Friendship (NGO)

Friendship

Founded	2002
Founder	Runa Khan
Type	Non profit and non government organization
Key people	Runa Khan
Website	http://www.friendship-bd.org

Friendship is a value- based non-governmental organization that works with poor and marginalized communities. It was established in Bangladesh in 2002 with the aim of providing essential basic services to the most inaccessible and hard to reach areas. The initial focus area was the flood sediment islets (chars) and riverbank areas of northern Bangladesh, where there was no provision of basic healthcare and education. The organization started to work through providing both primary and secondary healthcare, and then expanded the scope of its work to education. The organization's goal is to help char dwellers to develop basic skills and provide an infrastructure that will help these communities to get out of the poverty trap and give them sustainable opportunities and possibilities.

Friendship has selected the working areas in Bangladesh in remote chars and riverbanks in the North, poorer areas in Northeast, cyclone-prone areas in the South and most recently the hard-to-reach indigenous communities in the coastal belt of the country. In Pakistan, Friendship has worked in the earthquake affected areas in 2005 and with Internally Displaced People (IDP) in 2008.

Friendship's work in the chars and other vulnerable areas has become even more relevant in the light of growing concerns regarding climate change and its effects in high-risk countries of which Bangladesh tops the list. Not only is Bangladesh at risk of drought, famine, floods and natural disasters, it struggles with extreme poverty and very high population density. It is highly dependent on agriculture, which is greatly affected by climate change.

History

Friendship started with its flagship project-the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH). The LFH was originally an oil barge brought down from France, but was later converted into a floating hospital - with an aim to provide essential and basic services in the most inaccessible and hard to reach areas, places where no basic healthcare or education was accessible.The barge was sailed from France to Bangladesh by Yves Marre,^[1] a French sailor and currently an advisor to Friendship. It was brought over to be used for humanitarian purposes but after countless failed attempts to convince various local and international NGOs in Bangladesh of the possibility of converting the barge into a sustainable health delivery model, Runa Khan, Friendship’s founding Executive Director, took it up to realize this dream. Multinational company Unilever came forward with financial support^[2] which enabled the conversion of the ship into a mobile hospital, and to start its work in the remote chars of northern Bangladesh.,^[3]

Mission, Vision and Objectives

Friendship works to restore the dignity of marginalized communities by delivering effective development solutions using a holistic needs-based approach. It emphasizes on values, self-respect and dignity of the people in uplifting the quality of life of the ultra-poor and disaster prone communities. Friendship’s mission statement is “To contribute to an environment of justice and equity to empower people to reach their full potential through a sustainable, integrated development approach.”

Friendship accept this goodwill as a responsibility and do not use it for political, religious or commercial advantages and also conscientious not to disrupt the environmental and social stability, and the cultural base of the region. Friendship works in collaboration with donors and cooperative NGOs who share similar values and whose policies, goals, morals and ethics are deemed to be in harmony with the organization. Friendship’s vision is of “ A world where people, especially the hard to reach and unaddressed, will have equal opportunity to live with dignity and hope.”

Friendship’s work areas

Most of Friendship’s activities are concentrated in Gaibandha and Kurigram districts in northern Bangladesh with some activities in Barguna, Bagerhat and Patuakhali in the southern part of the country, with most focus on Kuakata of Patuakhali district. Recently tapped into providing healthcare to people in the coastal areas of Bangladesh.

The working area is currently divided into 2 parts - healthcare and other interventions (Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra, Jamalpur, Sirajganj, Tangail, Pabna, Dhaka, Gopalganj, Pirojpur, Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Barguna and the coastal belt) and other interventions without healthcare (such as those in Mymensingh). Friendship also provides emergency relief (Rajshahi, Magura, Jessore, Khulna, Barisal, Narsingdi, Sunamganj, Sylhet, Chittagong, Rangamati).

Friendship started its work in the north because it is an area where a large number of population lives in remote river islands commonly known as chars, and riverbank areas, lacking access to basic services and living well below the documented poverty line. Work in the southern districts started after Friendship provided emergency relief after cyclone Sidr. Friendship realized that while there was much focus on providing emergency relief, long-term and sustainable rehabilitation needs to assist in rebuilding the lives of the affected people not being addressed. Friendship decided to move beyond just relief and took upon rehabilitative activities which included assistance to build houses, improve water and sanitation situation, build schools, and provide healthcare and alternative income generation opportunities.

Programmes

Friendship started with the renovation and operation of its flagship project Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH).^[4] Over time Friendship expanded to having two hospital ships (Emirates Friendship Hospital and Rongdhonu Friendship Hospital), and from providing primary and secondary healthcare to education,^[5] income generation,^[6] relief and rehabilitation^[7] programmes, and, most recently, interest-free loans and savings schemes. The activities in these varied sectors stem from a holistic approach to development, acknowledging the inter-connectedness of basic needs.

