The Dhaka project
Survey
The seamstresses’ quarter
People living in our operational area, Savar, located north of Dhaka, must contend with big problems: innumerable textile factories, kilometer-long settlements resembling slums, environmental pollution, sex work, drug criminality, and child labor. Investors built large textile factories here in the 1980s. The region was not prepared for the many people who swarmed into the suburbs from rural areas as a result. However, few find work; many have to earn a living with prostitution or slip into drug dependence. More than 40 percent of the people living here are illiterate, and many families earn less than 5,000 taka a month, which is equivalent to about 50 euros.
Hand in Hand with Caritas Bangladesh
In this project, we were lucky to be able to combine medical with social aid because we work closely together with Caritas Bangladesh, which has a large network and already maintains several social-aid projects. Caritas runs a Drop-In Center for women working as prostitutes and drug addicts. Here these individuals can wash, sleep, retire, and receive different kinds of support. Nurseries for the textile workers’ children and training to become kindergarten und nursery teachers are also run by Caritas in the region.
The German Doctors provides the medical components for the needy. Two volunteer mission doctors have cared for about 70 patients daily in our out-patient clinics, which our team drives to every day, since July 2019.
The seamstresses’ quarter
People living in our operational area, Savar, located north of Dhaka, must contend with big problems: innumerable textile factories, kilometer-long settlements resembling slums, environmental pollution, sex work, drug criminality, and child labor. Investors built large textile factories here in the 1980s. The region was not prepared for the many people who swarmed into the suburbs from rural areas as a result. However, few find work; many have to earn a living with prostitution or slip into drug dependence. More than 40 percent of the people living here are illiterate, and many families earn less than 5,000 taka a month, which is equivalent to about 50 euros.
Hand in Hand with Caritas Bangladesh
In this project, we were lucky to be able to combine medical with social aid because we work closely together with Caritas Bangladesh, which has a large network and already maintains several social-aid projects. Caritas runs a Drop-In Center for women working as prostitutes and drug addicts. Here these individuals can wash, sleep, retire, and receive different kinds of support. Nurseries for the textile workers’ children and training to become kindergarten und nursery teachers are also run by Caritas in the region.
The German Doctors provides the medical components for the needy. Two volunteer mission doctors have cared for about 70 patients daily in our out-patient clinics, which our team drives to every day, since July 2019.
Dates & Facts
Project Start: 1989
Current number of doctors: No medical missions are presently possible due to the corona pandemic. There are normally two German doctors on site.
Missions: Our volunteer doctors carried out a total of 542 free medical missions from when? 2000 to the end of 2020.
Patient contacts: Approximately 20,000 treatments are performed in Dhaka annually.
Partner: Our project partner is Caritas Bangladesh.
Structures: Caritas Dhaka runs the project as the responsible organization; the workers are employed by Caritas. The project consists of three out-patient facilities in the Savar region, which local co-workers reach by car. Medical consultations are held at each site once or twice a week.
Operational areas: the Savar region is located north of Dhaka in Bangladesh. The three outpatient clinics are located in Jamgara, Zirabo, and Vadail.
Most common health problems: gastro-intestinal diseases, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma, tuberculosis, skin diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, contagious diseases, and bone and joint pain (due to sitting at the sewing machines for hours on end).
Priorities: basic medical care, disease-prevention training, advice for pregnant women, mothers, and people with chronic diseases, and referrals to national medical facilities.
Project Start: 1989
Current number of doctors: No medical missions are presently possible due to the corona pandemic. There are normally two German doctors on site.
Missions: Our volunteer doctors carried out a total of 542 free medical missions from when? 2000 to the end of 2020.
Patient contacts: Approximately 20,000 treatments are performed in Dhaka annually.
Partner: Our project partner is Caritas Bangladesh.
Structures: Caritas Dhaka runs the project as the responsible organization; the workers are employed by Caritas. The project consists of three out-patient facilities in the Savar region, which local co-workers reach by car. Medical consultations are held at each site once or twice a week.
Operational areas: the Savar region is located north of Dhaka in Bangladesh. The three outpatient clinics are located in Jamgara, Zirabo, and Vadail.
