Dhaka: Al Amin wished he could run, but even walking was difficult until February, when doctors at a floating hospital fixed his clubfoot – a treatment he otherwise could not have received in rural Bangladesh. He lives.
Amin is one of more than 725,000 people treated on a ship that has been traversing the South Asian nation’s waterways for more than two decades to provide accessible healthcare to the country’s rural population.
The hospital is called Jibon Tari or the Boat of Life – a name taken from a poem by renowned Bengali poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Amin underwent surgery on both legs when the hospital was located in the southern Jhalkati district, costing around $220. They estimated it was at least five times less than what they would pay for the procedure at any private clinic in the country.
“I have been suffering from clubfoot since birth. I grew up with this physical limitation and didn’t get any treatment until I went to Jibon Tari Hospital,” Amin said. “Now I am getting better every day. I hope to be able to run like a healthy person in the next few months.
Jibon Tari was launched in Bangladesh in 1999 by the Impact Foundation, an international charity that specializes in helping people with disabilities and the poor.
The hospital only brings surgical treatment to areas accessible by the river, where there are few medical facilities.
Dr Haseeb Mahmood, chief executive of Impact Foundation Bangladesh, told Arab News: “Unfortunately, these people are out of reach of formal health facilities and because of poverty, they cannot afford health services in private hospitals or clinics.”
The hospital costs $36,000 each month to run, most of which is funded by international donations.
The Foundation begins preparations to launch a new ship over the next few years when Jibon Tari retires.
“We need to continue and maintain boat hospital services for many more years because the demand is still there,” Mahmood said. “The existing hospital will need a replacement in the next six to eight years, so the IFB will need huge funding to build a new boat hospital, which will last at least 30 years.”
Another patient whose life turned better after the hospital was closed in Jhalti district in February was seven-year-old Sumaiya Akhtar, who had been suffering from tonsillitis for years, which made it painful to eat and drink.
Her father, Sohag Khalifa, could not afford the tonsil removal procedure on his salary as a van driver.
“For fear of high cost of treatment, I could not visit other hospitals before this. I spent a very nominal amount at Jibon Tari Hospital,” he said. “Now she is completely fine.”
A three-deck hospital usually docks at one location for at least 10 months, then before the river moves to other parts of the country. It is equipped with modern medical facilities and is manned by about three dozen staff including four doctors.
One of them is Dr. Mobaswar Shajeeb, who said that it was sometimes difficult to live on the water away from his family.
“But I immediately forget the pain when I think about the good work I’m doing here,” he said. “Other big hospitals wouldn’t give me such a platform.”