An 11-member delegation from the Luxembourg Ministry for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, led by Minister Franz Fayot, has recently visited sandbar islands in Gaibandha and Kurigram districts to observe the circumstances firsthand.
During its journey in the chars of Kurigram and Gaibandha, the delegation visited various Friendship programs co-funded by the Luxembourg government, including a hospital ship as part of Friendship’s three-tier health care system, a raised plinth cluster village, a solar village, a Friendship primary and secondary school, as well as programmes for agricultural support, vocational training, inclusive citizenship and char theatre.
The delegation discovered the char environment and met with its inhabitants, observing altogether the challenges they are facing, their resilience in doing so and their determination to always improve their living conditions by making the best possible use of the support they are benefitting from.
Visiting, alongside the Minister, were, in particular, Christophe Schiltz, Director of Cooperation (Luxembourg) and H.E. Peggy Frantzen, designated ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Bangladesh.
The delegation was accompanied in particular by Runa Khan, founder of Friendship and Marc Elvinger, chair of Friendship Luxembourg, said a media release.
Marc Elvinger, chairman of Friendship Luxembourg, said, “Over the 15 last years, during which we have enjoyed very substantial and always increasing support from the Luxembourg government, we have been able to build a very strong relationship. It was thus only the more important to me that the Minister and his team had the opportunity to visit our programs in the field and thereby get first-hand confirmation that the trust they have put in our work all along was not misplaced.”
When more than 20 years ago, Friendship arrived at the Jamuna-Brahmaputra River islands with a floating hospital, environmental and climatic challenges such as isolation, river erosion and floods had left communities there in an inescapable cycle of poverty and lacking access to vital services. Since then, and notwithstanding the fact that climatic challenges are always increasing, there has been major progress in multiple respects.
Luxembourg has been providing substantial support to Friendship’s programs in those areas over the last 15 years.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
