Fields of gold

Check out my post on the GHD website with pictures and information about my field visits at http://ghd-blog.blogspot.com/2007/12/snapshots-of-bracs-health-program.html. It includes a link to some of the pictures I took in the field as well: http://picasaweb.google.com/SilverBullet523/BRAC. BRAC recently began a collaboration with Scojos Foundation, a group that has worked primarily in Latin America and aims to provide low-cost eye glasses in resource poor settings. It is pretty amazing to watch care get delivered in such a different setting than the sterile and rather alienating context that prevails in the U.S. These women work with the same confidence and expertise without many of the technologies and luxuries that we assume are necessary for high quality care.

I also had a chance to go to the Liberty Monument on my way back to Dhaka last night. The six pillars on each side represent East Pakistan's rebellions against West Pakistan, beginning in the 1950s, and culminating, as represented by the culmination of all the pillars in an apex on the middle pillar, in liberation in Dec. 16, 1971. It's located in a beautiful park as well--a welcome relief from the sometimes claustrophobic density of crowds in Dhaka. It creates the same sense of solemnity and admiration that the best monuments in DC, for me, the most recent WWII fountain and the Vietnam War wall.

Sunday will be a big holiday here!