Cyclone Aila Relief Effort Recap (with video footage!)

It was a Wednesday late evening, and I was getting back into Dhaka from my four day overnight Grameen village visit. Naturally, I was quite exhausted from traveling and visiting various Grameen’s sister companies, field programs, and borrowers. I checked back into my hotel, showered, and had to catch up on some email. I was typing away around 9 or 10 pm in the lobby of my hotel when I casually conversed with a fellow intern and friend, Darshan, a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Darshan and a group of Grameen interns had just come back from meeting with Uddipan, the 7^th largest NGO in Bangladesh who was working with many of the cyclone affected families (women and children in particular) in South Coastal Bangladesh. Tiffany, one of the interns had tried setting up meetings with some of the program coordinators at Grameen Bank about the possibility of some of us organizing an Aila relief effort. Supposedly, they received a lot of resistance from Grameen (we were useless and more of a liability for such an effort in their eyes). Lisa, another intern, and student of public health at the University of Michigan, saw Uddipan advertisements in the local newspapers regarding help for such efforts. The interns quickly jumped on this opportunity, placed a call, set up a meeting, and drove in the sweltering mid day heat and traffic to meet with some of the Uddipan representatives. The representatives were extremely cordial and receptive to allowing us to help for a big cause. They gave us contacts and information on how to get involved and the rest is history. Hats off to the team for taking the initiative and having the persistence of getting this trip planned!

So, Darshan immediately caught my attention when he began telling this story and I was instantly interested. This was a superb opportunity to see firsthand what many of the landless poor in Bangladesh cope with on an annual basis-massive natural disasters. So in a matter of a few hours, I was part of organizing a relief effort. I heard about it around 10 pm on Wednesday evening, and was departing for the port the following day at 3 pm, with a lot of work in between. I had to unpack my bags, only to repack them immediately thereafter. It was really interesting to see the dynamics of the group form in minutes as we were frantically organizing these efforts.  We essentially had pseudo committees formed- accounting/finance (managing of group budget, the “group pot”, capital allocation), human resources (intern recruitment), marketing/fundraising (raising as much money as possible to purchase supplies for the victims), and operations/logistics (planning the final details with Uddipan reps, getting tickets booked, purchasing supplies). Some of my tasks included purchasing boat tickets on Thursday morning as well as food and water for our group’s use during the trip. The rest of our group (Erika, Darshan, Lisa, Tiffany) were purchasing dry foods for the victims, saline and water purification tablets from the pharmacy.

With all of the details planned and boat tickets purchased, it was off to the port to catch our boat! We had a 18 hour boat trip to the Barguna district, and the girls instantly became celebrities aboard the ship. They were the center of attention as many natives were drawn to their White skin. With 18 hours to kill, we spent our time roaming the boat, speaking with natives, and making bread and jelly sandwiches of course! Check out the videos to see more!

Fast Forward about 18 hours, and we arrived at our destination. The boat veered off to the coast, and there was a makeshift dock (a slab of wood) that we had to cross to get on land. There were Uddipan representatives awaiting our arrival, and they arranged for our transportation to get to our lodging. We stayed in a “Shelter Village” that included a children’s orphanage, farming land, kindergarten classrooms, and a children play center.

On Friday afternoon, we visited an Uddipan child safe center in some of the lesser affected areas. The safe centers were created because of the massive natural disasters that hit the region. These centers are places for children to go so they can have additional instruction, games, and counseling services.  It was awesome to spend time with many of the village children, they seemed happy to host us despite their plight. We played different counting games, and watched the children act, sing, and dance! Be sure to watch the video footage! Uddipan is an impressive organization-they have 850 children in 17 safe centers in the region (we visited three) we were staying. It was a pleasure spending time with these children! Check out footage of us playing a game that is near and dear to many of us, “Duck, Duck, Goose!”

On Saturday, we began our relief efforts. We drove as far as possible towards the coast, and then had to walk about 10 kilometers to reach the coastal areas. We had multiple backpacks of supplies to distribute and we had the chance to see many of the directly affected families. Their homes were destroyed, and the land was flooded almost waist high just a few days prior. Very early into the efforts, it was clear to see how small of an effect our work would have. Our efforts almost seemed asinine-these families needed so much more help. They need proper dams, proper food, and sturdy homes that could withstand such natural disasters.

Distributing water purification tablets and saline may very optimistically last two days, but who is going to help them after that? These families are stuck in poverty-every year, they are recovering from another disaster. In 2007, a mega cyclone hit that robbed these villagers of their livelihood. (SIDR-estimated damage of $450Million, casualties of ~10,000) They have no control over when Mother Nature will hit again. There are no other available lands for them to move that are safer, nor would they have the money to afford such a relocation. Most of the men in these villages are fisherman, and it is assumed that this is where they will live forever. Over the years, these villagers have built up an immunity for such disasters. They regard the floods, cyclones and other natural disasters as an imminent force in their lives.  It was difficult and hard to accept simply distributing saline and water purification tablets in the midst of such a large scale calamity, but that was the reality nonetheless.

The inhabitants somberly accepted our humble charity, but they clearly needed more. Where was the help they needed? It had been over a week since the cyclone hit…where was the government of Bangladesh when the citizens needed them most?

Did I expect our efforts to have an impact? No. At best, we offered temporary relief to 200 households.  But what we did was we showed that we cared. We gave our time, and our efforts to show the coastal villagers that they do matter, and that their pain is felt. We live in a world that is marred by poverty. MILLIONS of people still die of stupid, stupid causes EVERYDAY. Starvation, malaria, diarrhea-to name a few. It’s fine and wonderful to think about eradicating poverty on a large scale, but it starts on the individual level, with one act of altruism, one act of kindness, one act of selflessness at a time. Poverty is not a bunch of numbers and statistics and diseases. These are people-just like you and I, endowed with the same gift of life-only the cards they were dealt were much worse. In a long and difficult battle against poverty, small steps have to be taken somewhere along the path.

There is a much larger problem underlying the situation we encountered-one too large for a group of 5 students (with small pockets) to ever tackle. This is where the rich donor nations, governments and NGO’S have to financially support these displaced poor villagers. Give them sufficient capital to regain their footing-and maintain their footing. Aid money is welcome, but if that’s the approach, then these areas are going to seek aid money year after year. Build proper dams and infrastructure that will prevent any large scale disaster such as this, help in building sturdy homes, build clean water systems, and roads to transport goods and allow these villagers to reap the rewards that will ensue for years.

Check out the video with some of the clips from our trip… (I tried to focus on some of the lighter, happier moments on the trip, especially with the kids!)

aila-trip