THE Emirates Airline Foundation has signed a contract with Friendship, a registered non-governmental organisation (NGO) for the management of the new Emirates Friendship Hospital ship in Bangladesh.
The steel-hulled catamaran was commissioned by the foundation, the on board charity initiative that funds projects around the world in aid of underprivileged children. Emirates’ passengers support the Foundation by donating spare cash or unwanted foreign currency using envelopes supplied on board Emirates' aircraft.
Due for completion in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, by mid-2007, the Emirates Friendship Hospital ship will be used as a floating hospital in northern Bangladesh for communities isolated by the annual monsoon flooding of the Brahmaputra River.
The low-draught vessel is specially designed to navigate the shallow waters of this particular area of over 200 kilometres, one of the most medically neglected, and inaccessible areas of Bangladesh.
The Emirates Friendship Hospital will be managed by Friendship, which began operations in December 2001 around the riverine areas of Dhaka.