Feature: Medicines Without Borders provides healthcare to Dhaka slum community
Fazila Begum, aged about 35, is a mother of six children. Her husband is a rickshaw-puller who earns at best 500 taka (6 U.S. dollars) a day. Before bringing her severely malnourished one-year- old baby to MSF healthcare centre, she had no knowledge about malnutrition.
"My neighbors told me that my baby might be suffering from malnutrition. My village doctor also said that. Then one of my neighbors told me to come to MSF for treatment. Thus, I came here, " Begum said.
Another patient Rashida Akhter, an 18-year-old girl, had several complications because of severe malnutrition.
Rashida came from a poor family and could not afford treatment at a local hospital. Now, she is receiving free treatment six days a week in MSF healthcare center. "MSF is providing me ready-to-eat food. The doctors said that it will help me regain my body weight, " said Rashida.
Severely malnourished children are admitted to MSF's therapeutic feeding program and given ready-to-eat food at their own home until they regain normal body weight.
The MSF also conduct lectures about proper food preparation and the value of nutritional food to women to raise awareness about malnutrition among the residents of Kamrangirchar.
Apart from malnourished patients, the MSF also provides pre- natal and post-natal care to young pregnant and lactating mothers aged between 15 to 24. In Kamrangirchar, like most parts of Bangladesh, girls usually get married between the ages of 10 and 15 and often become pregnant shortly thereafter.
Early marriage of the girls, among the poor communities, is one of the most common phenomenum in Bangladesh. It is very risky and unhealthy for girls to conceive in early age, which sometimes causes death to both mother and child.
Superstition and illiteracy are two major reasons why girls marry at an early age. Getting married young is commonly associated with high rates of maternal mortality.
The national maternal mortality rate in Bangladesh is 3.1 per 1, 000 live births and 82 percent of women give birth at home without the assistance of a skilled attendant.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the maternal mortality rate within the adolescent group is almost double with 5.8 per 1,000 live births.
The still-birth rate in Bangladesh is the third highest in the world and the adolescent fertility rate is also one of the highest, with 147 per 1,000 births given by women who are less than 20 years old.
