These Floating Hospital Ships in Bangladesh Are Saving Hundreds Of People’s Lives In Remote Areas That Are Affected By Climate Change

Source: https://assetsds.cdnedge.bluemix.net/

Bangladesh, based on its geographic location is extremely vulnerable to climate change and with people secluded in islands far away from the mainland, they regularly experience living within climate impacts like flooding and storms, to erosions. 

According to the advocacy group called the National Char Alliance, a total of about 10 million people live on silt river islands, otherwise known as ‘chars’ in the country. In the last year, at least 466 families that were living on chars in Gaibandha in the northern part of the country lost their homes because of river erosions, with 67 of them being forced to move out due to dire circumstances. 

These stilted islands are constantly changing shape as they erode and reform because of a combination of extreme rainfall and climate change, therefore making it close to impossible for the poor farmers who live there to have basic access to health because of the discouragement of building permanent hospitals in nearby areas. 

That is a why a non-governmental organisation has started operating floating hospital ships that are fully equipped with medical facilities and doctors. They offer free treatment to the residents in the chars, innovating a new way of giving medical necessities in areas that are hit by worsening climate threats. The floating hospitals are docked at more permanent chars and stay for two months before moving on to the next island. 


Source: https://elevenmyanmar.com/

They are fully equipped to provide check-ups to performing complicated surgeries that deal with burn wounds or disfigurement. They can also test for cervical cancer, which is the second most common type of cancer in the country, as reported by the United Nations. 

Without these hospital ships, these residents would need to hire a boat to take a day-long journey to the nearest hospital, said Kazi Golam Rasul, who is the head of health at the NGO Friendship. 

“They have to spend a lot of time and money to arrange a simple doctor’s visit. It discourages them. That’s why many residents visit hospitals only when the disease or pain becomes really bad. That is very dangerous,” said Rasul.

In the last 20 years, Friendship has noticed that more diseases were occurring to these residents even outside the seasons they were once happening in. To tackle these issues, founder of Friendship, Runa Khan developed a three-tier system to help these people by bringing patients to ships, sending medical teams to the chars for routine check-ups and training other women living in the islands to prescribe medicines. 

“We realised that you cannot have a healthcare system which is the same in the cities and these unreachable areas. You have to change the system with the available resources and socio-economic capability of the people,” said Khan.


Source: https://www.theasiantoday.com/

Khan was successfully able to convert a donated oil tanker into a fully functional floating hospital in 2002, with everyone initially telling her that this idea would fail. 

“Everywhere I went, people said this was impossible. I was told to build a normal hospital in the nearest town. But I had seen the poverty in the chars and I knew that that wouldn’t help them,” said Khan.

At present, Friendship is simultaneously running two hospital ships, and is in the process of building five more with the assistance of the King Abdullah Foundation, which was started by the former Saudi monarch. 

After five years of being privately run, the NGO will hand over the ships to the Bangladesh government because they believe that this new method of offering medical services to people in remote areas need to be expanded and prioritized. 

“This is a viable strategy to get to people who are hard to reach and have no access to medical services,” said Nawsher Ahmed Sikder, civil servant from the Ministry of Finance.

 

What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!

True Activist / Report a typo

 

Popular on True Activist