Bangladesh team leaves for Ethiopia today

This is the first of several surveys to be conducted worldwide to ascertain the prevalence of childhood disabilities in Asia, Africa and other developing countries through a joint World Bank and OECD initiative.

The door-to-door two-stage survey method has been validated by an international team of experts including Prof Sultana S Zaman, ex-teacher of psychology department of Dhaka University and general secretary of the BPF, Dr Naila Z Khan, professor of Child Neurology at Dhaka Shishu Hospital and chairperson of the SBN, Dr Zena Stein, professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University and Dr Maureen Durkin, professor of Epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin, USA.

The method is to be adapted in several countries simultaneously beginning with Ethiopia.

Headed by Dr Naila Z Khan, the team included Dr Shamim Ferdous, director, and Qazi Afroza Sultana, child psychologist and special teacher of BPF, respectively.