Noble laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus has expressed his keen interest in alleviating the sufferings of thalassemia in Bangladesh. The remark was made in a meeting with the delegates of Bangladesh Thalassemia Foundation (BTF) held on 21 July, 2009 at his office, Grameen Bank, Dhaka. There was an elaborate discussion on thalassemia. Dr. Md. Abdur Rahim, Secretary General, BTF briefly discussed the cause and suffering of the disease, treatment, cure and preventive measures. He also overviewed the thalassemia situation in Bangladesh. He mentioned that 7% of the  Bangladeshi population are thalassemia carriers which equals more than 10 million people and each year 7000 new babies born with thalassemia. Dr. Yunus was alarmed by the prevalence of the disease and expressed his deep concern about the lifelong suffering and expensive treatment of the disease.

The Thalassemia Welfare Center, established in 2002, seeks to promote the control of thalassemia through awareness-raising campaigns and to ensure the availability of appropriate treatment to patients with thalassemia in Chittagong, Bangladesh – two goals well served by a regional scientific conference on thalassemia and related disorders held in the city on 27 June 2007.

Thalassaemia International Federation (TIF) is offering a unique advanced MSc electronic (e)- learning course in Haemoglobinopathies together with University College London (UCL), beginning on the Academic Year of 2008.

This is a unique opportunity for health professionals from around the world to pursue a specialist qualification from a leading university, via distance learning. University College London (UCL), with a history and a contribution to education of more than 150 years, is part of the University of London.  A university with high academic standards and an excellent reputation in distance and electronic (e)-learning courses, all led by  internationally recognised experts and taught by distinguished faculties.

We have got a new computer as kind donation from Ashfaque Memorial Fund. Dr Syeda Masooma Rahman on behalf of The Fund handed over the computer at our office on May 22, 2007. With increased volume of correspondence and workload at our office we felt the need of a computer which is fulfilled with this donation. We are thankful to Dr Masooma for choosing us for the donation.

The Ashfaque Memorial Fund usually contributes in places where patients directly get the benefit. Their immediate past donation was a fine ophthalmoscope to the Unit 3 of Department of Medicine, Sir Salimullah Medical College, Dhaka. The fund was originally organized to support the bone marrow transplantation of Ashfaque Hossain, a bright medical student of 11th batch of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College, Barishal who had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

Art of Living, Bangladesh members donated blood for Thalassemia patients on May 13, 2007 to celebrate the 51^st birth anniversary of "Sri Sri Ravi Shankar", the spiritual leader and founder of the organization. The program was arranged in collaboration of the Safe Blood Transfusion Programme (SBTP), Ministry of Health, Bangladesh. The SBTP involved in such activity for the first time had expressed their will to support the thalassemia patient with safe blood component from their state of art National Reference Laboratory.

Rafi Hossin, the instructor of the Art of Living, who himself donated blood in the program stated that they will arrange such program on a regular basis and will encourage his students on voluntary blood donation.