Final stop in Patharghata; “it will be quite a while before the people are back to their normal lives”

BRAC executives Aminul Alam, Shabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, Safiqul Islam and Mushtaque Chowdhury took a four-day trip to various cyclone-affected areas 17 days after the storm. Below they recount the details of their journey. Their final stop was Patharghata, where they visited Char Padma, a fisherman's village shattered by the cyclone.

“On Monday, December 4^th we decided to visit one of the worst affected villages. With our local staff we started for village Char Padma at 7 am. It is a village similar to the one we visited in Shoronkhola. Located on the bank of a big river, most of its inhabitants live on fishing. The devastations and losses were colossal. They told us how they saved some of their near and dear ones by putting them on the branch of a large tree! We tried to assess some of their other losses. The women we found were quite enterprising. One of the women owned eight cows, several goats and chicken but the tidal surge took away most of her assets. We checked the possibility of providing them with larger enterprise loans for procuring fishing boats and nets. They did not want grants but loans to start their lives again. We decided to do a survey of people who would benefit from such loans and instructed our staff to start processing the loans. We decided to provide a one-time grant of Tk 1000 to each family in the five worst affected villages of Shoronkhola and Patharghata including Rayendha and Char Padma.

Coordination in the health sector was also found to be very good in Patharghata. There are 865 ponds in the Upazila (surveyed by BRAC) and the Upazila Health and Family planning Officer decided to clean two in each of the 66 villages by utilizing the services of BRAC and other NGOs. We also noticed the good work that a local NGO named Shankalpa was doing. This NGO was given the responsibility to clean the ponds of Char Padma. While they cleaned one many others needed cleanup. We asked our staff in Patharghata to speak to the NGO if they would let BRAC work with them to clean the remaining ones. They readily agreed.

Patharghata has 130 Shebikas. The houses of 54 of them have completely been destroyed and 27 partially destroyed. We have to decide how we compensate the losses of our volunteers.

We also met the Upazila Agriculture Officer who briefed us on the agriculture and its potentials in his upazila. He informed us that Boro was not much popular. In unions where it is done, the people plant it too late to make it any profitable crop (‘they become Aush!’). He said he heard of a particular variety of rice which is planted in salinity-prone land but did not know much about it. He also mentioned the crops which are grown locally during the rabi season such as potato, chillies, maize etc. and suggested using powertiller.

Finally we started for Dhaka with a mixed feeling. We were really moved by the gravity of the situation but energized by the efforts being made by BRAC (and others) to mitigate the sufferings. It will be quite a while before the people are back to their normal lives.”

BRAC coordinates rehabilitation programs as relief work continues

BRAC executives Aminul Alam, Shabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, Safiqul Islam and Mushtaque Chowdhury took a four-day trip to various cyclone-affected areas 17 days after the storm. Below they recount the details of their journey. At Barisal, they met with local BRAC coordinators to review the relief effort and begin coordinating work on rehabilitation programs:

“We reached Barisal just after 6 pm and immediately sat with BRAC local coordinators responsible for the cyclone work. They came from all 11 affected districts. We discussed at length the provision of relief. The meeting was unanimous that the relief work was progressing satisfactorily and that there may not be a need for pure relief beyond a certain period[1]. We decided to suspend the food relief after the present stocks and allocations were exhausted. The staff would keep a watchful eye on the food situation and BRAC would respond immediately with new food packets if there were any report of acute food shortage from any village. In this BRAC staff would liaise with local administration including the Army. Then the discussion turned to immediate rehabilitation needs and views of BRAC staff resonated well with what the villagers of Rayendha had told us early in the day. We decided to immediately initiate cash for work programme in each area and sanctioned an initial amount of Tk. 10,000 (USD$143) per branch [2]. This money would be used in schemes such as repairing feeder roads, repairing houses, cleaning ponds, and any other local needs. This will be available to provide employment only to women. We also decided to sanction larger enterprise loans for building fishing boats and nets to genuine fishers who lost their implements. In agriculture, we would provide assistance post-Aman through free seeds for crops which are grown locally in the rabi season such as potato, maize, watermelons, peanuts, and vegetables. Loans for livestock and chicken would also be considered.

