JULY 26, 2004

The Hunger Project-Bangladesh responds to worst flooding in 15 years

Bangladesh has been hit by devastating floods, affecting 41 of the nation’s 64 districts.

The Hunger Project’s 42,000 trained animators are taking action to mobilize and support the people of affected towns and villages to protect their families from water-borne disease and treat it when it occurs, obtain emergency food and water supplies, and rebuild homes that have been destroyed. Extra emergency funds have been sent from The Hunger Project Global Office to support animators in getting access to water purification tablets and oral rehydration supplies.

Last week, Hunger Project vice president and Bangladesh country director Prof. Badiul Majumdar wrote Joan Holmes about the disaster. In her reply, she said, “At this critical time, I am so thankful for you and for the leadership you have developed across the nation. I can only imagine what the animators are calling upon themselves to do in this crisis… All of us here will keep you and the courageous people of Bangladesh in our thoughts and prayers.”

Badiul reports that in recent months, people have been very pessimistic about the extreme political polarization in the country – this resignation has resulted in a lack of sense of urgency in meeting the crisis. Badiul has issued a “Call to Action” to major newspapers in Bangladesh which says:

NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!

Across our nations, crores* of our people are heroically battling the worst flooding in many years. By available estimates, at least two crore people in 41 districts are fighting for their survival. Poor are the hardest hit. At least 272 individuals already died. The already miserable condition is expected to be worsened and long-lasting.

Our Constitution calls for right to life for every citizen. Right to life means right to survive, right to dignity and all that goes along with it. The government must meet its constitutional obligations. Citizens must perform their moral and ethical responsibilities.

Throughout our brief independent history, whenever our people have faced natural calamities, the army, our well-organized NGOs, the students, and the international community have stood with us. The ordinary citizens have always been in the forefront.

What can we do to mobilize ourselves and our partners this time? We must not let our general pessimism about national life keep us from doing what we can and must do to meet this emergency. Nor should our confrontational politics get in the way.

The first step is to remind ourselves of the greatness of our people. We receive generous and committed support not merely because of our plight, but because our people possess the resilience and courage to overcome disasters when given the chance. They did so in the past.

The second is to recognize that each of us has an urgent role to play right now.

People desperately need to protect themselves against water-borne disease – treat children suffering from diarrhea – and secure enough food.

The highest and the most urgent priority is information. We need to inform our people through every medium – radio, television, newspapers, NGO field workers – how to purify water where there is no safe water (one iodine tablet per litre), where to get water purifying iodine tablets (health clinics or NGO workers), and how to make oral saline if there are no packets available with sugar (four level teaspoons) and salt (one-half spoonful) per litre. When people are armed with information, they will do what’s needed to protect their families.

By now, there are probably privately-owned water filters of some sort in middle-class homes in every district where water supplies are disrupted. Let’s run them around the clock – providing millions of gallons of purified drinking water.

Of equal priority is distribution of emergency supplies. The government functionaries cannot deal with this emergency alone. They must set aside their distrust for elected local representatives. In emergencies, people naturally go to their neighbours and local leaders. This is one critical reason we have Union Parishads (UPs).

Our nation has roads, and we have helicopters to reach those places where there are no roads or roads are washed away. Emergency supplies must be moved quickly to Upazila headquarters in affected districts, and from there the people can ensure their UP representatives move them quickly throughout the population.

All NGO and voluntary organisation workers should gather in every Upazila and work with UNOs as one unified team to empower the people and mobilize relief efforts. They must catalyse the leadership and creativity of the people at the local level. All UN and bilateral agencies should use their channels, expertise and infrastructure to get emergency supplies to the Upazila teams.

People who have lost homes need dry shelter now, and support to rebuild their homes. Let’s throw open the schools and other institutions for temporary shelter. Let’s empower the UP of every affected area to guarantee reconstruction funds for rebuilding homes. Our development partners can afford to provide the necessary funds

Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) corners must set up right now to prevent diarrheal death when the water recedes. Planning must also start immediately to provide the farmers the seeds for plantation as they will be needed.

None of this can happen effectively if politicians interfere. There must be a total moratorium on party rivalry declared by both major party leaders and a total ban on all forms of corruption, publicly declared by all government officials and non-government functionaries. Relief activities are a magnet for crooks – at least during emergencies. Let’s empower our people to not tolerate corruption. We can all declare ourselves to be news reporters – ferreting out corruption and reporting it – as we also report on the heroic successes of the people.

You – reading this message – drop what you are doing and join all of us in this struggle for survival. Go to your village. Lend a hand. Meeting this crisis can become our finest hour.

“What can we do to mobilize ourselves and our partners this time? We must not let our general pessimism about national life keep us from doing what we can and must do to meet this emergency. Nor should our confrontational politics get in the way.”

