A wedding celebration - Going the extra mile

Christine with Osman at the bride's House

Yesterday we attended the wedding celebration of one of our nutrition staff. His name is Osman and he is the Outreach Supervisor in Camp 16 where we have one of our nutrition sites. His job is to supervise the 52 community nutrition volunteers (CNVs) we have in Camp 16. These CNVs visit regularly the women and children who receive food from our nutrition site. They share health and nutrition messages and generally look out for the well being of these families.

When we arrived at the house of the bride, we found Osman sitting at a huge table. Around the table were all of the male volunteers - 44 of them - eating together in this joyful celebration! Now, you have to realize that the CNVs are all Rohingya refugees. Most have been living in the camp for over a year now, and, like all Rohinga are not allowed to leave the camp. Osman and the CNVs managed to get special permission from the camp authorities to leave the camp and attend this wedding celebration in Cox's Bazar. Osman organized a bus to bring them into town - a trip of about 2 hours one way - so they could join him on this special day.

The Rohingya CNVs at table with Osman

Christine was literally speechless when we arrived and saw all of the CNVs sitting together with Osman around the table. Osman's job as an outreach supervisor with these CNVs is obviously more than just a job for him. Osman's desire to have them at his wedding celebration, and making that happen, is really an example of going the extra mile. This is an illustration of the love of our staff for the people they serve.

In Medair we like to share stories about going the extra mile. We are humbled to work with staff who live that out, not just in their work life, but their personal life as well.

Elizabeth, one of Christine's Managers, with the Bride

As we approach the end of the year please pray for the ongoing work of the nutrition staff and all the volunteers as we are at the end of project cycle. We are hopeful for renewed funding in the new year. But we don't yet have enough assured funding for the entire year.

Prayer points:

1. Funding for health and nutrition programs for next year.
2. A smooth handover of two Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinics  to Medair as of the 1st of January. 
3. For the country of Bangladesh as it heads towards elections on the 29th of this month - there is much uncertainty around these elections.