Healthcare · Rehabilitation · Recovery
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Country briefings

Two countries. More than 5% of everyone alive.

Pakistan and Bangladesh together are home to more than 425 million people — roughly one in every twenty people on earth. Both are among the most densely settled nations anywhere, and both absorb disasters at a scale few countries face. Understanding the ground is what explains the gap in care, and why equipment placed here goes so far.

Pakistan Bangladesh Other geographies
Wide landscape — Swat valley or Gilgit-Baltistan mountains, showing terrain and remoteness
Mountain terrain in northern Pakistan — remoteness is the barrier to care
CDRS clinic exterior with patients waiting
Patients waiting at a CDRS free medical camp
Portrait — mother and child at MCHC Swat
Mother and child at the Mother & Child Health Center, Swat
Fifth most populous country on earth

Pakistan

252 million people · 340,509 sq mi · Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi and 70+ languages

Pakistan is larger than Texas. It spans glaciated 26,000-foot peaks in the north and coastal desert in the south, and 70% of its people live rurally — while only 22% of its physicians do. It has absorbed the 2005 earthquake that killed roughly 87,000 people, the 2010 floods, and the 2022 floods that affected 33 million people and left 6.4 million needing shelter. It also hosts one of the world's largest long-term refugee populations.

Population252 million
Land area vs. Texas1.27× Texas
~87,000
Lives lost in the 2005 earthquake that brought CDRS to Pakistan
33M
People affected by the 2022 floods alone
70% / 22%
Population that is rural vs. physicians who are
Wide — river delta, dense settlement or Dhaka street life showing density
Dense settlement in Bangladesh, home to the world’s largest refugee camp
Cox's Bazar refugee response, CDRS/OBAT deployment
Rohingya refugee health response at Cox’s Bazar, with OBAT Helpers
Portrait — patient or health worker, Bangladesh
Dispensing medicines at the Cox’s Bazar health centre
Eighth most populous country on earth

Bangladesh

173 million people · 57,320 sq mi · Bengali, one of the world's most-spoken languages

Bangladesh holds 173 million people in an area the size of Illinois — a low-lying river delta where monsoon, cyclone and flood are annual rather than exceptional. Cox's Bazar hosts roughly 900,000 Rohingya refugees in the largest refugee settlement in the world, on deforested hillsides that fail every monsoon.

Population173 million
Land area vs. Illinois0.99× Illinois
8th
Most populous country in the world
~900,000
Rohingya refugees at Cox's Bazar, the world's largest camp
3,000+
People per square mile — among the densest nations on earth
field or clinic image representing expansionCDRS field teams at a mobile medical camp community health settingA community health setting in the CDRS network partner facilityA CDRS partner facility
Expansion

Other targeted geographies

Under evaluation across South Asia, Southeast Asia and the regions CDRS has previously served

Pakistan and Bangladesh are where our facilities, partnerships and logistics are deepest — but they are not the limit of the need. CDRS has delivered medical missions and equipment across three continents, and several additional geographies are under active evaluation for rehabilitation equipment placement.

We name a country publicly only once three conditions are met: a documented rehabilitation shortfall, an accountable local clinical partner, and the logistics capacity to receive, install and maintain donated equipment. Partners and health ministries interested in an eligibility assessment are welcome to contact us.

7
Countries where CDRS has already delivered medical missions
3
Continents reached since 2005
3
Conditions required before a new country is announced
What this means for care

Vast populations, thin health systems, and almost no rehabilitation.

Scale and geography are why the rehabilitation gap in these countries is among the widest anywhere — and why a single donated therapeutic unit can serve a queue that never shortens.

See the rehabilitation program
Patient in recovery or physiotherapy — the human close to the data
A patient in recovery at a CDRS facility
Data sources
  1. Pakistan 2023 Census; World Bank population and land area data.
  2. UNHCR — 2022 Pakistan monsoon floods, 33 million people affected, 6.4 million needing shelter.
  3. UN and humanitarian sector reporting — Rohingya refugee population, Cox’s Bazar.
  4. A Commentary on Telerehabilitation Services in Pakistan (2017) — rural population and physician distribution.
  5. World Bank / WHO Global Health Observatory — health system indicators.