A US$2 million aid package has been launched by World Vision Bangladesh to shelter more than 50,000 people whose homes were torn to shreds by Cyclone Sidr.
World Vision is aiming to assist 9,375 families who have lost their homes by providing tin sheeting. Funding of US$1.5 million is needed to provide this. The sheeting would be dispatched to those living in existing World Vision programme districts that are situated in the worst affected southern part of the country.
Distributions of tons of emergency aid - two kilogrammes of rice and one kilo of sugar or molasses - have already been handed out to 2,400 families.
A total of 125 World Vision staff and 700 volunteers are currently involved in the response, many of them local staff who live in community programme areas around Mongla and Kulna in the south. Teams have also been providing first-aid treatment to those hurt by flying debris and falling homes.
World Vision is also putting together 7-day emergency relief packs that include water, rice, potatoes, sugar, oil, salt, blankets, mattresses, clothing, oral re-hydration salts and candles for distribution to 20,000 families.
So far some US$500,000 has been committed to the relief pack response, with US$140,000 coming from existing community programming funds immediately diverted into emergency relief.
Various World Vision offices around the globe are fundraising for the Cyclone Sidr Response. World Vision offices are appealing for donations or applying for grant aid to raise the US$1.5 million needed for temporary housing.
Vince Edwards, World Vision Bangladesh National Director, who is currently in the disaster zone, said: "Our teams on the ground have found that most poor families who have lost their homes are now living out in the open. We need to get bundles of tin sheeting to these families urgently. We are going to focus our efforts on the worst affected - those who have completely lost their homes, women-headed households, the poor and those families who have children with disabilities.
"The scale of the devastation is enormous. It is very hard to get to some areas due to fallen trees. There is need wherever we look."
The provision of tin sheeting will help people like 11-year-old Rika Halder, whose home in Kandi village, Kotalipara, was smashed by high winds very early in the morning on November 16. She, two younger sisters and her mother were sheltering with their father who was suffering with fever after trying to batten down his home during the rains before the cyclone arrived.
When Cyclone Sidr struck, their home was flung into nearby marshland. Rika said: "Deep in the night, when my mother was nursing my father, we were hearing terrible sounds of high winds," said Rika.
"Our house was taken away like a toy. We found it ... but without a roof and wall. My father and mother started screaming, as we were too.
"What we need most is food and a place to live. It is hard to live under open sky. Who can we go to? Most other people here are in the same situation."
The government now says that at least 2,300 have been killed, with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society saying that as many as 10,000 could have died.
Latest figures from various sources show that 280,00 families were left homeless, and some 900,00 families were affected by the cyclone - amounting to some 7 million people across Bangladesh, with a quarter of a million livestock killed and 142,176 acres of crop land completely lost - amounting to 600,000 metric tonnes of rice. In the worst affected districts 50-90 of crops were lost and over 50 percent of the trees blown down.
World Vision is working in seven existing programming areas that were devastated by the story - Mongla and Chitalmari in Bagerhat District, Kotalipara and Muksudpur in Gopalganj District, Laudobe in Khulna District, Agailjhara in Barisal District and Kalkini in Madaripur District. It is estimated that 25,300 homes were completely destroyed with another 16,700 damaged. Some 45 casualties have so far been reported in these areas.
The response has galvanized the international aid community, the government of Bangladesh and the country's army, airforce and navy.
World Vision aims to put together an programme worth US$2.1 million (US$640,000 to cover immediate food relief and US$1.5 million for shelter). The material and transport for each temporary home is an estimated US$160.00. The more money that can be raised from donations and grants the more shelter that can be provided. US$2 million raised for shelter would allow 12,000 families to be housed, says World Vision Bangladesh.
Grant funding is being sought for livelihood, income generation and permanent shelter programmes.
For more information or for media please contact:
Jayanth Vincent, Director - Media Communications, World Vision India (providing coordination and support):
Mobile: +91 98400 64165
Email: jayanth_Vincent@wvi.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
