We are excited to announce that Zinat Ara Afroze, Commonwealth Scholar, University of Reading Alumnus, and Senior Team Leader, Knowledge Management, Research, and Learning at the SHOUHARDO III Plus programme, CARE Bangladesh, will be speaking at a seminar at the School of Agriculture Policy and Development (SAPD), University of Reading, to share the findings of groundbreaking research on community-based health workers in Bangladesh.
A development professional with over 15 years of experience in knowledge management, communication, and research, Zinat Afroze completed her MSc in Environment and Development at the University of Reading in 2017-18, where she proudly states that she earned solid qualitative research skills. Zinat currently works in Bangladesh, deploying her expertise on the SHOUHARDO (Strengthening Household Ability to Respond to Development Opportunities) III Plus programme, jointly conducted by CARE Bangladesh and the University of Reading. Zinat will be visiting the University of Reading and speaking at a seminar organised by Dr. Andrew Ainslie, Associate Professor at the Department of International Development, SAPD, who has been supporting this work as the research consultant.
At the seminar themed ‘Valorizing the role of skilled birth attendants in hard-to-reach areas of Bangladesh’, Zinat will speak about the SHOUHARDO III Plus programme, which has focused on community-based healthcare assistants and specifically (for this presentation) on antenatal, birthing, and postnatal care for poor and very poor women in the hard-to-reach regions of Bangladesh (Char and Haor regions). CARE has trained 127 “private community skilled birthing attendants” and set them up in their communities such that they can offer direct care to women, rather than continue to see these women travel far distances of 1 to 10 miles to reach healthcare centres, often needing to use multiple forms of transport like bicycle, boat, car, etc. to get there. Besides these logistical challenges, which are considerable, there are also cultural and religious barriers and taboos that make this often stressful experience even more challenging; pregnant and lactating women are not supposed to see medical professionals without their mothers-in-law and/or husbands being present, and consulting male doctors is especially problematic. Other cultural issues also weigh heavily on the autonomy of pregnant, birthing, and postnatal women and their babies, some of which have positive cultural associations and others less so.
This seminar will share insights from the work CARE Bangladesh has been engaged in, particularly community-based healthcare workers, and how to streamline their work into government and private sector healthcare provision. Details of the seminar can be found below:
Date: Monday, June 24th, 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00
Venue: Agriculture Building, room 1L14
You are all welcome!