(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Sisters of Mary Immaculate operate six clinics in the remote areas of the dioceses of Mymensingh, Sylhet and Chittagong, Bangladesh, to help reduce maternal and infant mortality, according to an article in Global Sisters Report. The sisters have been working to combat these issues for decades in dispensaries, clinics and hospitals.

“We perform an average of three healthy deliveries every month, and we also have an average of at least 10 pregnant women come every month for advice and regular checkups,” said Salesian Sister Baptista Rema in the article. She has spent more than 25 years providing health care to Indigenous communities in rural areas. Most of her patients are poor, lack basic education and must travel long distances to seek her care.

In the article, Sr. Rema noted, “When I graduated from nursing in 1999 and started working at the Mary Immaculate Dispensary in the Diocese of Sylhet, the infant mortality rate in that area was over 10%, but now it is one or two in 1,000.”

Most of the women she provides medical care for are poor and have no choice but to continue working, risking their pregnancies. Others have lost their pregnancies due to abusive husbands. The challenges for these women in rural areas are severe. But still, the Salesian sisters continue to be a source of support.

One of the women helped by Sr. Rema is Mary Hembrom, who gave birth to her second child after eight years of marriage. She told Global Sisters Report, “I went to the sister for health checkups twice a month, and she delivered my child naturally.” Hembrom is an Indigenous mother of two whose husband is a day laborer and supporting the family on a modest income.

More than 100,000 children in Bangladesh died before their fifth birthday in 2023, and almost two-thirds of these deaths occurred within the first 28 days of life, according to UNICEF.  Despite these statistics, government health authorities recognize the sisters’ contributions toward reducing infant mortality, according to the article.

Rabindranath Pramanik, who works for the Bangladesh government’s health department, said in the article, “Most of the work that the government needs to do is being done by their missionary organizations, and the sisters provide services in remote areas as well.” Pramanik also expressed his gratitude to the sisters for their work.

Sr. Rema is advocating for widespread public health campaigns to reduce child mortality in rural areas. However, government health services are not available in remote areas, private health services operate strictly for profit, and the Indigenous communities remain largely forgotten.

In the article, she concluded, “I will call on donor organizations to come forward to support these rural communities so that they receive proper medical services.”

Bangladesh suffers from poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption and insufficient power supplies. Close to 80% of the country’s population lives in rural areas. Many people who live in remote and rural areas lack access to education, health care and adequate roads. An estimated 36% of the rural population lives below the poverty line and owns no land or assets, experiences persistent food insecurity, and often has very little education.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Global Sisters Report (GSR photo/Stephan Uttom Rozario)

Global Sisters Report – Bangladeshi sisters work to reduce infant mortality in Indigenous communities

Salesian Missions

UNICEF – Bangladesh

World Bank – Bangladesh Poverty

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(MissionNewswire) Boys staying in the Salesian-run Blessed Zepherino Hostel in the Utrail-Telunjia community of Bangladesh received support from donor funding from Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The boys come from poor backgrounds and their parents are daily laborers who work to earn enough money each day to buy food. Other boys are abandoned or orphaned.

For those in need, Salesians offer help for room and board or provide it free of charge. The hostel relies on donor funding to help fill the gaps in funding.

Some of the boys living at the hostel are studying at the Salesian St. Xavie School. Once they pass eighth grade, they can continue up to grade 12 at the Salesian high school and college. Every year, the Salesian hostel hosts 50 to 60 boys.

Father Dang Lam, a Salesian missionary who operates the hostel, said, “Many parents want to send their children to the Salesian hostel because they know that their children will receive a good education in our school and Christian human formation in the hostel.”

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries with a population of 164 million people, close to 20 percent of whom live below the national poverty line of U.S. $2 per day. Despite a growing population, Bangladesh has experienced a steady decline in poverty since 2000, according to the World Bank.

Bangladesh suffers from poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption and insufficient power supplies. Close to 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas. Many people who live in remote and rural areas lack access to education, health care and adequate roads. An estimated 36 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line and owns no land or assets, experiences persistent food insecurity, and often has very little education.

