Chapter 3 Core to nation building of Bangladesh's fisrt 50 years was raising life expectancy from 25 below to close to world norms through maximising last mile health service capacity with collaboration focus on affordable life-shaping solutions for infants and mothers
While the new nation of Bangladesh wasnot known for world class inventions in 1971, it did have one medical solution that would rock the world of pediatrics. In poor tropical (humid) nations up to a third of infants die of diarrhea. If a mother knows (Oral Hydration) how to mix boiled water, sugar and salt in correct proportions she can save her infants life. While this invention was discovered in the East Pakisan cholera lab, nobody had found a way to market a potentially zero-cost cure. The networking of this across the whole rural nation of Bangladesh and over to China was to be what the first 3 head office employees of brac found partners to action network principally Unicef’s James Grant who was overjoyed both to fund brac’s nationwide oral rehydration educational campaign to every village mother and make his own life’s work that of storytelling OR to every developing nation leader.
During brac’s first 14 years Abed's focus was designing business microfranchises; accepting a huge grant like UNICEF’s was the exception. The opportunity from brac wining the un year of the child competition and it was what extended brac’s rural womens networking from the 100000 person metavillage (see chapter 5) to practically the whole rural nation. Almost as miraculous as Oral Rehydration is the first health service microfranchise Abed designed – a sort of doordash of 12 non prescription medicines franchised as a weekly visit to 300 homes per village mother making a living as a para-health servant. This also led to these mothers (which grew into 80000 village businees-women) being the most trusted guide to all sorts of health happenings. Read on - chapter 3 coming soon
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