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Published: July 26th 2008
Teaching in Bangladesh
On June 1st Al flew off for a month of snorkelling in Indonesia and then more travels in Thailand while I flew off to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and 6 weeks of teaching nursing at IUBAT - International University of Business, Agriculture and Technology. IUBAT was founded in 1991 and the College of Nursing began here 4 years ago, started by some amazing Canadians from BC. Currently there are 65 nursing students enrolled.
My first time to live and work in a developing country….what a lot I learned! I discovered wonderful welcoming friendly people. And MANY people; Bangladesh now has a population of about 150 million in an area about the size of Vancouver Island! The people and culture of Bangladesh is vibrant. There is colour. There is beauty. There is also a lot of poverty and some saddening statistics about human mortality, particularly maternal morality and morality of children under age 5. I met many wonderful people in several health institutions who are working hard towards positive health outcomes.
The nursing profession in Bangladesh currently has a very low status. The IUBAT students are being educated by an international faculty, and being prepared to make a
positive difference to nursing in Bangladesh. The IUBAT mission statement is: “Human resource development through quality education”. You can read more about IUBAT on the web site: www.iubat.edu
With two visiting Fullbright Nurse Scholars from the USA, I wrote and taught the Community Health II course. Among the three of us we covered the 12 week course. I was lucky to be part of this teaching team and delighted to work with the 14 very wonderful IUBAT Nursing students enrolled in this course. They were fabulous!!! They assessed nearby communities in their community health teams -and what a lot their presentations taught me about the local community health issues, as they shared stories of people living in shanty towns without safe drinking water or a safe latrine system. 6 of these same students were also enrolled in the Population Health and Family Planning course which I also worked on writing and teaching. While I was there we began to expand our links with community partners. There is endless potential for growth in this area!
The school has three apartments for visiting faculty and students, in a building just a 5 to 10 minute walk or rickshaw ride from
the campus. I had room and board provided which made a great difference in having time to work and to explore! As a foreigner one stands out here, to put it mildly! Everywhere I went little children would come running to say “hi”, “hello”, “how are you?”, “I am fine”, “what is your name?”, -and want to hold hands or have their photo taken. Adults too might smile or say hello or just stare curiously. I wore Muslim dress as is the norm here and had no alcohol (for 6 weeks!) -also the Muslim norm. And I survived insane traffic congestion! Plus it was the rainy season -which means a lot of mud and water in our area of Uttara. So much construction happening and the roads are not in good shape at all. Power outages occurred three times or so per day, for about one hour each time. Cold showers were the norm. But the experience was all worth it and I am exploring ways to return! It was hard to say good bye.
The pictures here will show you part of my experiences and the words say some of it but are not enough to describe the
richness of it all. What you cannot hear are the cows and ducks and geese and goats as we walked to school -or the rickshaw drivers and bicycle riders ringing their bells or the horns honking nonstop in the traffic - or the call to prayer 5 times per day. I look forward to my return. I miss everyone there -especially the students. I send you each hugs. xo
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Judith
non-member comment
thank you for sharing your time in Bangladesh...
Dearest Robin ~ I can only imagine how this experience touched you, and all the people you worked with and met. The photos are essays in themselves! Love to you! J.