Mission
The Hope Foundation’s mission is to provide lifesaving essential healthcare services to women and children in the rural areas of Bangladesh as well as to assist refugees. The foundation aims to serve anyone in need by setting up healthcare facilities such as hospitals and clinics that provide affordable healthcare to those in need and by providing emergency medical transportation.
The Hope Foundation operates in Bangladesh with a special focus on rural areas such as Ramu Upazila, Cox’s Bazar District where help is greatly needed.
Supported Causes
The Hope Foundation supports maternal and child health, family planning, rural healthcare, access and right to healthcare, humanitarian responses, fistula repair and cleft surgery.
The foundation funds projects that assist those who would otherwise suffer the consequences of poor healthcare. Projects fall under one or more of the following areas:
- Obstetric fistula
- Midwifery and nursing training
- Burn and cleft palate
- HOPE Hospital
- HOPE Field Hospital for Women
- Rural mothers clubs
- HOPE birthing centers
- Rural medical centers
- HOPE Maternity and Fistula Center
Projects
Some of the projects that have recently received funding from the Hope Foundation are:
- Give the Gift of Sight to Children in Bangladesh – A project that provides cataract surgeries to children with the hope of preventing blindness.
- Cleft Surgery for Poor Children in Bangladesh – A project that involved cleft surgeries performed on children in Bangladesh.
- Train Women to Become Birth Attendants – By training local women to become home birth attendants, the lives of women giving birth in rural villages can be saved.
- Rickets Treatment for Children in Bangladesh – This project tackles the severe vitamin D deficiency in children that causes rickets. The project teaches prevention measures, provides supplements, and helps with corrective surgery in advanced cases.
- Cervical Cancer Project in Rural Bangladesh – This project involves cervical cancer screening for individuals in rural communities in Bangladesh.
In addition to these successfully funded projects, the foundation is currently raising funds for projects that include:
- Healthcare services to Rohingya refugees
- Help for children suffering from severe burns
- Providing safe delivery for mothers in rural areas
- Supporting HOPE’s Mother’s Clubs in Bangladesh
- HOPE emergency response team
The Foundation's History
The Hope Foundation was established in 1999 by Dr. Iftikher Mahmood, a Bangladeshi/American pediatrician. Dr Mahmood felt that there was unnecessary suffering endured in Bangladesh, particularly by the impoverished and by mothers and children. The child and infant mortality rate in Bangladesh is particularly high and he wanted to change this with several projects such as Hope medical centers and ambulance services. In the beginning of 2017, nearly a million refugees arrived in Cox’s Bazar, and the Hope Foundation began to respond to the needs of those who have suffered oppression in Myanmar. The foundation established the Hope Field Hospital for Women, which continues to remain one of the few inpatient facilities in the refugee camps. More than 300 patients are treated in the camps every day.