Healthcare, Nutrition and Population

Friendship believes healthcare,^[8] is a basic human right, and an integrated primary healthcare approach is imperative to provide quality healthcare service in the riverbank and char areas. This is mainly because the nature and location of the work area is such that traditional land-based operations are impractical; Friendship has developed a river-based health service delivery system using floating hospitals, satellite clinics and community medics. Friendship’s floating hospitals are at the centre of its healthcare, programme, providing primary and secondary healthcare, family planning, eye and dental care, nutrition, child immunization support, and secondary level surgeries. In November 2008, as part of its healthcare programme expansion, Friendship built a second hospital ship, the Emirates Friendship Hospital (EFH), with a third one recently launched. The international environmental organisation Greenpeace donated its famous flagship Rainbow Warrior II, and it is now known as the Rongdhonu Friendship Hospital, providing healthcare to people in the coastal areas of Bangladesh.

Education and Good Governance

Friendship started its primary education programme with the aim to increase literacy and provide high quality basic education to the char population of northern Bangladesh. Friendship now runs 75 primary schools including non-formal satellite schools in northern and southern Bangladesh, and 46 adult literacy centers.^[9] While the primary school students are taught English, Bengali, Mathematics and Environmental Science through an active learning method, extra curricular activities in ethics, creative writing, poetry, singing and dancing are also taken into consideration. The adult literacy centers help increase char dwellers’ literacy and awareness to ease the handling of daily activities such as carrying out business transactions, understanding written messages, and writing letters. Recently a new project is launched, which is Listen2Learn Programme. it is an innovative way of teaching English language to the students.

Sustainable Economic Development

Friendship conducts a programme focusing on providing alternative income generating opportunities to char dwellers through a risk-sharing micro finance model which includes innovative agricultural and cattle-breeding support, creation of sustainable cottage industries, and other “adaptive solutions”. There are 5 projects of SED currently running:^[10]

1. Agriculture project
2. Fishermen project
3. Vocational Training Centers
4. Rural Electrification
5. Water Treatment Plants

Disaster Management and Infrastructure Development

Friendship has adopted an innovative and integrated approach to disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness techniques. This programme follows three phases: disaster risk management and preparedness, rehabilitation and reconstruction, and immediate emergency relief. Friendship’s multi-pronged work on this stemmed from its activities during emergency relief, when it was realized that although there were many organizations that were readily providing emergency relief after a natural disaster, the need to provide support that will rehabilitate the disaster-struck population in the long term was being overlooked.

Cultural Preservation

Friendship’s Cultural Preservation programme^[11] strives to conserve heritages that are on the brink of disappearance, document the knowledge around them, learn from them and promote the art and technology behind them nationally and internationally. The focus has been on the boat-building tradition of Bengal, documenting the age-old technology and diversity; and adapting and finding new uses for boats that facilitate socioeconomic and cultural development.

Friendship International

Friendship International in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, UK and Germany have played an instrumental role in facilitating Friendship’s work in Bangladesh and Pakistan, They assist us in creating global awareness about the work, region and beneficiaries, raise funds for projects and most importantly build strong relationships with societies who have contributed so generously towards Friendship.

Honours and Awards

Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award (2012)

Runa Khan is one of twenty-six global social entrepreneurs to receive the prestigious 2012 Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation.

Runa Khan Guest of Honor at the Rolex Awards for Enterprise (2012)

On 7 December 2011, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, an event was co-hosted by Rolex and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) at the 180 year old institution’s London headquarters. Runa Khan was among the six guest of honours.

Friendship awarded as the best performing NGO in Gaibandha (2011)

Friendship awarded the fame of the best performance NGO for the year of 2010-2011 in Gaibandha district for its activity on Family Planning, Child Health & Mother Care by The Department of Family Planning under the ministry of Health and Family Planning of the Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.

Runa Khan Awarded SCWEC Women Entrepreneur Excellence Award (2011)

Runa Khan Awarded the Prestigious SCWEC Women Entrepreneur Excellence Award 2010 in Chennai, India.

IDB Award for Contribution to Women in Development (2008)

Runa Khan received this award[12] in 2008 in recognition of her efforts to improve healthcare of women in Bangladesh.

Rolex Award for enterprise (2006)

The Rolex award,^[12] which supports exceptional people who are breaking new ground in areas which advance human knowledge and well-being, was awarded to Runa Khan for her work in keeping alive the Bangladeshi tradition of boat-making, especially through restoration, building exact models by skilled boat-builders, documenting the technology and taking initiative to use the knowledge in conjunction with new technology.

See also

References

External links

• Website
• Friendship Pakistan
• Friendship Netherlands
• Friendship Luxembourg