"More children in South Asia die from severe burns than from HIV/AIDS, malaria and respiratory disease" -ReSurge International. These children become disfigured, lose their ability to walk or eat, and drop out of school. HOPE is providing critical burn care through surgery and therapy to children who are helpless victims.
In rural impoverished areas in Bangladesh, families use open fires inside their homes for heating, cooking and light. Accidents with children frequently happen when the children go unsupervised. While girls are cooking, the loose, ill-fitting clothing catches in the flames. These children's families are too poor to take them to a doctor and what results, is the disfigurement of these children as the damaged tissue attaches and heals improperly.
HOPE's first objective is to treat these children through extensive burn care. This involves providing them with surgery that will not only minimize the appearance of the disfigurement but restore usability of limbs that have been rendered incapable. HOPE will then provide therapy and counseling to the child and their families, while educating them as to the dangers of burn, how to prevent it and how to treat it once it happens.
As HOPE campaigns via loud speaker and through HOPE's Mothers' Clubs to recruit children for surgery who have been left handicapped due to burn, the community who is largely illiterate will understand that their child does not have to be limited for the rest of their lives and can receive care, free of charge at HOPE. The community will also become acutely aware as to the risks of open fires and burn, and we can begin to conduct our prevention and awareness building campaigns.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
