By:  Lawrence Faulkner

At the Airport in Dhaka, there is a long queue at the visa checkpoint. The intense early morning fog has delayed many flights that all arrive together mid morning.  I’m very tired, even the flight from Mumbai to Calcutta was late and I spent the night in Calcutta airport, an experience that I hope not to repeat.
Grameen has arranged my transport to a hotel near their building.  I meet with Sultan and Shamim to take stock of the situation and discuss the agenda.
The next morning a visit to the Shishu Hospital, the Paediatric Government Hospital in Dhaka, where the Director General, Professor Kahn,  appears to be very optimistic and committed to supporting the formalization of the agreement with the board of directors of the hospital.

Later in the morning a meeting with the General Manager, Managing Director and Head of Paediatrics, United Hospital to discuss in detail the action plan, we should start with the first bone marrow transplant in July 2010.  This seems a realistic goal.

I must return in April along with other colleagues for a transplant seminar that will be attended by potentially interested physicians and nurses.  In the preparation of the transplant unit and in the training, doctors and nurses from Islamabad will also be involved as they have acquired a significant experience in a similar context.  This is the real goal, to create the conditions and tools such that the transfer of knowledge spreads, a great satisfaction for Cure2Children.
In the afternoon a meeting with the young General Secretary of the Bangladesh Thalassemia Foundation,  Dr. Robin Rahim, with whom we discuss the selection process for screening candidates for transplantation and their families. I demonstrate to him the Cure2Children database and he becomes familiar very quickly.

At the end of the day Sultan takes me to Professor Yunus, who asks us a lot of questions about the progress of the project and in particular about how personnel issues will be faced, training and above all clear definition of roles.  He seems very interested and determined, I feel that I’m one of his, with such a leadership we cannot fail.  An intense day but very productive.
The program for screening and prevention will begin within a few weeks and the transplants within a few months.

The morning after, a tour of Old Dhaka, I’ve never seen traffic so chaotic. Everyone against everyone, crumbling but functional rickshaw’s, carts and Piaggio Api challenge cars and smashed up buses to go through streets only a few meters wide. There are also casual passers-by with incredible loads on their heads that defy the laws of physics. Every so often you manage to see a traffic light whose role doesn’t seem very clear.
You can understand how Bangladesh is the most densely populated country on the earth, 150 million people in an area half the size of Italy. It takes us 4 hours to cross the centre, including a break of 15 minutes at Lalbagh Fort. Some children really enjoyed that I took photos and they gave me flowers, a wonderful gesture equally appreciated.

In the afternoon I leave for Islamabad, incredibly, there is no direct flight between the two capitals, I have to stop over in Abu Dhabi.