Most common health problems: gastro-intestinal diseases, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma, tuberculosis, skin diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, contagious diseases, and bone and joint pain (due to sitting at the sewing machines for hours on end).
Priorities: basic medical care, disease-prevention training, advice for pregnant women, mothers, and people with chronic diseases, and referrals to national medical facilities.
Outpatient clinic
Little help from the state
As in all our projects, our priority here is the treatment of people living on the edge of society – workers in the textile factories, who cannot afford any medical care or are excluded from other healthcare facilities, sex workers, drug addicts, and transgender individuals, who are often not admitted to conventional facilities. Contagious diseases, like tuberculosis, hepatitis, and respiratory diseases, as well as sexually transmitted infections, dengue fever, diarrhoeal diseases, and undernourishment, are common diagnoses in the regions of Savar and Ashulia.
Improve the medical infrastructure
We chose three operational areas for our out-patient clinics to improve the medical situation in the Savar region. These are very centrally located so that textile workers can also go to the doctor during their breaks. This is important because diseases are often drawn out due to fear of losing the job. Every mission site is open once or twice a week with a team of translators, pharmacists, and nurses. About 70 patients are treated daily. We also cooperate with the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP). When necessary, we refer patients to the CRP so that they can get suitable treatment. We now have a physiotherapist who offers physiotherapy three times a week in both individual and group sessions in our team. The patients are referred by the doctors.
Little help from the state
As in all our projects, our priority here is the treatment of people living on the edge of society – workers in the textile factories, who cannot afford any medical care or are excluded from other healthcare facilities, sex workers, drug addicts, and transgender individuals, who are often not admitted to conventional facilities. Contagious diseases, like tuberculosis, hepatitis, and respiratory diseases, as well as sexually transmitted infections, dengue fever, diarrhoeal diseases, and undernourishment, are common diagnoses in the regions of Savar and Ashulia.
Improve the medical infrastructure
We chose three operational areas for our out-patient clinics to improve the medical situation in the Savar region. These are very centrally located so that textile workers can also go to the doctor during their breaks. This is important because diseases are often drawn out due to fear of losing the job. Every mission site is open once or twice a week with a team of translators, pharmacists, and nurses. About 70 patients are treated daily. We also cooperate with the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP). When necessary, we refer patients to the CRP so that they can get suitable treatment. We now have a physiotherapist who offers physiotherapy three times a week in both individual and group sessions in our team. The patients are referred by the doctors.
Living Conditions
The struggle for survival in Dhaka’s textile factories
The Savar region is located north of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Innumerable factories shape the image of the region and produce massive difficulties. The amount of air and water pollution is huge in the entire region. Many rivers glow in bright colors as a result of pigments which the factories channel into the environment.
Especially young people looking for work in the region who have been sheltered at home are unable to cope with city life. Those who do not find work directly in the textile factories are in danger of ending up on the streets, especially because they must send money to their families at home.
Prostitution and drug addiction
Many young women and men who cannot find any other way to earn money consider sex work as their only chance. Many people who came to Savar looking for work drift into the disastrous cycle of despair and addiction. Life is particularly difficult for transgender individuals in Bangladesh. Exploitation, especially sexual, and social exclusion are part of their everyday lives. We, together with Caritas, treat these people in our out-patient clinics and refer them when desired or needed to other projects and facilities.
The struggle for survival in Dhaka’s textile factories
The Savar region is located north of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Innumerable factories shape the image of the region and produce massive difficulties. The amount of air and water pollution is huge in the entire region. Many rivers glow in bright colors as a result of pigments which the factories channel into the environment.
Especially young people looking for work in the region who have been sheltered at home are unable to cope with city life. Those who do not find work directly in the textile factories are in danger of ending up on the streets, especially because they must send money to their families at home.
Prostitution and drug addiction
Many young women and men who cannot find any other way to earn money consider sex work as their only chance. Many people who came to Savar looking for work drift into the disastrous cycle of despair and addiction. Life is particularly difficult for transgender individuals in Bangladesh. Exploitation, especially sexual, and social exclusion are part of their everyday lives. We, together with Caritas, treat these people in our out-patient clinics and refer them when desired or needed to other projects and facilities.
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