Friendship protects vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, combining vital services like healthcare and education with climate resilience projects that save lives, restore ecosystems, and create opportunity.
The effects of climate change aren’t a distant reality – they are here, and billions of people across the globe are living among them. Too often it’s those who are the least responsible for climate change that are on the frontlines, feeling the effects first.
Nowhere is this more true than in Bangladesh, where climate induced weather events take lives, displace millions and impact everyday peoples’ ability to go to school, earn a living, and build a future.
Coastal populations are particularly vulnerable, with deadly cyclones, water salinity, and erosion threatening livelihoods and survival. These fragile communities urgently need ways to adapt, not only to withstand disasters but to secure dignity, opportunity, and quality of life.
Faced with these urgent challenges, Friendship is stepping in to help communities build long-term climate resilience.
Founded by Runa Khan in 2002, Friendship is dedicated to helping vulnerable communities across Bangladesh not only prepare for natural disasters, but also supporting their health, education, livelihoods and access to public services.
From its beginnings as a single floating hospital, Friendship has grown into a dedicated social purpose organisation. Today it reaches more than 7.5 million people each year with healthcare services, provides over 8.3 million days of emergency food support, and gives more than 80,000 people access to safe drinking water in coastal areas.
Friendship is also restoring over 60 km of mangrove forests to shield villages from the worst impacts of deadly cyclones. They have already planted more than 650,000 trees across 200 hectares near Sundarbans on Bangladesh’s southern coast, protecting over 125,000 people to date. These mangrove forests also act as a major carbon sink, storing vast amounts of carbon and enabling communities to benefit from a “blue economy” future.
From building raised plinth settlements and dismantlable schools to withstand rising waters, to floating hospitals that bring healthcare to remote populations, Friendship’s initiatives equip local people to withstand future climate challenges and turn vulnerable communities into models of resilience.
By 2030, Friendship aims to tackle climate vulnerability while ensuring lasting improvements that are locally owned, sustainable and replicable across similar fragile geographies.
As more and more countries find themselves needing to not only survive, but thrive, among climate-driven weather events, Friendship’s holistic approach will be a critical blueprint for the world.
Being recognised as an Earthshot Prize Finalist is an honour that highlights the resilience and innovation of communities in Bangladesh living on the frontline of climate change.
From our first floating hospital to restoring mangroves and building flood-resilient villages, we have proven that community-led, nature-based solutions can transform lives. This recognition amplifies the voices of those most affected and shows that locally driven adaptation is both possible and essential.
