TİKA Carries Out a New Health Project in Bangladesh

Osman Mia Merchant Mother and Child Hospital, which was equipped by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), was put into service with a ceremony in Sylhet, a city in Bangladesh.

The opening ceremony was organized in the city of Sylhet, which is 200 kilometers away from Dhaka, the capital city. The opening ceremony of the hospital, which was built by the Municipality of Sylhet to meet the healthcare needs of 700,000 people living in the city and equipped with equipment such as anesthetic machine, x-ray machine, biochemistry analyzer, cell counter, ultrasound, EKG machine, operating table, and surgical lights by TİKA, was attended by TİKA’s Vice President, Dr. Ümit Naci Yorulmaz; Mayor of Sylhet, Ariful Haque Choudhury; officials from TİKA’s Bangladesh Program Coordination Office; officials from Sylhet Provincial Health Directorate; and hospital authorities.

In his speech during the ceremony, the Mayor of Sylhet, Ariful Haque thanked TİKA and Türkiye for the technical help given to fully equip the hospital. Mentioning the hardships of low and middle income groups face to access health care in Sylhet, the honorary capital city of Bangladesh, Choudhury stressed that this support will make it easier to access health care not only for the people who live in the city but for the people who live around that region as well. Haque also mentioned that they will be glad to see TİKA continue its activities in the city of Sylhet in the future.

In his speech, TİKA’s Vice President, Ümit Naci Yorulmaz, gave information about TİKA and examples of the organization’s activities in all regions of Bangladesh. Yorulmaz stated that the Development cooperations TİKA has been carrying out in the country since 2014 contributed to the friendship between Türkiye and Bangladesh greatly. He mentioned that TİKA will continue to support Bangladesh in the future. After the opening, Yorulmaz received information about the health sector in Bangladesh and inspected the hospital.

Even though Bangladesh has leapt forward significantly in the health field, the health sector still suffers from serious setbacks because of the crowded population and limited economic possibilities of the country. Being one of the countries with the highest population density in the world, with a population of nearly 170 million, Bangladesh is a country with a high infant mortality rate, according to the United Nations data. Underbudget healthcare and the lack of several qualified healthcare workers restrain the people of Bangladesh from considerably benefitting from healthcare services. In the country, where eye diseases are quite common, there is a high rate of becoming permanently disabled due to the lack of proactive healthcare at an early age. TİKA’s activities in Bangladesh are usually in the field of maternal and child health in addition to prenatal and postnatal healthcare. Since 2014, TİKA opened 18 healthcare centers across Bangladesh and carried out various health projects, therefore touching hundreds of thousands of lives.