Speakers at a function today said Friendship, a social organization, has been working for improving the living standard of the underprivileged people in the remote areas of the country.
They said the organization has already significantly improved the quality of life of a large number of underprivileged people in the remotest parts of the country in the last 20 years since its inception.
The speakers said this while speaking at a function at Hotel InterContinental in the city, marking the 20th founding anniversary of Friendship, which started its journey in 2002 with a vision of building a world where people – especially the hard-to-reach and unaddressed – will have equal opportunities to live with dignity and hope.
Friendship Founder Runa Khan, Co-Chair of Friendship International Marc Elvinger, Chair of Board of Friendship Bangladesh Salahuddin Ahmed and national and international chairs of boards of Friendship joined the celebration.
Speaking on the occasion, Runa Khan said, “I started the journey with not even a vision, I would say, I just wanted to start by trying to ease the suffering of people. That was my only target. I could not bear their pain, I could not bear injustice, and I could not bear that we have, and they don’t”.
The places, where Friendship started working in, were the hardest areas in Bangladesh to reach, she said, adding, but Friendship reached there though there was nobody else when it started work.
Noting that if people are not deeply embedded with values, nurturing their ethics, nurturing their character, understanding responsibility, and humanity-humanity towards each other, Runa said, “Then no matter what we do, there will always be a missing element, and somehow the goal is not reached as strongly as it should have been”.
Later, a special performance of Friendship’s Char Theatre was staged similar to the plays they do in the chars about social issues like child marriage, dowry and basic rights.
Besides, a special exhibition was organized at the same venue, where the wooden boats of Bengal, handcrafted slow fashion products produced by char women, and dignity inspired artwork by Friendship schoolchildren and the award-winning buildings designed by architect Kashef Mahbub Chowdhury were displayed.
Friendship has been operating in the deltaic river basins of the extreme north, and the coastal and forest regions in the south part of the country. It started operations with floating hospitals that offer essential primary and secondary healthcare to remote riverine areas. These hospitals are further supplemented by satellite clinics, which are themselves supported by community medic-aides utilising a proprietary mHealth app.
