6th Women for Women Camp, in Chilmari, Kurigram in the north of Bangladesh, 28th of November until December 5th.

In collaboration with HumaniTerra (http://www.humani-terra.org) by Christian Echinar and Friendship (http://friendship-bd.org) by Mrs Runa Khan and Yves Marre.

The place

The sixth Women for Women camp took place in Chilmari in the district of Kurigram in the north of Bangladesh. The infrastructure was set up by Friendship, a value-based organisation by Runa Khan (executive director of Friendship) , who provide health care in the most remote areas of the country on well established floating hospital boots on the Brahmaputra River. A permanent medical team of physicians and nurses run the hospital. The floating hospital is a platform to provide healthcare to 4 million of Bangladesh's most marginalised people. The hospital targeted the people living on the shifting islands at the mouth of the Brahmaputra River, that get flooded during heavy rains. In this areas medical and surgical services for women are extremely scarce as in addition the environmental reasons mentioned above, women, unlike men do not travel to the main land annually for work where medical services are located, as men from these areas do.

The teams

The mission was set up out in cooperation with another surgical team by HumaniTerra. who supply health care on the boots in up to 6 subsequent missions of different medical specialisations (orthopedics, gynecology, plastic surgery, anesthesiology etc.) per year. The team of HumaniTerra consisted of 5 people, 2 anestesiologists (Dr. Boris LePladec and Dr. Carola Levasseur) , a nurse (Christiane Gardet) and a physiologist (Aurore Mambriani). Dr. Christan Echinard, President of the ESPRAS SHARE (Surgeons' Humanitarian Aid Resource Europe) programme from Marseille, focused on the treatment of the male patients that presented during the mission. With his long-standing experience of missions on Friendship boots, he coordinated the mission and was mediating between the local doctors and the Women for Women team prior to the mission.

The WomenforWomen team consisted of Dr. Constance Neuhann-Lorenz (President Women for Women Committee, Munich Germany), PD Dr. Marta Markowicz (Fellow in the department of plastic surgery, Caritas Hospital Regensburg) and Dr. Sarah Lorenz (Resident Dept. of Plastic, Reconstructive Surgery, Hospital Munich Bogenhausen, Munich).

The surgical teams were accompanied by the famous Italian photographer Shobha (http://www.motherindiaschool.it), who had received the World Press Photo Award 1998 and 2002 together with her student Davide Grotta. We are very proud that she agreed to join us and provide us with her photos and a video documentation for fundraising and educational purposes.

The mission

The surgical camp on the Friendship hospital boot from 29th of November until the 4th of December. The were two operations theatres available, which where run by the two anesthesiologists of Humaniterra Dr. Boris LePladec and Dr. Carola Levasseur. Patient selection and partially transport was carried out by the local medical team of friendship. Due to delayed flights and foggy weather the Women for Women team had to catch the amphibious aircraft by MAF Bangladesh from Dhaka to Chilmari one day later than intended. The Women for Women team with the two photographers arrived in Chilmari on December 29th. Therefore Dr. Echinard, who arrived a day earlier took over the screening of the patients that were appropriated for treatment by Women for Women and HumaniTerra. The patients that presented showed severe burn contractures of the cervical, axially, breast region, the lower extremities and hand contractures. The cause for the burns seemed to be mainly accidental due to open fires. Since in these remote areas the patients had hardly received any treatment the showed a massive extent of these contractures. All patients were screened according to the “Women for Women Screening-Sheets” and gave their informed consent on “Women for Women Screening-Sheets”. The operations started the 29th of December in two teams. The Women for Women team treated the female patients and Humaniterra focused on the male patients. Women for Women operated on 16 female patients on which multiple procedures were performed. The screening sheets and informed consent sheets hereby serve to record the diagnoses and procedures performed.

Postoperative examinations and change of dressings took place on December 3rd and 4th under appropriate analgesia. The wounds showed good healing and excellent graft-take. The postoperative treatment plan was strictly fixed on the postoperative treatment sheets and discussed with the local staff and the Humaniterra pysiotherapist Aurore Mambriani, who ensured further follow up care by staying an additional week and handing over the patients to the next Humaniterra team. Aurore supported the surgical work by adjusting splints and mobilisations by physiotherapy of the released contractures where possible and medically viable. The collaboration of HumaniTerra and Women for Women, proved to be a medical success. Everyone gave a hand, which created a powerful synergy and a fruitful work environment for the local staff, the HumaniTerra and the Women for Women Team.

Visit by Runa Khan, executive director of Friendship

We were honoured by the visit of the executive director of Friendship, Mrs. Runa Khan on December the 3rd and 4th who personally introduced her organisation which had expanded from providing primary and secondary healthcare to education, income generation, relief and rehabilitation programmes, and, most recently, interest-free loans and savings schemes. Together with Mrs. Khan we visited schools for education of women and children in the remote villages in the beautiful landscape of the islands along the Brahmaputra River.

Meeting with the ASF

On December 5th the WomenforWomen team together with Dr. Christian Echinard and Mrs. Runa Khan had a meeting in Dhaka with Monira Rahman the executive director of the ASF (Acid Survivors Foundation, http://www.acidsurvivors.org/).

Acid violence is a particularly vicious and damaging form of violence in Bangladesh where acid is thrown in people’s faces. The overwhelming majority of the victims are women. The victims are attacked for many reasons that are often a result of family and land dispute, dowry demands or a desire for revenge. The aim of ASF is to eliminate acid violence Bangladesh. They support victims of acid attacks with physical reconstruction, support for reintegration into society and legal assistance. Due to their successful work, the number of acid attacks has decreased in the past years, however acid attacks still in Bangladesh still take place every two days….

Future vision

The four NGOs discussed a common effort to establish a floating acute burn division in Bangladesh to provide the victims with better treatment options in the future…

 Sponsoring:

Medical supplies were donated by B.Braun Melsungen , Asclepios Medizintechnik Gutach Germany and Gabriele Rapp, Medizintechnik Brannenburg, Germany.

Lufthansa provided free transport for the 100 kg of medical equipment, coordinated by Mr. Robert Salzl, Munich.

Mr . Johann Schauer donated € 500.- for extra expenses throughout the mission.

Dr. Sarah Lorenz

Resident Dept. of Plastic, Reconstructive Surgery, Hospital Munich Bogenhausen, Munich