The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The French government will donate 948.000 Euros, equivalent to over Tk 9 crore, to three NGOs working in the country to support the post-flood food and rehabilitation programmes. The grant will be provided through the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, said a French embassy handout. French NGO Friendship, working in health care in the remote char areas through a floating hospital, will be awarded two separate grants. Some 500,000 Euros under the food aid programme while 312,000 Euros under the rehabilitation aid programme.

Friendship will thus provide houseing, water and sanitation to some 1,300 families in seven districts along the rivers Jamuna and Brahmaputra and will also distribute food among 1.8 million char people.

Another French NGO, Handicap International, which started operation in Bangladesh in 1997 to support and help disabled and vulnerable groups, is will receive 67.000 Euros to help people affected by floods in the northern Gaibandha region.

Besides a third French NGO, Action Against Hunger, which has just stepped into Bangladesh to work on food security, water sanitation and hygiene promotion, will get a grant of 79,000 Euros from the Humanitarian Action Wing of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.