach the factories - traveling almost 2.5 hours one way to one and 2.0 hours to the other. We worked until there were no more workers to see, then "closed shop". In the evening, we all were together to break the fast for Ramadan and ate traditional Bangladeshi appetizer foods - but starting the break with lemon water and dates. There were people in the group of different religions and it was good to be together and share information and stories. After iktar comes dinner, frequently paired with a meeting, so now you understand the late nights. I also had to prepare a presentation.

Yesterday I gave a lecture on cervical cancer prevention and the new 9-valent HPV vaccine. The clinical trial is "hot off the press" so it was a very timely talk. It was given at BRAC Health and faculty from the School of Public Health came there rather than me going to the school. I did want to see the school but we were really on a very tight schedule, traffic throwing in a few wrenches here and there. I showed them pictures of Yap - tradional dancers, men's houses, stone money, the beautiful sunset with the lagoon in the foreground, and of course, my little Shorty. We had a grear exchange of ideas and I am impressed with what they have accomplished and how hard they are willing to work to continue miving forward. I am aware that there is still a lot of poverty and problems, but I see so much positive and foreward miving progress that I am so very happy for them. I am hoping that there will be some collaboration in the near future. Also, Bangladesh is now the world's 35th largest economy.

The health surveys went well and it appears that we may also get the support of the Bangladeshi Garrment Export BGE and if I made a mistake in the name I will correct later) in our endeavors to contribute to improving health care for garment workers. This is an important segment of  the population as Bangaldesh is a leader in exports in this industry, so they hire many employees. And BGC is essentially a major body that manages the factories.

Here are a few pictures of our team - and once again I will add that it was a very positive experience working with them all.

All the beautiful colors in the women's komeez's. We are at the Envoy Textile Factory and the picture includes their managerial staff and paramedics as well. Antura is taking a self of the group.


The women members of the 2015 health care team. Our organization is called Health and Education for all. The spoke of the wheel that we support is called Health on Wheels USA. Ruhul is the founder of the nonprofit organization and he did all of the ground work (I gave some advice from time to time.) He is president and I am vice president. We are serous about extending this work here - which is a win win situation for the garment factories to participate.


The entire team that helped at Envoy Textiles.


The following are random pictures of the team and Envoy employees.


He is the CEO. A very nice man who even waited in line line the others. Most of the employees at Envoy are men due to the textile equipment that is used. I did not get my tour but Hameen, the director of Human Resources promises that will happen on my next visit. We were too busy for a tour!



Family of an Envoy employee. The company pays for all health care expenses of the employee and 60% of that for the family. We found one woman with an extremely high fasting glucose test - they sent her to the hospital at our suggestion with a set of orders written by our doctors. Envoy will pay for the entire cost.




Antura. She wants to do a general surgery residency in the US, and possibly breast surgery or colorectal surgery, then come back to Bangladesh to practice. During one conversation, she said "I love my country" and she wants to be able to help the less fortunate. Hence, she was on our team. She also worked us in 2013, as did over half of this group.




Envoy manager who had to check off the names of everyone who came in for the testing. He had to count almost 1200 workers. BTW, once the data is entered, you can guess who will do the analysis.


Two paramedics. We hope to keep both as our employees. We are working on it.



Got to give this goat an A+ for effort.



The paramedics had asked us to come with them to the lake for more pictures. Hameen asked if we didn't have enough already. "Apparently not" was my reply. Almost everyone, if not everyone, had a smartphone and would take pictures at every opportunity. Shutterbugs all of them!






Director of Human Resources, a wonderful man, and a great help in the process of organizing our set up. He worked hard and was with us every day until we finished, and had iftar with us.

 
 Nice to see empty chairs at the end of a long day.



Envoy human resource empolyees who helped us every day all day with logistics. Really nice men.


 
Yes, we practiced on each other. Most of us now know out own fasting blood sugars, hemoglobin levels, blood pressures and height and weight.


Dr. Happy passed her exams. She is a really nice doctor.

Dr. Trisha has  been following my bloag and asks me about Fionnegan, Gunnarr and Shorty. Love it!

Mr Ahmed, the founder and president of Envoy with Dr. Ruhul Abid.




Dr. Bijoy. A surgeon in Dhaka.




 
 
  The three amigos. They have been friends for a very long time.





My jobs were limited as I am not fluent in Bangla. I learned enough words to keep traffic flowing and do the blood pressures, heights and weight. Ashoon. (Come.) I also proived consultation advice. Denitha from Yap PH was kind enough to loan us the blood hemoglobin machine. We took very good care of it and I am brining it back intact!. It was a great machine to have and we are looking for a few to do Hgb on everyone in the next factory. Here I am taking with the CEO.



It is the rainy season and it did rain. Views of Dhaka.



Dr. Antura and Dr. Happy.



We also did health assessments at the corporate office. They set up the cafeteria for us and it was really very comfortable. We had enough room for a little more privacy for the workers, the room was air conditioned and spacious.


Doctors doing private consultations.


Cemetery. We had visited a software company to put our program in an electronic version and used with a tablet without needing wifi connectivity. We are working on the format and hope to have this done in about six months or so. Then there will be no more paper forms - saves the trees - and the data will be formatted so that I can do the analysis sooner rather than later.


 

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