Sunday, 26 March, 2023
E-paper

British HC visits Lifebuoy Hospital in Sariakandi char

  • Staff Correspondent
  • 28 February, 2023 12:00 AM
  • Print news
British HC visits Lifebuoy Hospital in Sariakandi char

British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson visited the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH) in a remote char at Sariakandi in Bogura.

CEO and Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL) Zaved Akhtar accompanied him during the visit, along with Executive Director of Friendship Hospital Runa Khan and other dignitaries.

Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL), the country’s leading Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company, in collaboration with Friendship, a not-for-profit social purpose organisation, constructed a residential hospital boat with amenities for medical procedures to serve remote char communities in 2001.

In the past 20 years, LFH has delivered 1,066,671 healthcare services to 657,182 patients. To date, LFH has provided healthcare services to over 1.5 million people living in the char areas.

The delegations learned about the journey of this iconic initiative, interacted with the team who has been carrying out the benevolent work in the last two decades and heard about the first-hand experience of the patients and                  beneficiaries. The trip also included visits to Friendship’s projects focusing on social business, governance, education and women empowerment.

British High Commissioner to Dhaka Robert Chatterton Dickson said, “Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH) has become a symbol of hope for enabling healthcare across underserved communities in Bangladesh.”

“It is always a pleasure seeing British multinational companies not only build the economy through business, but embed into the culture and heritage of a country and build the nation through the right social initiatives. I hope initiatives such as LFH will bring more life changing impacts for the underprivileged, ” he said.  

CEO and Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh Zaved Akhtar said, “Our goal at Unilever is to make sustainable living commonplace, and one of our major ways is improving people’s health, confidence, and wellbeing.”

“Our purpose-driven brands like Lifebuoy have been working to advance the nation's healthcare system and citizens' health and cleanliness.”

“Although access to high-quality healthcare services is a fundamental human right, Bangladesh's distant regions continue to face difficulties in this area,” he said.

“With this realisation, we partnered with the Friendship 20 years ago to establish Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital, which offers medical treatment to underprivileged individuals living in off-the-grid communities,” the CEO added.