Floating hospital
Aklima now has one of the biggest smiles in her class. She wasn't always so cheerful. Born with a cleft lip, Aklima used to feel self-conscious and shy when smiling in front of her classmates.
That was before the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital pulled up on her stretch of remote sandbank on the River Brahmaptura in Bangladesh. Aklima is one of over 172 000 people to have been helped by the Unilever-sponsored hospital ship since it set sail four years ago.
"None of my friends calls me 'cleft lip' anymore after my operation at the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital," she beams.
Bringing medical help
The hospital began its life as an old tanker. With an initial donation of $135 000 to the Friendship Association, a local charity, the old ship was converted into a modern health clinic.
The difference with most conventional hospitals is that the Lifebuoy boat comes to its patients, not the other way around. The ratio of doctors to people in Bangladesh is 20 to every 100 000. And so for the thousands of poor Bangladeshis like Aklima who living in the country's flood-prone riverside regions, Lifebuoy's free treatment and medicine is often the only healthcare they receive.
"People of the area look forward eagerly to our arrival," says Dr Feroza Khatun, one of the hospital's attending physicians.
Essential services
The Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital's team of two doctors and four nurses provide everything from basic healthcare and immunisations through to minor surgery. To date, for example, they have helped over 4 700 people with essential dental services, such as root canal work and tooth extractions.
"We have mothers giving birth to babies in a sanitised environment. We have people relieved from deformities like cleft lip and clubfoot. We have people having their eyesight restored from cataracts," enthuses Unilever Bangladesh's Chairman and managing director, Sanjiv Mehta.
The floating hospital also fits neatly with our company's purpose, Sanjiv explains; namely, to meet everyday needs of people everywhere with branded products or services that raise the quality of life.
Improving hygiene
In developing countries like Bangladesh, Unilever is working hard to satisfy the needs of low-income consumers. A key issue of long-term importance for the company is to raise standards of hygiene for its consumer. It is able to do this in many countries through sales of Lifebuoy soap. The ready availability and use of soap is acknowledged to have an immediate impact in stopping the spread of germs and preventing disease.
The fact that the hospital ship is branded with the name and colours of Lifebuoy helps publicly reinforce the link between our products and our commitment to people's health. Leaflets offering advice on basic hygiene are also given out along with free samples of soap, ensuring that the health message is spread as far as possible.
Dental bus
Using the travelling clinic as a model, we recently launched a new initiative to raise awareness of the need for regular oral hygiene in Bangladesh. Sponsored by our Pepsodent toothpaste, the 'Dentibus' is a modified bus, complete with modern dental check-up facilities, that enables professional dentists to visit schools and neighbourhoods.
Visits of the Dentibus are announced in advance so that local residents can set aside time for a free check-up of their dental health. In addition to doing the check-up, the bus's dental surgeons also hand out booklets on oral hygiene. The visits to the schools are usually supported by various team games for the children so that health messages are delivered in a fun way.
Since 2004 the campaign has reached 320 000 people. As Pepsodent's Senior brand manager Shahed Mujahid concludes: "The Pepsodent Dentibus is helping to ensure that the future generation of Bangladesh can have bright, confident smiles."
