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IMPACT Foundation Bangladesh (IFB) is a
Charitable Trust and a non-governmental
organization working in the country as a part of
global IMPACT movement. The mandate of this
organization, like other national IMPACT
Foundations, is to achieve sustainable and
affordable change in the immemorial pattern of
disability through efforts to prevent avoidable
disablement. Besides the common mandate, the
organization is always searching to find-out the
reasons behind disability and trying to
intervene in new areas of development to prevent
avoidable disablement.
In a study (April, 1997) of IMPACT Foundation
Bangladesh in Chuadanga district to find-out the
workable strategy for implementing "The
Comprehensive Primary Health Care Project for
Prevention and Cure of Avoidable Disability",
one of the findings is: "7% of the total
population (1 million) of the district are
disabled". The general view is that disability
is essentially a health issue. However, there is
a growing realization in all countries that
there is an intrinsic relationship between
disability and poverty. Disability is
characterized both as a cause and effect of
poverty. With this strong hypothesis, IMPACT
Foundation Bangladesh conducted a survey in four
Thanas (sub-district) of Chuadanga district of
Bangladesh. The general assumption of this study
was that there is a strong relationship between
poverty and disability, prevention of disability
and alleviation of poverty. Poverty is defined
here by land-holding pattern of households of
the area and the term disability covers blind,
deaf and dumb, physically handicap, mental, etc. |
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As the main objective of the study was to
find-out the relationship between poverty and
disability, we tried to concentrate specially in
this area at the time of designing this survey.
The detail findings of the study are given
below:
a. Total 256 disabled persons were identified
from 4,528 household members of 900 respondents,
which indicates that about 6% of the total
sampled population is disabled in survey area.
b. There is a strong relationship between
disability and poverty (when poverty has been
defined by land-holdings). The finding is: rate
of disability increases as land holding in
households decreases. Our detailed findings are
as follows:
- 61% of the total disabled persons are
identified with 0 to 0.49 acres of land-holding
groups. So, most of the disabled persons are
located in households which have no or small
land-holdings.
- 20% of the total disabled persons are located
in households with 0.50 to 2.99 acres of land.
Thus as the amount of land-holding increases,
the rate of disability decreases.
- 19% of the total disabled persons are located
in households with 3 and above acres of land
holding groups. The finding also substantiates
our general hypothesis.
c. Disability has also a correlation to rate of
literacy. The findings of the study are as
follows:
- 77% of the total disabled persons are located
where all or most of the family members of
sampled households are illiterate. This
indicates most of disabled cases are
concentrated in those households where most of
the illiterate peoples live.
- 21% of the disabled persons are located where
maximum family members of sampled households are
literate. This indicates that where the rate of
literacy will increase, the rate of disability
will decrease.
- Only 2% of the disabled persons are located in
households where all family members are
literate. So, the above findings indicate that
disability is reversely correlated with literacy
status. |
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It is a sad truth in the modern world that the
combination of the words 'Bangladesh' and
'charity' are now more likely to induce fatigue
than excitement. To my shame, this is exactly
how I felt five years ago when talking with Sir
John Wilson, the irrepressible chairman of
Impact, a tiny charity in Hayward's Heath, West
Sussex. While he was telling me of its plan to
build a hospital boat in Bangladesh, I switched
off entirely, not wanting to carry the emotional
burden of what seemed such a futile hope. No
such boat had ever been built from scratch;
Impact hadn't yet raised a penny in funds; and
then, as now, newspapers were talking of
'compassion fatigue'- words which had special
relevance for Bangladesh, so often considered a
permanent disaster area.
Despite the general perception, Bangladesh is in
fact doing a great deal to help itself,
including the pioneering of micro-credit (small,
but enabling, sums of money lent mostly to women
by the state) and the increase in provision of
family planning. And it was in Bangladesh that
the idea of the hospital boat was born. In 1993,
Impact UK (which Wilson founded with the
characteristically ambitious target of ending
all avoidable disability), gave £5,000 to two
Bangladeshis, Rezaul Haque and Monsur Choudhuri,
to help start a new foundation. Monsur - who,
like Wilson, was blinded in a childhood accident
- is now full-time Director of Impact,
Bangladesh.
It was suggested that they might set up a
hospital train, such as Impact had already run
so successfully in India. However, Monsur's
brother, a businessman, pointed out that a boat
would be more suitable for a country of which a
third is under water, and where so many villages
are accessible only by river. Later, the idea of
a boat was adapted to a proposal for a
flat-bottomed, engineless pontoon, which would
be much cheaper and cleaner to run, and could
easily be towed when it needed to move to a new
mooring.
The Impact team in the UK promised to raise the
initial funds; designs were made, and by the end
of 1995 a civil engineer, Geoffrey Martin - one
of many unpaid volunteers for the project - had
built a model of the boat. But £750,000 still
had to be found, and many difficulties remained.
Claire Hicks, Impact's chief executive, a
formidable character under her gentle manner,
was given four tickets by British Airways and
flew with a team to Bangladesh. Clambering
through the teeming, rackety boatyards of the
capital, Dhaka, they gathered a handful of
estimates and, in part on a hunch, accepted the
one offered by a retired officer, Major Subhan. |
