La Chaîne de l'Espoir in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest countries with an average per capita monthly of only $98. The country is ranked 142 out of 186 on the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Because of Bangladesh’s geographical location, inhabitants face regular natural disasters such as floods, cyclones and tidal waves. Chars are one-of-a-kind islands. Located in the north of the country, these islands emerge and vanish depending on yearly floods. One can easily imagine the precarious conditions char dwellers live in. The only way to access healthcare is to reach terra firma, but transport and medical costs often discourage them to seek care.

Born in Bengal, Runa Khan founded the Friendship Bangladesh NGO in 2002 to help those in need. With great modesty, she has been putting all her energy in helping the most destitute communities for 14 years. One of Friendship’s main objectives is to provide primary and secondary care to the most vulnerable populations of Bangladesh.

Today, Friendship has 3 hospital ships and around 200 satellite clinics offering care to more than 250,000 people every month.

Friendship has more than 1,600 collaborators, of which 600 fieldworkers in the areas of health, education, economic development, natural disaster prevention, reconstruction and Bangladeshi culture conservation.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir has become Friendship Bangladesh’s privileged partner when it comes to healthcare. Cooperation between the two organisations resulted in a very positive outcome over the course of 2014-2015.

In order to treat various conditions (in paediatric surgery, cardiology, gynaecology, orthopaedic surgery, plastic and orthopaedic surgery) 3 medical missions and 1 coordination mission have been successfully conducted over this period.

• Thanks to the expertise of Doctor Uroz Tristan, Doctor Etienne Valentin and their teams, 93 Bangladeshi children have been operated on between October 12th and 29th 2014. In addition, new surgery techniques have been introduced, and medication and medical equipment have been supplied.
• From February 12th to 20th 2015, a care and consultation mission in paediatric surgery has been carried out by Professor Jean-François Mallet, a paediatric surgeon, during which 50 Bangladeshi children have been treated.
• From April 14th to 24th 2015 charge nurse Aline Perret and former hospital director Alain Rubin have supervised a medical training mission in hygiene and sterilisation. 60 local health professionals have benefitted from this high-quality training.

Over the course of 2016, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has scheduled 5 new medical missions and 1 new coordination mission in Bangladesh.

Our objective : continue to treat and to train local health professionals.

2 missions have already been carried out :

• An orthopaedic mission overseen by Professor Jean-François Mallet and a nurse mission led by Aline Perret in February.

4 missions are scheduled for May 2016, including :

• a cardiology mission supervised by Doctor Bernard Ducassy (from May 6th to 19th 2016)
• a gynaecology and midwives mission led by Doctor Jean Porrini and Doctor Agnès Simon
• a consultation mission
• a coordination and hospital project mission conducted by Professor Yann Revillon and Mrs Françoise Monard, General Secretary of La Chaîne de l’Espoir.