Lutherans, Savings and Silk Mean Development in Bangladesh

DUMKI, BANGLEDESH (ELCA) -- On a typical day at a medical clinic in southern Bangladesh, the waiting area is already filled by early morning. Mothers with babies or young children fill the room. The children noisily play with each other. The women, all of whom are draped in colorful saris, sit on benches waiting to be seen by one of the clinic's doctors.
The setting is in Dumki, where Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh (LHCB) operates a hospital and medical clinic. Residents from the surrounding area come for medical exams at the outpatient clinic, and the hospital is equipped to deliver babies and perform surgery. LHCB's mission is to improve the quality of life for Bengalis, especially women in rural areas.
One of the women, Monowora, walked to the clinic with her husband, Shorap, from their village of Muradia, four miles away. They brought their 4-month-old son, Abraham, to the clinic because he was sick.
Like many Bengalis, Shorap grows enough rice to feed his family and sometimes a small amount to sell. Many families in rural areas have no access to medical care. Shorap and Monowora said they heard about LHCB a long time ago and came for help.
The staff of LHCB is a mixture of Muslims, Hindus and a few Christians. They treat patients as diverse as they are.
Abraham will receive treatment, but his five-year-old sister, Asma, will not. Although she is also feeling ill, Asma will not receive medical attention because girls and women in Bangladesh are not given the same social status and attention as males. Abraham's parents wanted to be sure he remains healthy "for the future of the family name."
While Monowora and the other patients wait to see a doctor, a video is played in one corner of the waiting room. It shows a woman demonstrating, in the patients' native Bengali language, how to wash hands in a proper and hygienic way. This is one form of education LHCB offers residents of the rural areas. LHCB also brings education directly to people.
LHCB is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) long-standing presence in Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country. The ELCA Division for Global Mission (DGM), with financial support from the ELCA World Hunger Program, works in Bangladesh through LHCB and Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS). LHCB and RDRS strive to improve family incomes, food resources and social conditions. Both emphasize women's empowerment to help achieve these goals.
Many times women are effective catalysts for change and improvement, said the Rev. John L. Halvorson, coordinator of the ELCA World Hunger Program, Chicago. They become economic players, helping them to improve the quality of life for their families and communities.

CHALLENGES IN BANGLADESH
More than 35 percent of Bangladesh's population lives below the country's poverty line, and 29 percent lives on less than $1 a day, according to The World Bank's 1999 World Development Indicators.
Bangladesh is located in eastern India and is surrounded on nearly all sides by India. It is a flat country, slightly smaller than Wisconsin. Three river systems, including the Ganges, flow south through the country into the Bay of Bengal. This geography and a monsoon season that lasts from June to October cause annual floods that often result in deaths and damaged crops. The country is home to nearly 127 million people, and the population continues to grow. Availability of food is a constant concern.
Religion is a dominant part of Bangladesh's culture. About 88 percent of the people are Muslim and 11 percent are Hindu. Christians make up less than one-half of 1 percent of the population.

SAVINGS GROUPS OFFER OPPORTUNITIES
Besides its health-care program at the Dumki clinic, LHCB operates "savings groups" in the villages around Dumki. These savings groups give women a means to save their individual incomes and increase their savings power by pooling with the savings of others. It allows participants to borrow from the savings pool to start businesses.
LHCB employs 20 women as "group organizers" in villages where savings groups exist. Wearing a teal-colored sari as a "uniform," each group organizer visits two or three groups a week to collect the savings from women and keep the books. Every week women contribute five taka, the equivalent of 10 or 12 cents. When enough savings is amassed, women in the group may borrow funds to buy a cow or goat to produce milk to sell, for example.
In the village of Bapasham Angaria, Hawa Bagum worked an old, foot-powered sewing machine that her village's savings group purchased.
"I am using money I earn from the sewing machine for our family and for my children's education," she said, her hands busy pushing a dark piece of cloth through the machine. "The rest of the money I'm now making I put back into the savings group."
Too busy to look up from her work, Bagum continued, "I am happy that my children are getting an education."
Women must repay the loans they receive from their savings group. The rate of repayment is high, mainly because of the cooperative nature of the savings groups. Participants view repayment of the loans as a group expectation. If one woman falls behind on her payments, other group members will often help her.
Mahamuda Begum is a group organizer. A Muslim, she has found herself working for LHCB with Muslim women and women of other faiths. She encourages them through education to take on a stronger economic and social roles.
Sitting on a straw mat on the ground before the 20-some group members in South Muradia, an all-Hindu village, Begum gives instruction on proper hand washing after collecting money for their savings account and carefully recording it.
"I pray every morning for this work with the group organizers. I beg God for strength to help me do this job. I pray that I can do a good job and help people in the villages," said Begum.
Begum recalled how she came to LHCB. "My desire was to become a medical doctor," she said. "But suddenly my father died. When this happens here in Bangladesh with a middle-income family, dreams of becoming a doctor are not possible. After completing primary education, my family wanted me to get married. I got married. But I still had this dream to help people. Suddenly, I found Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh. I've come to know that Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh is a service-oriented organization. When I learned that they were going to appoint some group organizers, I applied and got this job."
On Tuesdays Begum and another group organizer board one of LHCB's speed boats for a half-hour trip to Amirabad, a remote village on a tributary of the main river near Dumki. At these "mobile clinic" sites, group organizers bring medical care to villages and work with residents on disease prevention, sanitation and improving nutrition. Residents have small kitchen gardens and are encouraged to eat more vegetables to improve their health.
On one Tuesday in May, 60 patients visited the mobile clinic. One villager, Muhammed Abbas, brought a friend to the clinic for treatment of a cyst. He said the doctor gave his friend some medicine, and now he is well. "Certainly I would come," Abbas said when asked if he would visit the clinic himself if he were sick.
Ed and Karen Scott are ELCA missionaries supported by the World Hunger Program. They have served on behalf of the Lutheran church in Bangladesh since 1973. They have directed LHCB since its beginning in 1995. The Scotts' ties to their Minnesota home are still strong, since LHCB also receives major financial support from a consortium of 23 Minneapolis-area congregations.
The Scotts explained that the savings groups have evolved into a forum for the education of women in rural villages. Besides being empowered by saving money,