We agreed that the pace of cleaning the ponds was too slow and decided to expedite the process. In health, we decided to provide the ANC services free (we charge Tk 10 (USD$2) now). Moreover, pregnant women would be provided with a food ration (30 kg of wheat/rice for at least for a month with possibilities of further continuation with WFP support or VGF), and supply of vitamins and calcium (BRAC provides Iron-Folic tablets already as part of the ANC). BRAC would also explore with Unicef the possibility of getting milk for children 6 months to 2 years of age. Like other members of BRAC VOs, Shasthaya Shebikas also suffered hugely. Among the 301 BRAC VO members who lost their lives, two were Shebikas. All the dead BRAC members’ families have already received Tk. 5000 (USD$71) as life insurance money. In recognition of their services, we decided to give an additional amount to the families of the two Shebikas. The family of the one who served for 10 years would be given Tk. 10,000 (USD$143) and the other who served for one year would be given Tk. 5000 (USD$71). A quick survey would determine the other losses incurred by them in terms of loss of medicines and bags, and appropriate compensation would be ensured.

The loss to educational facilities was reported to be quite substantial. Over 1500[3] BRAC schools alone have either been destroyed or damaged. Many students lost their books, stationeries and clothes. While the damage to primary schools would likely to be taken care of by the government who own two-thirds of the schools in the country, the secondary schools being almost fully run privately will face problems of rehabilitation. BRAC would survey the losses and develop appropriate packages for the BRAC schools and students.”

---

[1] By Dec 10, 184,699 families received the food ration. 200,225 pieces of clothes, 2,453 blankets, and 20,012 litres of milk for children had also been distributed.

[2] By Dec 10, over $30,000 in USD had been given out for cash for work programs.

[3] In fact the number of schools affected in directly hit areas are just over 1000. The rests are from other districts located on the path of the cyclone as it moved northward and crossed the Bangladesh border through greater Sylhet. Interestingly, the cyclone also affected other districts but not much on the damage is available from those areas.

The cyclone’s effect on the village of Rayendha; loss of lives, houses, boats, and nets

BRAC executives Aminul Alam, Shabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, Safiqul Islam and Mushtaque Chowdhury took a four-day trip to various cyclone-affected areas 17 days after the storm. Below they recount the details of their journey. At this stage of the trip they are at Rayendha, a fisherman village hit heavily by the cyclone:

“In Rayendha village we sat down with a group of men and women. It is situated on the bank of a big river and the tidal surge of up to 20 ft high hit this village first. Most of the villagers are fishers who depend on the sea for their livelihood. They told us of their harrowing tales of death and survival. There is no family in Rayendha where not a single death occurred. Many lost all but one. Like the previous cyclones the most victims were women and children. Most lost all their implements: boats and nets. The loss of other assets such as livestock and chicken was uncountable. They all live almost under open skies with a makeshift jhupri made with polythene and tree leaves. We asked what their immediate needs were. Food was not an immediate concern as many had good supplies for a few days, received as relief from many agencies. There was a remarkable divide between men and women. Women’s immediate need is a shelter and men’s the implements to start the economic life again. A modest house would cost around Tk 10,000 and a pair of boat and net could cost up to Tk. 150,000. They look to the government or NGOs to provide them loans for these. We found several of the members of BRAC village organization (microfinance group) and all seemed grateful to the organization for looking after them in this hour of great distress.

We also met several young girls who were returning from their school which opened for the first time since the cyclone. They told us that one of the girl students of the school died in the disaster. We have the information that several students of BRAC schools run by other NGOs have also perished.

We also saw a few cyclone shelters on our way. Many of these were being used to distribute relief. These shelters have enormous contribution in saving lives. It was found for the 1991 cyclone that if there were no such shelters 20% more deaths would have occurred. As most previous cyclones hit the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar belt, most of the shelters were built in that area. Obviously the government and NGOs need to build more shelters in the Southwestern part of the country now. We did not see any shelter near the bank of the river where most deaths occurred.”

BRAC relief work in Shoronkhola; a BRAC branch office manager recounts his story

BRAC executives Aminul Alam, Shabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, Safiqul Islam and Mushtaque Chowdhury took a four-day trip to various cyclone-affected areas 17 days after the storm. Below they recount the details of their journey. At Shoronkhola, they spoke to the local manager of a BRAC branch office and then set out to Rayendha:

“Mostafa, the local manager in the BRAC branch office in Tafalbari and six of his colleagues began distributing the BRAC relief package (10 kg of rice, 2kg of dal, 2 kg of potato, 250 ml of edible oil, 2 packets of biscuit and a pack of matches) on Sunday, November 18th. As they found problems in procuring potato and some other materials locally they sought advice from Dhaka. Afterwards, the package was reduced to 10 kg of rice, one kg of dal and 2 packets of biscuits plus Tk 200 in cash. This cash was found to be very helpful as the people could use this money according to their own need which varied from family to family. We saw a few hundreds of packets stacked in one of the rooms. This could not be distributed as the local bank could not provide the cash that needed to be included with the food pack. We asked the manager to distribute the packets immediately and to distribute the money later when the cash would be available.

