Another Bangladesh visa miracle!

An indication of how long it has been since we last shared with you is that we have been the recipients of another Bangladesh visa miracle - without you even knowing that we needed one!

We were in the States in January and February. Because of the agreement we have with the government for this year, it was not self evident that we would get visas through the US. So, on a whim, Phil responded to the email thread we used with the Italian embassy (last year) when we were in Albania. He sent all his documentation to them for the visa, and they agreed to issue the visa! So we hurriedly had Christine send her appliction. Around 2 weeks later, we both had visas to return to Bangladesh. 

I guess whims can come from the Lord sometimes.... 

A picture of the new C20 Ext Health Post

We left the States on the 3rd of March. Wow! What a whirlwind it has been since we got back! We are nearly halfway through the remainder of our time in Bangladesh. We leave on the 29th of April to return to the US. 

As you know the Medair Bangladesh programme is closing. We are so grateful for how the handover of the nutrition work went. It was accomplished without a hitch at the end of December! This is a testament to the abilities of our staff. We have done handovers before, and they know exactly how to accomplish all the necessary tasks. 

Our only programming from January to the end of March is our two health posts - and preparing our departure from Bangladesh. We shut down our Court Bazar base in February, and we moved our offices and international staff lodging back to Cox's Bazar (where were lived until February 2019 - but in a different location). 

Focus group discussion in C17

We had not been able to finish the rebuilding of the C20 Ext health post last year. So having three months' programming helped us to accomplish that. The picture above shows the outside. Phil likes to think of it as a bamboo resort (admittedly, we are quite certain that the Rohingya do not see it that way). 

As I said earlier, much of what we are doing is wrapping up the Bangladesh program. This week Christine was in the camps to conduct some focus group discussions (FGDs) as an overall program evaluation. The FGDs were an opportunity to hear from mothers - in particular, how the different programmes offered by both our health and nutrition projects have impacted their children, themselves and their families. One of the approaches we have used is called mother-to-mother support groups. Lead mothers meet weekly and learn about different topics ranging from breastfeeding practices, to feeding infants and children after 6 months, to hygiene, to playing with children. Lead mothers then go back to their own neighbourhoods and share what they've learned with neighbours. Christine was impressed with the enthusiasm of these mothers who themselves have adopted new behaviors in their homes and then have shared with other mothers.

Christine also listened to community health volunteers about the changes they've seen in their communities as a result of their weekly visits to households to check people's health, give health and nutrition messaging, and refer people as needed to the health posts. Most interesting is how the role of the female volunteers has changed in the eyes of the community. When we first started in the Rohingya response female volunteers got so much negative feedback from their fathers, husbands or community leaders for working in this role. Now, all of our volunteers, including females, are highly respected and trusted in the communities in which they work. 

An example of a life changing behavior that has

Mother-to-mother support group in the camps

changed because of education through the support groups and volunteers is related to colostrum. For those of you who don't know, colostrum is the first milk a mother has when a baby is born and usually is present for the first couple of days post delivery. Colostrum is extremely important for the health and well being of a new born baby as it is full of antibodies that boost the baby's immune system and basically 'sets it up' for about 6 months post delivery to be able to withstand infections much better. In Myanmar, where the Rohingya refugees came from, the cultural practice was to not breastfeed the new born infant when colostrum was present. Once the regular milk arrived, then the mother would begin breastfeeding. Now mothers have learned how critical colostrum is to the health of their babies and have begun breastfeeding immediately following birth.

It is really positive to register these positive developments, at least partially as the result of our programmes!

You might be interested in Medair's work in Ukraine. Medair went to Poland almost immediately after the invasion. They have already established 6 bases in Western and Central Ukraine. We heard yesterday about an underground intensive care unit that they are working with. They are also doing a lot of trauma healing (in the humanitarian aid sector we talk about psychosocial care - PSS) both in Ukraine and in Poland. If you desire to give towards this work, you can simply go to medair.org. There is a link on the home page to giving to Ukraine. 

While we have very conflicted emotions about leaving Bangladesh while the situation of the Rohingya, in fact, gets worse - the reality is that Medair is an emergency response organization. We are past the emergency here in Bangladesh and there are good local handover partners. There is a direct correlation between shutting down countries like Bangladesh and having the funding to open new responses, like the one in Ukraine. It is hard to leave the Rohingya in the situation they finds themselves in. But we are thankful that Medair can continue to respond in other ongoing emergencies like Yemen, Afghanistan, Congo, Ethiopia and other places where things are more dire. And open a new program in Ukraine!

In December we received an email from HQ saying that the DR Congo team was reaching out to see if we would be interested in working in Congo. Working in Congo has always been a dream for Phil given that the body of Mennonites there is one of the 10 largest national bodies in the world. We had a conversation with the country director, Marian Wetshay (a Dutch ex-medical missionary). A couple of weeks later we told HR that we would be willing to start positions in the Congo the 1st of July. The Congo programme in eastern Congo is extremely complex (think Ebola, a multitude of armed non-state actors, etc). We have 6 bases in the east. And we will be based in Goma, on lake Kivu. We will tell you more about this in future blogs. But we are very excited for the opportunity to work there with Medair.

We will be back in the States for May and June to spend time with family, friends and get some rest. Then we plan, Lord willing, to move our work and ministry, through Medair, to the Democratic Republic of Congo!

Praise: 

• For the hard work of the health and nutrition teams and the impact in their communities
• For the smooth Nutrition project handover in December - and the hard work of all staff!
• For the many staff who are working super hard to wind up the programme here - some have really given 150% - and we would honestly not be successful without this effort!

Prayer:

• For the finishing of all construction work by the end of the month!
• For Christine, who is writing the 'story' of Medair's health & nutrition work over the past 4.5 years - a huge process which includes the current evaluation activities
• For a good finish to Medair's time in Bangladesh
• For a future with hope for the Rohingya - this looks all the more impossible given the realities in Myanmar, humanly speaking.