2020 Update
Hello Friends of the Lidia Hope Centre,
Warmest Christmas greetings from Dhaka! What a year it has been. We are thankful for your prayers and generous giving, they have helped keep our team safe and healthy, and provided relief to families who needed the most. We are happy to tell you that our team have met urgent community needs this year and will be launching new initiatives in 2021 to help our families through Covid19.
The pandemic had devastating effects in Dhaka from March to July. We will first share about Covid19's impact on Healthcare, on Economy and on Education. Then we will share about our response and plans for 2021.
Impact on Healthcare
Bangladesh already lacked a functioning health care system. Covid19 made the lacking more dire.
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From March to May:
- Severe shortage of PPEs for frontline workers.
- Many hospitals asked employees to be responsible for own PPE, causing many doctors to quit or not show up to post.
- Only 13 were designated Covid19 hospitals.
- The other thousands of hospitals did not accept Covid19 patients. ICUs were full quickly and many patients were turned away, putting the burden on family to care and provide treatment
- Only 2 PCR test center for 16 million people in Dhaka. The official Covid case figures were up to 1,000 per day, but hardly reflected the actual situation in Dhaka.
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​Many Bangladeshi working overseas returned as Europe and Middle East went into shutdown mode, but many who returned from high Covid19 case regions were not tested when they arrived in Dhaka. Bangladesh closed its borders from April to August, the country declared several nation-wide lock downs. It’s hard to know if the lock downs were effective as they were not enforced.
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In the slum environment, families live in extremely crowded row housing where 10 families (about 50 people) share 2 stoves and 2 toilets. It is impossible to socially distance, and very few people wore masks. Many of LHC’s families reported having fevers or stomach issues, but recovered within a couple days. By the grace of God, public health research of slum areas have shown that Covid19 infection and mortality rates were very low relative to the rest of the population.
Impact on Economy
To comply with lockdowns, many businesses and factories had to close operations for at least 2 months.
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Low wage workers suffered the most as they could not work from home, they include:
Factory workers, cleaners, construction workers, transport workers, service industry staff
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Mass exodus of migrant workers from the cities to the country side where cost of living is cheaper and there’s more space
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Government assistance were slow to come and unevenly distributed
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Slum families faced significant loss in income.
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Many couldn’t pay rent and dependent on food aid from government and charities. They are less concerned about Covid19 infection and more about joblessness
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Impact on Education
The government shut down all education institutions from April until now.
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Most schools do not have the tools to do remote teaching / learning, heavily rely on parents
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For poor families, lack of structure and educational environment has resulted in many students falling behind academically and struggling to concentrate on school work.
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LHC students’ families do not have computers or smartphones, they can only communicate with teachers over the phone.
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LHC students were receiving hot lunches at school, which significantly improved their nutrition and health. Our team noticed many students were looking skinnier and getting sick frequently in the months since school closed.
LHC’s 2020 – Responding to urgent Needs
LHC had to close the center from April to July out of safety concerns. In July, when the overall Covid situation seemed more stable, LHC resumed our operations.
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Food Aid
Many of our students’ parents did not have work for a few months and ran out of money. Food aid was very much needed. Thank God for the donors who contributed to the relief fund, we were able to organized food packages to 160 families that included rice, potato, lentils, oil, onions, soap and other essentials. It was a timely intervention that carried them through until the parents could find work again.
School On Phone
Teachers called students daily to check in and answer questions about course work. It is very difficult to teach over the phone, so progress in curriculum is very slow. The teachers also met one-on-one with the parents every week to give assignments, but the parents are not educated and could not provide much supervision or guidance to students. Sometimes our teachers risked their own health to visit students in their homes if they have fallen behind and sit with them to complete their work.
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We invited class 3 (third grade) students back to school in September to catch them up academically and help them transition to government school next year.
Skills For Adults
With massive job loss in the slum area, many our students parents were open to learning new skills. In October, we launch adult literacy course for 10 mothers, so they can have more work opportunities.
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We also trained artisans to do machine sewing, so they can take orders for small production mask making.
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Counseling & Life Skills Training
Women in the slum area lack access to basic health and nutrition knowledge, and don't feel comfortable going to medical facilities due to shame from their low status and poverty. This year we counseled 3 women with serious medical issues to get medical treatment and to have the support of their family. One woman was in pain for along time, but did not go see a doctor. We finally convinced her to get tested, which showed she has stage 1 cancer in her bladder. Then we counseled the family to pay for her treatment and they finally agreed. Now she is doing much better and will complete her cancer treatment in a few months!
2021 Challenges and Initiatives
As we look forward to the new year, we will need greater wisdom, manpower and heart to overcome the setbacks in our kids’ lives and to create new avenues of hope for their family.
Adult Literacy Class For Parents
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The pandemic has shown the vulnerability of low skilled labor workers. Slum area has many adults who never went to a government school or dropped out early. They now see the importance of literacy for better work and in caring for their children. We plan to graduate our first batch this year and begin another batch.
Students Resume Learning At School
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Our team is eager for students to return safely to school and to help them get back to a healthy and disciplined routine. Most students have fallen behind academically and did not have much supervision from parents who were also coping with Covid19’s impact. Our first priority is to get the students and parents back on track.
Vocational Training​
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Our team is exploring new skills that will have good job opportunities next year. The local fashion industry suffered from Covid19 lockdowns, many crafts people lost their livelihood. So we are working on broadening our artisan's skills into new areas such as machine sewing and machine embroidery, as well as skills for new industries that can provide steady income.
Our goal is to develop professional training programs that stand for quality and honesty.
Stand with us
Huge thank you to all our donors and supporters around the world!
Your giving and prayers have helped keep our team employed and working safely.
For 2021, we have big work ahead us to overcome the Covid19 setbacks. We hope you will continue to keep LHC in your thoughts and prayers.
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If you would like to give, please mail Mala at dhakalhc@gmail.com