Malnutrition levels in Bangladesh are among the highest in the world with close to 48 percent of children, adolescents and women facing food insecurity, according to UNICEF. In addition to contributing to maternal and child mortality, malnutrition exacts heavy costs from the health care system through excess morbidity, increased premature delivery, and elevated risks of heart disease and diabetes. The economic consequences of Bangladesh’s malnutrition problem are profound, resulting in lost productivity and reduced intellectual and learning capacity.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Salesian Missions

World Bank – Bangladesh Poverty

The post BANGLADESH: Poor youth receive support from donor funding from Salesian Missions first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Previous to this project, Salesian buildings did not have a steady supply of power. Sometimes the electric supply would work and other times it was sporadic, which made work and studying difficult. Setting up the transformer on the compound to serve all the facilities was necessary. As the State Electricity Department noted, a powerful transformer had to be established in the compound before power could be distributed to all the different facilities, including the aspirantate building.

Salesian Missions funding was part of the funding utilized for this project. The remainder of the funding came from other sources. Today, the Salesian compound in Telunjia has a steady electricity supply to its aspirantate building and other facilities. Salesian missionaries are grateful for the support provided by Salesian Missions.

“Infrastructure projects like this ensure that Salesian missionaries and those working and studying in our buildings have the electric supply needed to enable them to get their work done efficiently,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions. “Salesians working in the country focus their efforts on education and social development services for poor youth and their families. Salesian schools, services and programs throughout Bangladesh are helping to break the cycle of poverty while giving many hope for a more positive and productive future.”

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries with a population of 156 million people, close to 30 percent of whom live below the national poverty line of U.S. $2 per day. Despite a growing population, Bangladesh experienced a steady decline in poverty between 2000 and 2010 with a 1.8 percent decline annually between 2000 and 2005, and 1.7 percent decline annually between 2005 and 2010, according to the World Bank.

Bangladesh suffers from poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption and insufficient power supplies. Close to 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas. Many people who live in remote and rural areas lack access to education, health care and adequate roads. An estimated 36 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line and owns no land or assets, experiences persistent food insecurity and often has very little education.

Malnutrition levels in Bangladesh are among the highest in the world with close to 48 percent of children, adolescents and women facing food insecurity, according to UNICEF. In addition to contributing to maternal and child mortality, malnutrition exacts heavy costs from the health care system through excess morbidity, increased premature delivery and elevated risks of heart disease and diabetes. The economic consequences of Bangladesh’s malnutrition problem are profound, resulting in lost productivity and reduced intellectual and learning capacity.

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Sources:

World Bank – Bangladesh Poverty

The post BANGLADESH: Salesian Missions provides funding for new electrical transformer and generator at a Salesian facility in Telunjia first appeared on MissionNewswire.

To counter this issues, Salesian missionaries have set up the foundation to raise enough funding to bring in more staff, equipment and supplies including medicines to the medical clinic in order to be able to better treat the sick and injured on site. Many people in this region are poor and live within the poorest neighborhoods. They suffer from malnutrition, lack of hygiene, and disease. The lack of doctors and resources to buy the necessary medicines only exacerbates the issues.

“The health of people we serve is very important to us,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The work we do in the Bangladesh and in programs around the globe goes beyond education. We serve the whole person by making sure that basic needs like health and nutrition are met in addition to other social service needs.”

Salesian missionaries have been living and working in Bangladesh for the last six years. They have two main programs at Utrail and at Lokhikul. There is also an educational center at Joypurhat. Salesians working in the country focus their efforts on education and social development services for poor youth and their families. Salesian schools, services and programs throughout Bangladesh are helping to break the cycle of poverty while giving many hope for a more positive and productive future.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries with a population of 156 million people, close to 30 percent of whom live below the national poverty line of US $2 per day. Despite a growing population, Bangladesh experienced a steady decline in poverty between 2000 and 2010 with a 1.8 percent decline annually between 2000 and 2005 and 1.7 percent decline annually between 2005 and 2010, according to the World Bank.

