Zafrullah Chowdhury
(1941-)

Bangladeshi Public Health Advocate
1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award
1992 Right Livelihood Award Winner

birthdate: December 27
birthplace:
Quepara, East Bengal, India (now Bangladesh)

Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury is a Bangladeshi public health activist who is widely regarded as the "Father of Bangladesh's National Drug Policy," which in 1982 created a strategy to make health care affordable by locally manufacturing essential lifesaving drugs. In 1972 he co-founded Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK), which in Bengali means "the People's Health Center." Today GK is a community development program that includes many different activities, from training health workers to provide health care in rural Bangladesh, to hospitals, generic drug factory, universities, agricultural cooperatives, community schools and vocational training centers. Dr. Chowdhury has received numerous awards for his humanitarian work, including the Swedish Youth Peace Prize in 1974, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1985, the Right Livelihood Award (often referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1992, and the 1997 Independence Day Award, the highest honor in Bangladesh.

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