In Sirajganj district, northwest Bangladesh, women and children are queuing for relief aid, while their husbands desperately search for work in the wake of the devastating floods.
Sufia and her family were marooned in their hut for fifteen days. Now that World Vision aid has arrived in the area, she at least has food and clothing for her family. But her first challenge is getting the package home.
"It is a big relief package - around 20 kilos - and it is hard for me to carry," she says.
Helping her is her 10-year-old son Shuvo. They walk for ten minutes then board a boat to return to their still flooded village, carefully protecting their supplies from the water. Shuvo carries his burden on his head.
While Shuvo and his mother collect the relief packages, his father Bakkar is traveling to a market with some of his neighbour's cattle. Many families affected by the floods are selling off livestock and assets to get through this disaster. Shuvo's family own no cattle and can sell nothing at all.
"For this work, my husband will get Taka 50 (less than 1 dollar) if the sale takes place, otherwise nothing," Sufia says.
Several hundred families were stranded in and around Sufia's village when the floods hit around three weeks ago. Her family was lucky that they did not lose their house. But they had to shelter there - the parents on a small patch of dry floor, the four children up on the bed - until the waters lowered and boats arrived to rescue them. They spent nights without meals, not knowing when it would end.
"It was horrible," says Shuvo. "One night a snake caught a frog next to my bed... I could hear the loud cries of the frog as it struggled to get free."
It takes half an hour on the boat for Sufia and Shuvo to reach their village through flood waters. Then, hoisting the supplies beyond the reach of the waters, they walk and wade another fifteen minutes. The other children have been waiting, and are very pleased to have the relief materials. The supplies will last the six of them at least a week, maybe more.
But Sufia is not sure what will happen after that. "I am worried how to run the future if my husband is without work," she says.
Commencing August 22, World Vision distributed relief packages to 17,000 families in four sub-districts of Sirajganj - Sadar, Ullapara, Kamarkhanda, Shahzadpur. They contained rice, lentils, soybean oil, salt and sugar, biscuits, clothing and oral rehydration salts to treat diarrhea.
Along with the relief packages, World Vision distributed 25,000 post-flood survival brochures. World Vision is also hoping to deliver medium-term rehabilitation, including agricultural support, vegetable seeds and seedlings, livestock de-worming and employment opportunities in rebuilding infrastructure.
Sufia's family will need this help. The house has been damaged by the flood waters and their fences entirely destroyed. The school is also closed due to stagnant flood waters in the classroom.
Sufia says "We have been sending the children to school so their life could be better, not like ours."
Shuvo worries about missing school. "With my education I want to get a good job to take better care of my family," he says.
While Sufia agrees returning to school is important, she has more immediate things on her mind. Looking at her battered and broken house, she says "Our most urgent need is food and shelter."
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Raphael Palma, Communications Coordinator, World Vision Bangladesh, attended the distribution in Sirajganj to collect this story.
He is available for interview: mobile: 0171-3011673, E-mail: raphael_palma@wvi.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