In order to avoid chaos in distribution, our staff initially did a survey of households needing the relief most and left with them a chit of paper. The following day relief packs were distributed from a central place in the village upon production of the chit. The relief also started arriving from Khulna on Friday afternoon. Mofiz, our regional manager contacted Shabbir bhai (Director Microfinance) by mobile phone (he went a great distance to get the network as mobile phones remained out of service for most of the affected areas) who advised him to move to Shoronkhola with relief. He set out with 3 tons of chira and gur on a truck but could go only up to Morelganj as falling trees blocked the road. He then hired a trawler and brought the relief to Shoronkhola.

Mostafa told us that two of the villages were most devastated. We decided to go to the one which could be reached within half an hour. It was Rayendha, on the bank of the river Boleshwar. On our way we saw Muslim Aid workers distributing jerry cans full of drinking water. We also saw a few temporary treatment plants set up to supply clean water. BRAC cleaned several ponds of debris and treated those with chuna (limestone). The users were then provided with either water purifying tablets or Siraj Mixture (a local cheaper version of the tablet developed at ICDDR,B and named after the scientist who discovered it). We met members of Army Medical Corps who were providing services from a tent. The soldier in charge told us that the health situation was remarkably under control. The 13 medical teams dispatched by BRAC on Sunday November 18 also corroborated this. In other villages we saw people bringing pitchers of drinking water on top of their heads from far places. It was clear that the awareness campaigns done in the country by the government and NGOs including BRAC had paid off! Proving all predictions and fears false, there was no epidemic of diarrhea even in areas where the most water sources such as ponds were contaminated with debris of trees and carcasses.”

BRAC executives journey to Shoronkola: “the cyclone has united the country”

BRAC executives Aminul Alam, Shabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, Safiqul Islam and Mushtaque Chowdhury took a four-day trip to various cyclone-affected areas 17 days after the storm. Below they recount the details of their journey as they arrive at Shoronkhola:

“As we passed Morrelganj and started approaching Shoronkhola we started seeing more movements of vehicles carrying relief workers and materials. There were groups of large crowds in several places collecting or waiting for relief. CARE, Save the Children, Muslim Aid, Red Crescent, and Bangladesh-German Friendship Association were all active in Shoronkhola. There were other groups as well including individuals who came in cars and rickshaw vans from far off places such as Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet with relief. The cyclone seemed to have united the country to a great extent. BRAC made an informal appeal for donation of clothes, cash and other materials. The response has been unbelievable. Thousands of pieces of clothes were donated. We were moved by the donation that came from the inhabitants of Korail slum located in front of BRAC Centre.

The Army was seen disciplining the crowds in places. We went directly to Tafalbari bazaar in Southkhali union of Shoronkhola. We walked a little distance when we saw a ‘pond sand filter’ on the bank of a pond close to Tafalbari bazaar. The sign showed that it was cleared of the debris by Grameen Bank. When asked about the early relief efforts, an old man reported to us that BRAC was the first to provide relief on the morning of the 16^th, followed by Grameen. Later we spoke to our colleagues in Tafalbari who narrated their experiences. BRAC has a branch office in Tafalbari. Mostafa, the local manager told us that in the early evening of the cyclone night, he and his six colleagues took refuge in the BRAC office in Shoronkhola, about 10 km away. The following morning, apprehending the devastation in the Tafalbari area, they collected 11 sacks of chira (pressed rice) and some gur (local molasses) and tried to return to Tafalbari. But it was an impossible journey as the trees had fallen on the road and blocked it. They then walked to Tafalbari only to see the devastation. They counted 27 dead bodies in the bazaar itself. Some of the staff delved into rescue operations, while others distributed the chira and gur to people who took refuge in the local cyclone shelter.”