“The first step is to remind ourselves of the greatness of our people. We receive generous and committed support not merely because of our plight, but because our people possess the resilience and courage to overcome disasters when given the chance. The second is to recognize that each of us has an urgent role to play right now… Go to your village. Lend a hand. Meeting this crisis can become our finest hour.”

* Crore = 10 million

One example: Relief and Mobilization Effort in Narayanganj

By Afreen Alam

The town of Narayanganj is about 32 kilometers away from Dhaka. The Hunger Project staff and animators are working in the area providing flood relief (see endnote for background on this area) There are hundreds of houses in the slums along the river where the poorest of the people, mostly wage laborers live. These slums are currently under 1 to 8 feet of water. About 90% of the people in the area are affected and the slum dwellers are the hardest hit. Many are trapped within their houses and living on the roof under the open sky. Others have taken refuge in the nearby schools and buildings that have now become shelters. But in a rare show of solidarity, people have come together and trying to face this challenge collectively. The local THP animators mobilized immediately. Internalizing the Hunger Project’s principles and knowing very well that is not a donor organization but puts its faith on people’s abilities instead, the animators have not asked for relief assistance from the organization. Instead they are leading and coordinating relief efforts themselves, providing support to the people. There is a team of about 32 local animators who are working round the clock and the THP staff is there in support. They are working in the following areas, to name a few:

Relief Collection: Their effort is creative and remarkable and includes the following:

a. Teams of animators and local youth are collecting money and relief materials from the surrounding areas by singing songs in teams, performing in the streets and local markets that are still operating.

b. The animators are mobilizing help from the local wealthy people. This includes a group of powerful people who seek public’s support and approval and have offered material and monetary donations.

c. They have collected flour from people and have mobilized housewives to bake bread for the shelters

d. They have mobilized the local MPs and collected Tk. 5 lakhs so far. They have also used their help to set up Medical teams in the area.

e. The animators are working with local organizations as well, coordinating relief efforts and activities.

Relief Distribution: The animators are taking the collected relief materials directly to the flood effected people. There they asked people themselves to distribute them. In a great show of unity and solidarity, people identified the neediest of the families and decided to distribute the materials to them first. They also made a secondary list of people who should receive aid from the next shipment. At the end of the night when it became impossible to continue, the people designated one place where they left the packets of undistributed oral saline and announced widely to people about it so that they can get them from this place when needed. This also helped them centralize critical information such as instructions on how to prepare saline solution, etc to ensure proper dissemination.

Hanif, a young bus conductor exemplified people’s sincere compassion and concern for each other. Like all the other families in the shelter, his home is under water and he had to bring his family to the shelter. However, when the relief team offered him some food, he refused. He did not allow the children in the family to accept any help either. He explained that he is still able to earn a daily income as the buses in the city are running. Instead, he brought in couple of other families that desperately needed help and asked the volunteers to give his share of relief to them.

Awareness building on safe water and sanitation: The area is under 1 to 8 feet of water. The area is inundated not only by the polluted water from the sewer and garbage but also from the pollutants from the nearby oil tankers that are now under water. Animators are trying to alert people not to use this water under any circumstances, not even for washing dishes and clothes. Instead, they are gathering people to fetch water from a safe water source that is about 700 meters away. They collect water in clay water pots and deliver them regularly to the houses where people are trapped in and to the shelters. They are also trying to make arrangements for safe sanitation in the shelters as best as possible. One initiative includes separating areas for public toilets by digging a hole in an excluded area in the shelters. They have built 5 sanitary latrines so far. Animators are informing people about the urgency of sanitation practices.

Showing solidarity and support: Volunteers are going around in boats not only to people in shelters but also to people who are trapped within their houses and ensuring their safety. They are in constant touch with the people, talking to them, singing with them, boosting their morale and providing mental support.

Following is the relief support provided by the The Hunger Project on July 26^th:

Shelter Area	# of families(avg of 7 people/family)	Saline Packets	Water Purification Tablets	Flattened Dry Rice (Chira)	Bleaching Powder	Candles	Bread (roti)
^Mollarpara	¹²⁵	²⁰⁰	¹⁵⁰	^{80 kg}	^{2 kg}
^Mondolpara	¹²⁰	²⁰⁰	¹⁵⁰	^{80 kg}	^{2 kg}
^Mirpara	²⁹⁰	⁴⁰⁰	³⁰⁰	^110kg	^{5 kg}
^Aalpara	²⁷⁰	⁴⁰⁰	³⁰⁰	^{90 kg}	^{5 kg}
^Baagpara	¹⁷⁰	⁴⁰⁰	¹⁰⁰⁰	^{50 kg}	^5kg	^{150 sticks}
^{Active Academy school shelter}	¹⁵⁵	⁴⁰⁰	³⁰⁰	^{50 kg}	^3kg		^{700 pieces}
^{Chor Shimulpara}	¹⁷⁰	⁴⁰⁰	³⁰⁰	^120kg	^5kg	^{60 sticks}