Dr Stanley Foster, Stan to us, is known in Bangladesh for his contribution to eradicate snallpox.He lived there and continued visiting after he left Dhaka.
He used to share public health stories when visited me at ICDDR,B in Dhaka. I would like to share one of the stories based on his visit to a rural health centre in India.
During the visit he was looking at the growth monitoring data register. He observed that lot of weight measurements for children were missing. He became curious. He asked the health workers about it. Health workers said that these children were too young. They could not hang themselves in the hanging weighing machine. So measurements were not possible. She thought children should hold the hook by themselves to swing/hang for weight measurements.
Weight used to be taken in hanging weighing scales. Children were required to be put in a pouch hanged in the hook.
He said the workers were not told how to use the jackets. Look Abbas, how challenging it is to change things, lot of works need to be done. Growth monitoring has come a long way so is public health. It was all possible because of the hard work people like you, Stan. May Almighty keep your soul in rest.