SAPAN News Renowned physician, freedom fighter and founder of Bangladesh’s first health centre Gonoshasthaya Kendra Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, breathed his last on April 11, age 82. His selflessness and dedication to public service leave a rich legacy and a profound effect on millions across the world whose lives he touched.
“At a time when narcissistic leaders spew hatred across the airwaves, where blind cult following is the norm, where money and muscle triumph over wisdom and generosity, where ‘Me’ always comes before ‘We’, Dr Zafrullah was an exception,” writes acclaimed photo-journalist Shahidul Alam in an obituary.
In 1971, during Bangladesh’s war of liberation, Dr Zafrullah abandoned a coveted fellowship in London and returned to his home country, where he and a friend set up a field hospital that saved countless lives.
After Bangladesh’s independence, he set up the charitable trust Gonoshasthaya Kendra, one of the country’s oldest non-governmental, non-profit, and national-level organisations, named by the founding president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Dr Zafrullah’s many contributions include the introduction of the Bangladesh Drug Policy, which led to the production of cheap generic drugs in Bangladesh.
“Opinionated, sometimes obstinate, occasionally cantankerous, he was jovial regardless and never disrespectful, even of people he had profound disagreements with,” writes Alam.
Dr Zafrullah sometimes took controversial political positions and was a staunch defender of women’s rights.
Despite suffering from kidney complications that eventually took his life, Dr Zafrullah did not back down, heading to protests, talk shows, or press conferences directly from the hospital bed. And when he could no longer walk freely, he still led the rallies from his wheelchair.
Among the causes he supported was Southasia peace and cooperation, participating in two online discussions on public health as a basic human right in 2021 with Southasia Peace Action Network, or Sapan. During the first discussion with Sapan volunteers, participants realised later that he had joined from his hospital bed during a dialysis treatment.
Read more at A giant who walked amongst us by Shahidul Alam in New Age, 13 April 2023
Renowned physician, freedom fighter and founder of Bangladesh’s first health centre Gonoshasthaya Kendra Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, breathed his last on April 11, age 82. His selflessness and dedication to public service leave a rich legacy and a profound effect on millions across the world whose lives he touched.
“At a time when narcissistic leaders spew hatred across the airwaves, where blind cult following is the norm, where money and muscle triumph over wisdom and generosity, where ‘Me’ always comes before ‘We’, Dr Zafrullah was an exception,” writes acclaimed photo-journalist Shahidul Alam in an obituary.
In 1971, during Bangladesh’s war of liberation, Dr Zafrullah abandoned a coveted fellowship in London and returned to his home country, where he and a friend set up a field hospital that saved countless lives.
After Bangladesh’s independence, he set up the charitable trust Gonoshasthaya Kendra, one of the country’s oldest non-governmental, non-profit, and national-level organisations, named by the founding president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Dr Zafrullah’s many contributions include the introduction of the Bangladesh Drug Policy, which led to the production of cheap generic drugs in Bangladesh.
“Opinionated, sometimes obstinate, occasionally cantankerous, he was jovial regardless and never disrespectful, even of people he had profound disagreements with,” writes Alam.
Dr Zafrullah sometimes took controversial political positions and was a staunch defender of women’s rights.
Despite suffering from kidney complications that eventually took his life, Dr Zafrullah did not back down, heading to protests, talk shows, or press conferences directly from the hospital bed. And when he could no longer walk freely, he still led the rallies from his wheelchair.
Among the causes he supported was Southasia peace and cooperation, participating in two online discussions on public health as a basic human right in 2021 with Southasia Peace Action Network, or Sapan. During the first discussion with Sapan volunteers, participants realised later that he had joined from his hospital bed during a dialysis treatment.
Read more at A giant who walked amongst us by Shahidul Alam in New Age, 13 April 2023
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