My assignment in Bangladesh – I hear a lot of misgivings and also some pity – “you want to go there? there’s just extreme overpopulation, poverty and exploitation, everyday chaos and flooding…”.
And by then I had already landed in Chittagong, the port city with a population of 4 million, and at first these predictions seemed to come true, only there were no floods, it was the dry season.
My time in Bangladesh was then not only physically but – with all that I experienced – mentally quite stressful.
However, much was soon made up for by the true treasure of this country: witnessing the strength of the people’s will to survive, their unbiased curiosity and overwhelming hospitality towards us visitors.
As everywhere, the living conditions in the slums where we work are oppressive, and the physical and mental complaints and illnesses are their direct consequences.
Almost all of the patients are rickshaw workers, garment factory workers, housemaids and day laborers or without any income and many have never attended school.
We can help many people medically in our two slum outpatient clinics (a third will be opened soon), and in our community-based center, 40 malnourished children receive fortifying food, are kept busy and their mothers receive a wide range of advice and training.
Just as important, however, are the schools financed by Austrian Doctors, the excellent quality of which I was able to see for myself during a visit to the capital Dhaka.
And rarely before have I returned home so personally enriched by this feeling of “having been in the midst of life” through my encounters with the people of this still very original country.
