Founder & Executive Director, Friendship NGO
Coverage of Friendship’s floating hospital innovation serving Bangladesh’s char communities.
Read on Rolex Awards / Global Development PlatformsRuna Khan is a Bangladeshi humanitarian leader and founder of Friendship NGO, established in 2002 to serve climate-vulnerable and marginalised communities in Bangladesh’s riverine char regions.
She pioneered an integrated development model combining mobile healthcare, education, climate resilience, women’s economic empowerment, legal access, and cultural preservation under a unified operational ecosystem.
Friendship operates floating hospitals, solar-powered schools, disaster-response platforms, and community-owned enterprises in hard-to-reach areas.
Her systems-based humanitarian model is recognised internationally as a replicable framework for climate adaptation and dignity-based development.
Recognised by the Rolex Awards for pioneering floating hospitals serving isolated river communities.
Honoured by the Schwab Foundation (World Economic Forum platform) for scalable social innovation.
Selected as an Ashoka Fellow for system-changing humanitarian leadership.
Recognised by the Islamic Development Bank for impactful development leadership.
Appointed jury member for the international Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity focused on climate solutions.
International development organisation delivering integrated healthcare, education, disaster response, economic empowerment, legal services and climate adaptation programs in climate-vulnerable regions of Bangladesh and beyond.
Featured talks, interviews, and podcast appearances from Runa Khan.
Runa Khan is a Bangladeshi humanitarian leader and founder of Friendship NGO, established in 2002 to serve climate-vulnerable and marginalised communities in Bangladesh’s riverine char regions.
She pioneered an integrated development model combining mobile healthcare, education, climate resilience, women’s economic empowerment, legal access, and cultural preservation under a unified operational ecosystem.
Friendship operates floating hospitals, solar-powered schools, disaster-response platforms, and community-owned enterprises in hard-to-reach areas.
Her systems-based humanitarian model is recognised internationally as a replicable framework for climate adaptation and dignity-based development.
International development organisation delivering integrated healthcare, education, disaster response, economic empowerment, legal services and climate adaptation programs in climate-vulnerable regions of Bangladesh and beyond.
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