The Kailakuri Health Care Project (KHCP) in rural
The Kailakuri ideology goes beyond physical wellbeing. The program's guidelines stipulate not only delivery of free or low-cost health services with maximum participation by trained local staff, but also promote a sense of empowerment and community involvement.
KHCP focuses on education in health and nutrition, maternal and child-care, disease prevention, treatment of tuberculosis and diabetes, and general patient care. The base of operations is a small hospital/clinic located in a small village a hundred miles north of the capital city, Dhaka. The population served by KHCP is poor, medically needy, and diversified (Muslim, Christian and Hindu). The KHCP staff is recruited locally, and includes many former hospital patients who display talent and interest. Presently there are more than fifty medical and support workers, most of them there as the result of on-the-job training.
KHCP's Village Health Program serves fifteen outlying villages with a total population
of about 10,000 people. Pre- and post-natal care, immunizations, instruction in nutrition and family planning and midwifery are some of the services provided.
The TB program, with guidance and support from the World Health Organization and Damien Foundation, is an important feature of KHCP. Over eighty percent of patients complete the course of treatment and achieve full recovery.
As for the general population of inpatients and visitors to the clinics, they constitute “the central core and work of KHCP.” They are a diverse and sometimes fractious group, but their participation in the program gives it credibility in the community and also reveals the community's medical and social needs.
The Kailakuri Health Care Project has carried on valiantly in an environment afflicted by poverty, malnutrition, overpopulation, ethnic strife, political instability, and frequent natural disasters. It could well serve as a health care model for other developing nations, with its unique emphasis on “the poor serving the poor.”
Support for the program comes from numerous donors in New Zealand, Germany, United Kingdom, and U.S.A. Asia Connection is proud to be an ongoing contributor.
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