Olav Hodne

Olav Hodne (June 16, 1921 – October 29, 2009) was a Norwegian humanitarian and missionary, affiliated with the Norwegian Santal Mission. In 1972, he became the founder and director of initially the Cooch Behar Refugee Service extended to support refugees from East Pakistan during the war of Liberation. Following the war, Olav Hodne was the founder of RDRS, an organization created in order to give aid to the rural poor in northern - initially Rangpur Dinapur Relief Service which accompanied the returning refugees to backward northwest Bangladesh in the Rangpur-Dinajpur region. This evolved into a rehabilitation, then a large and progressive development programme RDRS Bangladesh, Bangladesh. He was also instrumental in founding the Lutheran World Federation programmes in India (1974).

He was awarded the Wittenberg Award in 2005 by the Luther Institute for his outstanding service to church and society.^[1] He was the grandfather of Joshua French.

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