Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury (1941–2023) was a visionary Bangladeshi public health activist and visionary of Gonoshasthaya Kendra and Gonoshasthya Samaj Vittik Medical College (GSVMC). Established in 1998, GSVMC aimed to provide affordable, quality education in health sciences. Rural people’s access to medical care through Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK, The People’s Health Centre). The centre, which was established in 1972 by Chowdhury and his colleagues, has emphasised independent, self-reliant and people-oriented development since its inception. GK has initiated many innovations. It became the first place outside China to train paramedics seriously. About 160 paramedics now cover a population of 180,000 from the GK centre and ten sub-centres that have been established around the country. They are trained in preventive medicine of all kinds and simple curative medicine. GK also operates a health insurance scheme based on people’s ability to pay. Thanks to GK’s dedicated work, infant and maternal mortality rates in their operational area have fallen to about half of Bangladesh’s national average. GK has also steadily expanded the scope of its work into additional important areas that affect the lives of the majority of rural-based Bangladeshis: education, nutrition, agriculture, employment generation, the production of basic medicines and women’s emancipation.