Bangladesh suffers from poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption and insufficient power supplies. Close to 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas. Many people who live in remote and rural areas lack access to education, health care and adequate roads. An estimated 36 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line and owns no land or assets, experiences persistent food insecurity and often has very little education.

Malnutrition levels in Bangladesh are among the highest in the world with close to 48 percent of children, adolescents and women facing food insecurity, according to UNICEF. In addition to contributing to maternal and child mortality, malnutrition exacts heavy costs from the health care system through excess morbidity, increased premature delivery and elevated risks of heart disease and diabetes. The economic consequences of Bangladesh’s malnutrition problem are profound, resulting in lost productivity and reduced intellectual and learning capacity.

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Sources:

ANS – Bangladesh – A foundation for the sick is needed

World Bank – Bangladesh Poverty

The post BANGLADESH: Salesian Missionaries Start Foundation to Help Fund Medical Clinic Services first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Since 1983, ethnic violence in Sri Lanka has forced tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils from their homeland in search of safety and a new life in Tamil Nadu, India. According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, there are close to 140,000 Sri Lankan refugees in 65 countries, with almost 70,000 in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.

Refugees face many challenges as they begin to make a new life in their host countries. Sri Lankan Tamils are unique in that their host population in Tamil Nadu is also ethnically Tamil. While Sri Lankan refugees share a common language and customs with their host community, they still struggle to gain marketable skills and find livable wage employment.

Since 2010, Salesian Missions has been providing its New Beginnings program for young male and female Sri Lankan refugees who have been living in refugee camps in 15 target districts in India. This year, Salesians are serving 550 individuals by providing vocational training through a network of nine Salesian-run Don Bosco schools spread across Southeast India. In addition, 550 women are benefiting from refugee camp-based small business incubator programs.

The New Beginnings program provides market-conscious vocational and technical skills training that results in livable wage employment, allowing trainees to better support themselves and their families. Many refugees enter the program with few, if any, job prospects or with a history of low paid part-time work experience which is typically unskilled and often dangerous and exploitative.

The training provides New Beginnings’ graduates with at least one market-demand technical skill as well as workplace readiness training to enhance positive attitudes, hygiene, personal presentation and teamwork. Results-oriented job placement assistance helps graduates transition from the classroom to employment in the local labor market. In addition, all trainees receive counseling to help them overcome traumas related to their displacement and hardship as well as recreation opportunities that promote non-violent conflict resolution and a healthy inclusive community.

“Young men, who once worked as painters or unskilled construction hands for just a dollar each day, have gone on to technical positions in established local and regional businesses,” says Neill Holland, program officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs. “Some have leveraged their training to travel beyond local areas toward the Indian state’s technology companies and auto manufacturers in the Chennai industrial hub.”

Serving no less than 40 percent women and young girls, the New Beginnings program promotes gender equality and generates opportunities for women whether they prefer to seek work at a local company or join a women’s company collective that allows them to remain home with young children while still engaging in meaningful employment.

Often women with young children are unable to leave the camps to attend school. In response, Salesian Missions created a program to bring training inside the refugee camps. Women can receive training in skills such as jewelry-making and sewing and are also provided entrepreneurial workshops. The program also helps women create a business cooperative while a micro-credit program helps them buy new equipment such as sewing machines. As a group, the women are able to provide their services and merchandise to local businesses, taking advantage of their new skills while continuing to care for their families.

“For female participants, the New Beginnings program has given young women pursuing financial independence, as well as stay-at-home mothers and willing seniors, a chance to access Tamil Nadu’s burgeoning clothing manufacturing market,” adds Holland. “Numerous female graduates have gone on to assist employers with tailoring work while others have utilized new computer skills to support the local business sector.”

The New Beginnings program has been so effective in part due to the mutual trust that exists between the Salesians and the communities they serve. After having made multiple connections with employers to understand the most valuable and in-demand marketable skills, Salesians in Tamil Nadu are very knowledgeable about local needs and create training programs that are structured to best meet these needs.

