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ACT Dateline Bangladesh 05/07 Bangladesh: ACT members continue Cyclone Sidr emergency response By Anna Jonasson/ACT International and Samuel Larsson/ACT International Special Note: As members of the global alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, continue to provide emergency assistance to families, people most affected by Cyclone Sidr continue to count the loss and look toward rebuilding their communities. ACT members currently present in Bangladesh, including Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), Church of Bangladesh (CoB), KOINONIA – National Christian Fellowship of Bangladesh, Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh (LHCB), Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), Social Health and Education Development Board (SHED Board), Christian Aid (CA), Church of Sweden (CoS), DanChurchAid (DCA), Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS) are all responding throughout the region and impacting tens of thousands of people affected by the cyclone.
As a member of the Sadar Union Council, Ms. Aktar arrived at the local fire station in Morelgonj to assist with an emergency distribution by ACT member, Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB). The work is well organized and she seems relaxed, even though there are many people hanging over the iron-gate in the hot sun, anxious to receive assistance to share with their families.
Emergency assistance for affected communities “Many fish have fled to the sea, which means the people working in the [fish] ponds no longer have any jobs,” says Ms. Aktar. As a single woman, Ms. Aktar lives with her parents. Like most people in the area, they were severely affected by the cyclone. “Trees fell down on our home so now we are living without a roof,” adds Ms. Aktar. “I hope we will be able to build a new roof soon, because there are many mosquitoes at night and it is also getting colder.” The family also lost a chicken and a cow after the animals drank contaminated water, caused by floods that followed the cyclone. Ms. Aktar receives a monthly salary of 350 taka (around USD $5.20) for her work at the Union Council. However, this is not enough to cover her family’s living expenses and they are financially dependent on her brother, who works as a bicycle mechanic. He too has had a hard time finding work after the cyclone. “People don’t choose to repair bikes when they need to repair something as basic as their houses,” explains Ms. Aktar. When the distribution in Sadar Union is over, Ms. Aktar also receives a relief package for her family, containing rice and some cash that is estimated to last for fifteen days. Close to 16,000 families have been assisted by CCDB’s emergency relief program. Counting the loss Mrs. Mizanurrahman lives in the village of Gabtala in the district of Morelgonj. Together with her daughter and husband along with close to 400 other people in the surrounding villages, they managed to escape to a nearby cyclone shelter at a school. However, Mrs. Mizanurrahman’s mother-in-law, Haliana, couldn’t be saved. “The water was rising, and I told my family to go to the shelter while I was staying in the house to look after it. On their way there, a five meters high tidal wave came and swept her away,” says Swakat Ali Talukdar, the husband of Haliana. “We found her body the next day, and the government gave us some money to bury her.” Mr. Ali Talukdar, an elderly man whose grief is evident in his eyes, says that he mourns his wife. “I had nothing to say and everybody was crying,” says Ms. Mizanurrahman. She points to a colourful sari hanging on a clothesline. “That was Haliana’s favourite sari that she was wearing when she died.” In addition to the tragic loss of a family member, the family has also lost their entire house and all their belongings. The only thing that remains of the house is a pile of broken wood, which they are now using as fuel. Since the cyclone, they have been camping among the trees with no protection over their heads. They have used wooden sheet with some plastic and textiles to protect themselves from the wind. Mohammad, Mrs. Mizanurrahman’s husband, who used to run a small fish hatchery, believes it will take six months to build a new house. “The fish were washed away in the cyclone, so now I am without work,” he says. “We still haven’t made any decisions about what to do in the future, but I will have to cut down some trees to start building a new house soon.” The village of Gabtala rests on a char and stretches from the road out towards a wide river. The narrow area of land is bordered on both sides by fishponds, which were destroyed by the cyclone. The village is left with the burden of work of clearing the ponds of broken wood, before they can return to their former livelihoods. As ACT members start to shift to rehabilitation assistance for communities affected by the storm, the village of Gabtala is planned for projects by CCDB, aimed at assisting close to 100,000 people. “In a couple of weeks we expect to provide the residents here with food, clothing and support to rebuild damaged homes. We also plan to offer job opportunities within a project aimed at cleaning up the ponds,” says Harold Sougato Baroi, a CCDB planning officer.
Partnering with communities While the death toll in Morulgonj was 11 people, minimized through early warning systems, more than 20,000 people are affected in some way. Close to 10,000 people lost everything. A total of 2,300 families in Morulgonj received emergency assistance from CCDB, which included food items and a small cash grant, estimated to last for 15 days. The people gathered outside the wall surrounding the fire station seem full of expectations and the local community leaders, who are in charge of the actual distribution, welcomed the assistance. “CCDB is new to us in this area, but we are quite impressed of their work,” says Mr. Shahabuddin, while adding, “We need more help.” He shared the additional needs of water pumps, safe drinking water and shelter. Sarjaman Bibi is one of many people waiting for the distribution to start. She started to cry as she described the night of November 15. The storm took her house, standing crops and all her cattle. She now lives with her seven person family under a plastic sheet just off a main road. “I’m glad that my family is alive and that we no longer have to borrow food from relatives to survive,” says Ms. Bibi. Due to some administrative problems the distribution for the day in Morulgonj started a little late, but people are patient, and wait to be called, one by one, by the local firefighters who are managing the assistance. As the day passes, the huge pile of white sacks of rice and other food items slowly diminish, and along the roads in the Morulgonj area, people return home to their families with food secured for another two weeks.
(ends) Action by Churches Together (ACT) International is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide. Anna Jonasson and Samuel Larsson are on assignment in Bangladesh on behalf of the ACT alliance with the support of ACT member, Church of Sweden (CoS).
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