| Administrative History | Allocations: 1972-1993; programme spending in 1993/94, 1994/95; see later annual reports for subsequent allocations.
On independence in 1949, the province of East Bengal and the district of Sylhet in Assam became part of the new state of Pakistan as the region of East Pakistan. In April 1971, independence from the rest of Pakistan was declared and after the Indo-Pakistan war the country was able to achieve international recognition.
In October 1971, SCF began clinics on Bhola island, following the devastating floods of 1970. The work continued during the war, in conditions of some danger. SCF was asked by the Bangladeshi government to set up a project in Khulna, and also set up clinics and children's hospitals in Bagherat and Gopalganj. The Bhola project included mother and child health clinics as well as health education and feeding centres. Gopalganj closed down as refugees returned home, and by 1974 most of the work was centred on Khulna. In December 1974, one of the Bhola clinics was handed over to the government and two village clinics were set up. From February 1975 a clinic and feeding centre was set up in Tongi, and a medical project for the northern part of the Jamuna River. A Children's Nutrition Unit [CNU] was set up in Dacca [now Dhaka] in 1975. From 1984 the CNU ran community-based services to prevent malnutrition and disease. Following a major fundraising drive, the sum raised by the UK Townswomen's Guild helped provide for a purpose-built hospital into which it moved in 1988. The CNU gained an international reputation for research into the treatment and prevention of malnutrition. In 1997 a partnership was set up between SCF and the Ad-Din Trust, a local charity, in order to create local capacity to run services in a sustainable way; and the Ad-Din Hospital, located at the premises of the CNU formerly managed by SCF was formally launched on 5 April 1998 by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister.
In 1972, 1973 and 1976 Bangladesh was SCF's largest single programme, receiving more money than any other country. In June 1977, the Bhola island project was handed over and in 1978 four of the five Khulna clinics. By 1979 the work consisted of a daycare centre for malnourished children at Khulna, the Jamuna River project - dealing with housing, training of local staff, family planning, agricultural programmes and mother and child health care - and the Children's Nutrition Unit in Dacca [Dhaka]. SCF provided relief after the floods of 1987 and 1988.
A programme based in Shariatpur was set up following emergency flood relief and rehabilitation aid provided in 1987/88. It focused on health training, the provision of tubewells and the establishment of a credit and savings scheme. Sponsorship has also been extensively used in Bangladesh. |