BANGLADESH: Working with Rotary
When the worst rains in 40 years caused widespread flooding in Bangladesh, Rotary contacts were instrumental in enabling ShelterBox to respond.
Rotarian Ahmed Farooque of the Rotary Club of Dhaka Kawran Bazar had worked with ShelterBox on two previous occasions and was our first point of contact in country. By arranging an official invitation and organizing permits, the club facilitated ShelterBox access to areas of the country that would otherwise have been impossible to reach.Rotary in Bangladesh was able to assist with transport, warehousing, local knowledge and contacts that enabled ShelterBox to provide nearly 3,000 families with shelter, light and protection from disease. One of these families was Bizli’s.
Meet Bizli and her family...
ShelterBox Response Team Volunteers spoke to Bizli and her family whilst undertaking a detailed needs assessment alongside local Red Crescent Society volunteers in Garuhara village, Kurigram Sadar. The village is home to a community of fishermen whose livelihoods depend on the Brahmaputra River. In July and August this year, torrential rains and floodwater from upstream led to widespread flooding and rapid river bank erosion, destroying the homes, land and livelihoods of those living along the riverbank.
Bizli and her family were asleep in their home in Garuhara village, on the banks of the Brahmaputra River when the flash flooding hit. In the middle of the night, she woke to the sound of water entering her home. Realising what was happening and feeling very frightened, Bizli woke her family and managed to get them out of the house.
In no time, the water level had risen to shoulder height, but by a stroke of luck Bizli and her family were then spotted and rescued by another member of the community by boat. The family was left with nothing, as their home and all their possessions were completely washed away, and the land their home was built on then collapsed into the river.
More than 20 houses in the village washed away as a result of the flooding, and two people lost their lives. Bizli and her family have since been staying in the cramped house of another family living in the community.
ShelterBox is responding to the flooding disaster in Garuhara and other affected communities in the Kurigram region, providing ShelterKits, tarpaulins, solar lights, and blankets to help those that have lost everything and whose homes have been damaged, on the road to self-recovery.
ShelterBox is also working to provide needed shelter and tools to the Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh, and families in Madagascar, the Philippines, the Caribbean, the Syrian Region, Iraq, Somaliland, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Disasters and conflict never stop, ShelterBox works 365 days of the year to ensure no family is left without shelter.
ShelterBox Canada – 159 Jane Street, Office 2, Toronto, ON M6S 3Y8
E: support@shelterboxcanada.org T: 647.352.1930 www.shelterboxcanada.org
ShelterBox and Rotary are official project partners in international disaster relief. ShelterBox is a registered charity independent of Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation