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Vidéo AFP TV du 2 mars 2008

Yves Marre et sa péniche hôpital dans le Delta du Gange

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Stewart, aventurier, inventeur, et pilote.

Après avoir traversé l'Atlantique en péniche, Yves Marre s'est lancé un autre pari il y a dix ans: transformer une veille péniche en bateau hôpital pour soigner les habitants du Delta du Gange au Bangladesh.

Il s'est lancé depuis dans un vaste projet de rénovation des bateaux traditionnels bengalais.

Un parcours atypique qui lui a valu de recevoir les Trophées du Sénat récompensant les Français de l'étranger.

Reportage au Bangladesh et à Paris.

Durée: 3mn12

Vidéo Reuters du 24 février 2008

French explorer attempts to save the traditional boat building skills of Bangladesh with the help of his Bangladeshi wife.

Frenchman Yves Marre first sailed from his homeland to Bangladesh on a barge in 1994.

Marre subsequently turned the barge into a floating hospital, providing much needed medical care to poor villagers.

But that was not the end of the river for Marre.

During his trip, Marre developed an interest in the traditional boats of Bangladesh with their distinctive design and size.

Many on the boats were becoming less popular as a way of travelling due to the growing fleet of ferries on the rivers of Bangladesh.

In an attempt to preserve the tradition, Marres decided to build a boat museum at Savar in Bangladesh with his Bangladeshi wife Runa.

Their dream to build a boat museum became a reality after a piece of land was donated by a local industrialist on the banks of the Bongshi river, about 20 km north from capital Dhaka. Craftsmen and carpenters are hard at work restoring and repairing the antique boat which they hope will attract people from all over the world to the impoverished nation.

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