The Rotary Club of Baridhara has continued its efforts to support child healthcare services through a series of humanitarian initiatives at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital, benefiting thousands of underprivileged patients.
As part of its ongoing Medicine Bank programme, the club recently handed over medicines to the hospital to assist poor children undergoing treatment, particularly those suffering from cancer.
The initiative has been running for several years with contributions from members of the Rotary Club of Baridhara.
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The medicines were formally handed over by Rtn. Meherun Nessa Islam, president (2025-26) of the Rotary Club of Baridhara, along with Rtn. PP Mosud Mannan, MPHF B, secretary (2025-26), and Rtn. Ali Ashfaq, FCA, MPHF, director of vocational service. Rtn. Saiful Huq, FCA, PHF, and Rtn. Taposh Shaha were also present, alongside other club members and officials of Bangladesh Shishu Hospital.
The Medicine Bank project was launched in the 2018-19 Rotary year when the club donated a refrigerator to the hospital’s Cancer Department and supplied medicines worth Tk 1.6 lakh for poor patients.
Since then, the initiative has expanded into one of the club’s major humanitarian programmes.
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In the current Rotary year, the club has donated medicines worth Tk 11.8 lakh to support the treatment of underprivileged cancer patients.
Apart from the Medicine Bank initiative, the club has undertaken several healthcare projects at the hospital.
In the 2023-24 Rotary year, the club implemented a global grant project under Rotary’s focus area of maternal and child health, providing modern medical equipment to the hospital’s Nephrology Department and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
The project, valued at about $72,000, also included renovation of the hospital’s general renal ward into a Special Care Renal Ward.
The equipment now enables the hospital to conduct around 100 renal biopsy procedures annually, while about 20 patients receive central line insertion services each year.
The project also introduced a Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) machine for critically ill pediatric patients.
Earlier, in the 2020-21 Rotary year, the club provided psychometric assessment tools worth Tk 3 lakh to the hospital’s Neuroscience Department for neurocognitive and neurodevelopmental evaluation of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. As of February 2026, the tools have benefited 5,946 patients.
The Rotary Club of Baridhara said it will continue its humanitarian initiatives to support healthcare services for children and assist hospitals serving low-income communities.