Ronghdonu, is a seafaring ship which will conduct its work along the southern regions of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. When a cyclone hits, when the monsoons come and throughout the rest of the year, this ship will be there providing health care to people who have none. Runa Khan and her husband, Yves Marre, came up with the idea to use ships as facilities to provide health care. When they inquired about the Rainbow Warrior II they did the math and realized they couldn’t do it. But, they didn’t give up. A Hong Kong-based organization provided funds to complete the work needed to be done to make the ship into what Friendship needed.
Runa gets so much done in an efficient manner that would take years in other countries. But, she doesn’t stop there, she follows through as you see in the clip below — she’s involved in every detail and takes on only what she and Friendship are able to.
Life in Bangladesh is hard. Dhaka ranks at the top of worst cities to live in the world on many lists. Education is poor, pollution is high, and wages are low. Despite this, incredible people like Runa Khan fight to make a change. But, she isn’t doing it alone. The doctors and medical staff on her ships and clinics, the teachers at the schools and adult health education centers and the ships themselves are all confronting some basic obstacles in Bangladesh — removing a cataract from an elderly man’s eye so he can see his daughter for the first time in years, cleaning and bandaging a burn on a boy, teaching a young girl to read, educating a young mother about nutrition for her baby, or getting doctors to a remote location in an emergency. They are all doing their part to improve a hard life in Bangladesh. It is a noble challenge for Ronghdonu who’s only goal has always been to make life better and why she belongs with Friendship.
The End…for now.