From Bagerhat to Shoronkhola; BRAC executives recount stories of trip to cyclone-affected areas

BRAC executives Aminul Alam, Shabbir Ahmed Chowdhury, Safiqul Islam and Mushtaque Chowdhury took a four-day trip to various cyclone-affected areas 17 days after the storm. Below they recount what they saw during their travels from Begerhat to Shoronkhola:

“At Bagerhat, we stayed at BRAC’s Prawn Hatchery where the local staff described to us their experiences of the night when the cyclone hit. Part of the roof of one of the hatchery structures was blown away and many trees fell. Bagerhat is about 60 km from Shoronkhola and we started wondering what was waiting for us there.

As the dawn set, we wandered outside but nothing that unusual was observed as the hatchery staff had cleared the premises of fallen trees. We set out for Shoronkhola at 7 am. As our car sped off we saw thousands of fallen trees on both sides of the road. Those that had survived the onslaught had their branches broken and leaves stripped off. We saw paddy fields with the Aman variety, the major rice crop. They were to be harvested in a few weeks time but the storm left a large portion of them destroyed. Agricultural experts believe between 30-60% of the Aman crop in the cyclone affected areas have been demolished. The fields that could feed hundreds of thousands of mouths lay in ruin!

Unlike the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar belt which was hit by most of the previous cyclones, the people in the current cyclone affected areas are poorer and this was quite evident from the type of housing we saw. There were only a few concrete structures. Corrugated roof was also not to be seen in many. As a result the houses collapsed at the first onslaught. It did not take long for us to discover that housing was going to be one important area needing immediate rehabilitation.

The near absence of corrugated roof was a blessing in disguise. We have seen in the past how such materials cause injury to people, as they did in the tornado that destroyed several villages of Saturia upazila in the 1990s. Our medical teams and those of others working in the ‘Sidr’ affected areas did not find many with serious cut injuries.”

BRAC USA PRESIDENT VISITS BANGLADESH;REHABILITATION PLANS UNDERWAY

BRAC USA President & CEO, Susan Davis, arrived in Dhaka on Saturday December 8th and has held extensive discussions with BRAC senior staff and leadership about the extent of the cyclone damage and strategies for recovery. Multiple assessments by senior staff have been carried out. Progress is reported by the medical teams working in the area. It seems the worst predictions have not materialized and water bourne diseases have been kept at bay. BRAC staff expressed their appreciation for the many contributions, commitments or indications of likely support to cover its initial relief program and is now seeking support for an $18 million rehabiliation program.

Dr. Mahabub Hossain, BRAC Executive Director, and Uttam Deb, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue, held a press briefing today, Monday December 10th in Dhaka on issues for post-SIDR agricultural rehabilitation after consulting with farmers in the affected areas. Their main conclusion is that farmers have their own plans of how best to restore their livelihoods and intensify agricultural production during the incoming dry winter season. They need seasonal crop loans and assistance for the supply of critical inputs such as quality seeds and tillage and irrigation services, and timely availability of fertilizer to effectively implement their plans.

BRAC Continues Freeze on Loan Repayments through April 2008 for Cyclone-Affected Members

BRAC announced today that it is halting the loan repayments of its Village Organization members who are microfinance borrowers in the cyclone-affected region through April 2008. As soon as the cyclone hit, BRAC froze its microfinance program and began relief operations. Its staff then conducted a detailed damage and needs assessment of the area and all its members. Based on a comprehensive survey and dialogue with Government and other providers of microfinace, BRAC is freezing repayments for several hundred thousand women members.

Germany Donates Over 110 Tons of Baby and Children's Food

A press conference was held in Germany on Wednesday with the Bangladesh Ambassador and volunteers led by Frank Franke who announced that they had collected over 110 metric tons of children's and baby food to donate to cyclone survivors in Bangladesh. Because of BRAC's excellent reputation and track record, they are sending the food to BRAC to distribute to the most needy children and infacts in the cyclone-affected areas.

BRAC distributes 1900 Tons of Food to almost 1 Million People

Since the cyclone hit Bangladesh, BRAC staff report distributing some 1900 metric tons of food items to 182,099 families. Given that most families in Bangladesh average at least 5 people per household, this food is supporting at least 910,495 people. In addition, BRAC is distributing high energy biscuits to 112,000 children in the cyclone-affected areas.

The Government of Bangladesh's latest estimate is that 8.4 million people are impacted by the cyclone, over half of them children. Reliefweb International provides information on how the Government, UN agencies, International and national NGOs are coordinating the relief efforts and ensuring that aid reaches those who need it most in the most efficient way. BRAC is participating in local and national daily coordination meetings. Given its network, it specializes in tetting relief to hard-to-reach, remote villages.