Primary Healthcare: For all, for free

I’m being graciously hosted at a socialist compound called Gonoshasthaya Kendra, the People’s Public Health.  Amidst the chaos of the liberation war from Pakistan and the catastrophe of deadly cyclones in the early 70s, six ambitious men set up some tents on the side of the road about an hour North of Dhaka and began providing basic health services to anyone who needed it, for free.  Today, that intractable faith in humanity and equality has flourished into a 140-acre social compound which houses its own water-treatment center, a university training community health workers, and several vegetable cultivations among many others.  GK is taking local villagers, mainly women, and training them, certifiably, to return back to their local villages to serve their people.  GK believes Comprehensive Primary Health Care is a human right, and in that, they provide free services to almost 1 million people.

An afternoon of freedom was announced and I took the rare opportunity to invigorate my body with some exercise.  Jogging along a brick path built by some of the members alongside the compound’s natural lake in a dusky blue light at 5 AM gave me just what I needed.  The tropical trees towered over the path while colorful saris and tunics scurried their way home for tea time, always making sure to basfully giggle and say hello to the strange white girl.  One woman waited until after I passed to yell, “running… WHY?”  I couldn’t think of an appropriate response.

GK has its own pharmacy, producing several antibiotics and essential drugs.  Although free for most poor members, its about 15 Taka ($0.20US) for most prescriptions for outsiders.  An x-ray will run you 100 Taka, about $1.40US.  Everyone on the coupound participates in the gardening and cultivation of vegetables.  And most all of the paramedics in training and the teaching professors livin on the compound as well.  Roaming the halls of the university you find this quite similar to any institution in the US – the library is filled with procrastinators on facebook, the hallway is a social nightmare of flirting and fashion, the walls are plastered with lectures and events – although grades are posted too!  The difference is seen in the visual effects: these stained walls and noisy recylced fans represent moer of an idea of sustainable development to me than the perfectly manicured lawns and ostentatious Smart Boards of the University of Denver.