It was the beginning of her career in 2015, just after she graduated from Dhaka Medical College, Dr. Farzana Rahman received a call late at night from a diagnostic centre in Natore where she used to work as a part-time ultrasonologist.
A pregnant woman was in labour. Nurses were trying to decide if she needed a caesarean section, and this depended on the unborn baby’s heartbeat and it’s position in the womb.
“ I could not go as it (the centre) was quite far from my home, and it was not safe to go out in the darkness at that hour,” Farzanz said. The news of the infants death on the following day came as a shock, which she said “was a turning point in my life” that was to set her on a passionate journey to ensure quality healthcare for her community.
Farzana was a brilliant student who stood 17th in the medical admission test of the country and admitted herself to the Dhaka Medical College, the top medical institution of Bangladesh. Despite having oppurtunities to avail a luxurious life and career, she has fallen back to her own people of ‘Chalan Bill’ area to serve them. She has seen how the people of the area specially women and young girls are suffering due to maltreatment by quacks and non-professionals. A huge number of expectant mothers of this rural area used to suffer because of not having adequate support from any qualified medical professional. Many of those pregnant women or their new born children had to suffer serious complications which ultimately lead to death or life threatening disabilities in many cases. Therefore, she started with what little she had to provide adequate medical treatment and support for the poor, oppressed and uneducated people of the area. In 2015, she started a small diagnostic centre in Singra, Natore area which is now a 10 bedded clinic. The clinic is specially dedicated for the treatment of women and young girls of the area. Besides, she is now trying to enhance the facilities with the help of some other doctors of different speciality so that people of the area can have access to adequate medical solutions for their health issues. She is also organizing free medical camps in different villages of the area so that women from all walks of life can avail necessary treatment and suggestions despite their inability to reach a doctor by convincing their husbands and other family members. She also organizes medical camps in high schools and colleges to educate young girls so that they can take preventive measures to reduce risks of various complications and life threatening diseases.
In her journey towards making a helthier future society, she closely observed that the small children of the poor mothers are not as brilliant as others of the same society. These childrens’ growth are hinderered in terms of gross and fine motor skills, sensory skills and overall brain-development. Therefore, In 2018 she has started her another effort, Dipasha Foundation in order to build a brilliant future generation with the slogan “Brillinat child in every house.” She arranges educating sessions for the pregnant women so that they can avail adequate nutrition from locally available inexpensive foods and regulate their activities for better brain development and other organ development of the fetus in mothers womb. The mothers are also being trained to induce different motors skills to their new born children accoring to their age. Dip Medical Services and Dipasha Foundation are working together for making a healthy and brilliant future generation in the ‘Chalan Bill’ area.
A good number of women are employed in her organizations and they are now empowered, contributing to their families and to the society with higher self-esteem.
During the Covid-19 pandemic when many doctors and medical professionals had shut their services to the mass people, she with her staffs did not close the services for a single day. From the initial lockdown period till date she has served more than 10,000 people of the ‘Chalan Bill’ area taking adequate precautionary measures. Besides, she has also distributed covid safely materials, foods, etc. to the journalists, religious volunteers for ‘Janaza’, health workers and other vulnerable people.