Also effective is the New Beginnings program’s integration of counselors, trainers and job placement specialists under one roof as well as its robust engagement with the Indian Government, US Department of State advisors and peer agencies that make up the larger community of practice for regional refugee assistance.

Through the New Beginnings program, Salesian Missions was able to partner with Fordham University’s International Political Economy and Development program for the assessment of training activities and program impact. This partnership created a platform for information sharing between Fordham researchers and Salesian administrators, leading to improved self-assessment and program planning.

Salesian missionaries are also providing the New Beginnings program for refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp and refugees living in Colombia.

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PHOTO: Neill Holland with New Beginnings program beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu, India.

Sources:

UNHCR – Sri Lanka

Salesian Missions Office for International Programs

U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

The post INDIA: 2,500 Sri Lankan Refugees Access New Beginnings Training Program first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The rain continued late into the month and water levels in all the rivers of Bangladesh are steadily inching towards dangerously high levels. The Someswari River which is located in the northern part of Bangladesh and originates in the Indian state of Meghalaya and enters the plains of Bangladesh near Durgapur, registered an unprecedented rise in water level. On Sept. 21 alone, the water level in the river rose by more than nine feet, a level more than five feet above what is considered dangerous. On Sept.23, the river broke its bank in three places and inundated several villages, swallowed up houses and deposited sand and mud in farming fields.

“Until a few weeks back people in Durgapur Upazilla, Bangladesh, were praying for rain to save their crops,” says Father Gamaliel, a Salesian working in Utrail, Bangladesh. “But now they are praying for the rain to stop in order to save at least their lives and the livestock from the fury of the raging Someswari River, which has already broken its banks in several places along its course.”

Salesians already working and living in the region are assisting flood victims as best they can with limited means. Salesian centers are providing those who have lost their homes a safe place to stay as well as clothing and food.

“The Salesians are studying the situation,” says Father Francis Alencherry, rector of the Salesian community in Utrail, who visited the flood affected regions. “Once the water recedes we will be able to gauge the damage done by the inundation. Though we are not in a position to immediately answer to this full humanitarian crisis, we are helping the flood affected people to get back to their normal life in the days to come. We continue to work to solve this repeated flooding with a long-term solution in mind.”

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries with a population of 156 million people, close to 30 percent of whom live below the national poverty line of US $2 per day. Despite a growing population, Bangladesh experienced a steady decline in poverty between 2000 and 2010 with a 1.8 percent decline annually between 2000 and 2005 and 1.7 percent decline annually between 2005 and 2010, according to the World Bank.

Bangladesh suffers from poor infrastructure, political instability, corruption and insufficient power supplies. Close to 80 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas. Many people who live in remote and rural areas lack access to education, health care and adequate roads. An estimated 36 percent of the rural population lives below the poverty line and owns no land or assets, experiences persistent food insecurity and often has very little education.

Malnutrition levels in Bangladesh are among the highest in the world with close to 48 percent of children, adolescents and women facing food insecurity, according to UNICEF. In addition to contributing to maternal and child mortality, malnutrition exacts heavy costs from the health care system through excess morbidity, increased premature delivery and elevated risks of heart disease and diabetes. The economic consequences of Bangladesh’s malnutrition problem are profound, resulting in lost productivity and reduced intellectual and learning capacity.

Salesians working in the country focus their efforts on education and social development services for poor youth and their families. Salesian schools, services and programs throughout Bangladesh are helping to break the cycle of poverty while giving many hope for a more positive and productive future.

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Sources:

Don Bosco India – Flood in Bangladesh leaves thousands marooned, a Salesian reports from the spot

IRIN – Bangladesh floods test disaster response improvements

World Bank – Bangladesh Poverty Assessment: A Decade of Progress in Reducing Poverty, 2000-2010

World Bank – Bangladesh Poverty

The post BANGLADESH: Salesian Missionaries Providing Assistance in Wake of Extreme Flooding Torrential Rains first appeared on MissionNewswire.