One of my greatest desires is that in the next 3 months I will be able to have an immense impact on this new community in which I am about to immerse myself. Although, taking into account past experiences, I am sure that Bangladesh, a country I have never visited prior to this trip, will end up having an even greater impact on me.
While serving as a research assistant to Dr. Abbas Bhuiya at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangldesh, I will be observing the structures of poverty here in thecapital, Dhaka, and the surrounding area, in hopes of learning how socioeconomic limitations are affecting the population’s access to general healthcare. In addition to my duties at ICDDR,B, I have decided to chronicle my journey, acting as a reporter on the state of health and medicine—or lack thereof—I encounter during my time here.
I have always had a strong affinity for the medical world, and from a very young age I made the decision to dedicate my life to the path of becoming a physician. However, it was not until I was uprooted from my hometown of Los Angeles, California, and entered New York University as a student of Media, Culture, and Communication Studies, that I would be introduced to a radically different perspective on global medicine and human development, which would change my healthcare career goals thereafter.
Juxtaposing my studies of the social, political, and economic factors that shape the delivery of medical treatment, against the Pre-Medical sciences that I was simultaneously undertaking, I began to realize that health and medicine were not as straightforward and contained as the hard-sciences would lead us to believe. Rather, such notions are embedded within larger, more intricate frameworks of culture and practices.
I observed this concept first-hand two years ago, when I had the opportunity to assist in medical fieldwork experience throughout developing parts of China. During my travels, I visited both urban and rural parts of the country, comparing practices in care and treatment in these communities, and observing the disparities between eastern vs. western medical techniques. I came to learn that in order for a sustainable healthcare system to flourish, whether in a developing or first world nation, it must be adaptable to the needs and practices of each community. We cannot simply prescribe replicated structures in hopes that what has worked in one place will find equal success in another, as circumstances, attitudes, and beliefs vary from place to place.
Now, as a new graduate of NYU Steinhardt’s Class of 2011, I have the opportunity to return to Asia once again, equipped with a greater knowledge—the voices of authors, professors, and professionals—and a renewed frame of mind from the learning accrued from my past experiences in China. While the setting may be different, my goal has remained the same: to befriend, help, and learn from as many people as possible while I am here.
My personal modern medical hero, Dr. Paul Farmer, who has brought treatment and care to populations in need all over the world, discusses the notion of “bearing witness” in order to uncover forms of “structural violence”, or harmful social and cultural ideologies and practices, within the first chapter of book, Pathologies of Power. “The silence of the poor is conditioned,” he states, “but underneath this silence lies the pent-up anger born of innumerable small indignities, and of great and irremediable ones. Underneath this silence lie the endless jeremiads of the suffering sick…Sometimes it is the job of a physician to scratch at this surface silence.”
Farmer notes that there are two ways of “bearing witness”, which are dependent on two ways of knowing. The first method uses knowledge accrued from stoic detachment—a point of neutrality—that is most often employed within circles of academia; although equally genuine as the alternative form of knowing, “such ‘neutrality’ most often serves as, wittingly or unwittingly, a smokescreen or apology for structural violence,” by remaining at the surface of the silence being described. The alternative is drawn from personal experiences and eye-witness accounts that traverse boundaries of culture, language, gender, and class with unapologetic alignment with the destitute sick. “To get beyond the first silence requires compassion and solidarity.”
That is why I want to use this website not only as a space to provide insight to the general public about some of the health challenges that are currently being faced by the developing world, but I hope that it can also be a place where the culture of Bangladesh can come alive; where the stories of various individuals from all walks of life who reside in this country can come to be heard.
Please take a look around, and look forward to future posts on the site. Also, I welcome any advice, commentary, or insight that anyone is willing to share in order to help this project grow and expand.
Thank You!-Andrew Jajja
Health 2 Heart 