Community Health and Pre-Hospital Support in Bangladesh

Since August 2017, over 655,000 Rohingya refugees have fled escalating violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar, resulting in a humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh with 1.2 million people needing aid, 60% of whom are children. In collaboration with local NGOs and academic partners, we have achieved several key goals to enhance healthcare services in this region:

• Midwife and Paramedic Training: Conducted comprehensive assessments of midwives and paramedics providing ambulance transport care for Rohingya refugees, leading to programmatic recommendations for staffing, supplies, and resources, as well as a strategic training plan to address acute and long-term needs.
• Community Health Volunteer Training: Evaluated the knowledge and skills of community health volunteers, and developed tailored training recommendations to enhance pediatric care, emergency response, and mass casualty management, integrated into existing emergency frameworks.
• Technical Support and Capacity Building: Provided technical assistance for program development, along with monitoring and evaluation tools to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes.
• Clinical Training and Mentorship: Delivered targeted clinical training and mentoring to emergency transport staff and community health volunteers, focusing on patient assessment, communication, and trauma care.

This ongoing collaboration continues to implement programmatic solutions and provide support for monitoring and evaluation to ensure sustainable healthcare improvements for the Rohingya refugee population in Bangladesh.

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