LAMB NEWS – FEBRUARY 14TH, 2010

January was a really busy time for all at LAMB.

The hospital was unusually full – for no obvious reason, although more babies were being born than typical for the time of year, and the paediatrics unit was unusually busy. We were also short of two doctors, out of a normal level of about 22, and that added to the already busy on-call duty for all the doctors.

The Training Centre was at full load. The MIS-Research Department was very busy carrying out the first phase of a potential nutrition trial, and the Community program was supporting this. The school is now well into the first year that we have had a Class 10 grade, taking UK ‘O-level’ exams. This not only requires more staff, but also more highly trained staff. It is a particular challenge to get good English-speaking science teachers at the higher level.

One highlight for the month was the result of a fund raising challenge by the husband of doctor that came from the Netherlands to work at LAMB for 6 months, (and has stayed 8). To raise money for two purposes – the Poor Fund, and for the separation of conjoined twins born at LAMB about 6 months ago – he cycled 500 km/ 300 miles across the north of Bangladesh. With no arrangements made, other than start and finish points, and speaking no Bangla, this 2 week journey through the villages and tracks of Bangladesh was remarkable. He saw Bangladesh in a way that not many people have – certainly not non-Bangladeshis. The funds raised were more than € 35,000 - nearly US$ 50,000.

Another highlight of January was the introduction of Staff Values. Even though we are a Christian organization, sometimes we fail to treat each other and 3^rd parties as well as we should. The Staff Values program – started off with posters everywhere - is to help us to work in better ways.

The five staff values, not in any special order, are Equal respect for all people, Caring and compassionate, Teamwork, Quality, and Honesty and integrity. The Values are obviously completely consistent with Christian values, but are also values found in well run organizations.

We are now looking at ourselves in other ways too, to try and see how others see us. We are starting to get an up-to-date measure of how we compare against other health services in Bangladesh. Visits to other clinics and hospitals have started. Even though there are a huge number of gaps in the health services in Bangladesh – the enormity of trying to reach every village area is difficult to imagine - the quality of some facilities are much higher than we had thought, even some of those focused on the poor. We will be continuing this looking outside to try and learn.

For those who pray for LAMB and its work, most appropriate for this month would be that the Staff Values program may make a positive difference.