Getting into "someone else's shoes".

It's difficult, almost impossible particularly when that "someone" is not only poor but extensively physically disabled.   The understanding of the situation is made even harder when one realises that seconds before his or her accident this person was the fittest and toughest in the community. >> They were possibly carrying a heavy sack of rice on the head when their foot slipped in the mud, causing the enormous load to be too much for the body to control resulting in the neck being broken.    Or they had climbed a fruit tree and succumbed to a fall from a height breaking their back.   In a split second their life and that of their family members has changed for ever.  In many cases the ensuing paralysis is permanent along with a loss of sensation in the skin.   Without "feeling" the body's warning system is lost and the person can lie in one position for hours not knowing that the skin is breaking down and pressure sores are forming.    As if that were not enough, they also have no sensation or control of the urinary bladder and bowel.
 
This makes very depressing reading, I know, but it is for exactly this reason that CRP exists.    To give the required treatment and rehabilitation to cases of spinal injury.   Our great aim is to prevent complications which can "kill", these include the urinary problems and pressure sores.    The good news is that if we can receive a paralysed person as early as possible after their accident then many potential complications can be prevented.   Our overall goal is to give "complete" rehabilitation, physical, emotional, social and economic to each paralysed individual.    For very many people wheels are needed to replace the use of their legs.  A vocational training is required to enable them to generate an income to again provide for their families.   A massive challenge is presented to each person.   Who is their inspiration?   Those who have been living full, productive lives from their wheelchairs for the last 25 years make such excellent role models.    They also came to CRP all those years ago feeling hopeless and bewildered about the future.   Now incredibly they seem unaware of their wheelchairs, having adapted completely to this way of life.   So they think nothing of going to the mosque on a Friday or taking a launch for the journey to Barisal to visit their family.  What an inspiration these people are, not only to those who are recently paralysed but to all of us.  

This is why CRP patients, staff and students so appreciate the public interest and concern on hearing of recent problems.   We are most grateful to those who have disseminated this awareness through the media and the internet so that public opinion could be heard.   We are most thankful to those who formed the support group, "Citizens Committee to Save CRP" giving their time and energy so freely and the many individuals who have worked in their own way to support the cause.   
Looking forward to the time when CRP's present problems are finally over, I fervently believe and hope that the organisation will be stronger and better for this prolonged, testing ordeal. 

One clear message that has emerged from this crisis is the general knowledge among the population that although CRP is for everyone, its particular focus is for the poor, paralysed person.   May we all in our various capacities act as the "watch dog" body to ensure that we never lose sight of this prime objective.

CRP, we all know, cannot exist on "thin air" but I believe that with the same passion and concern for its freedom to work for the poor, the more affluent people of Bangladesh will continue to ensure that the poor, paralysed person has their opportunity of subsidised treatment and rehabilitation at CRP in the days to come.        
Once again our warmest thanks for all your support,