20 November 2007

SALVATION Army relief teams are continuing their work in the Gopalgong district of Bangladesh as people struggle to come to terms with life after Cyclone Sidr. Many aid agencies and military personnel are focusing their efforts on the coastal areas so the Salvation Army teams are concentrating further inland. The coastal areas were devastated by the cyclone and are receiving much media attention but inland areas also sustained heavy damage and people there have been trying to cope without assistance to rebuild their lives.

In two inland villages directly in the path of the cyclone, where Salvation Army corps are situated, it has been reported that between 80 and 90 per cent of properties sustained serious damage. Salvation Army buildings were damaged but they are still usable. Although there was little loss of life in places like these villages, many cattle perished, houses were flattened and rice seedling plantations destroyed.

Roads into the area are being cleared of fallen trees and a team from The Salvation Army's Bangladesh Command Headquarters has been able to gain access. Food rations are being distributed to 12,500 people (about 2,500 families). The rations contain staple foods of rice and lentils. With so many trees down and beginning to dry out, there is plenty of fuel in the area for cooking, and most people here have not lost possessions. Local government leaders have confirmed that The Salvation Army is currently the only organisation working in the area.

Lieut-Colonel Ethne Flintoff, The Salvation Army's Officer Commanding for Bangladesh, reports that rice seed needs to be distributed immediately. She adds: 'If there’s no harvest next year we will have further problems in the future, so 200 farmers will be supported and will receive seed.'

An initial grant of US$100,000 has been sent from International Headquarters and Lieut-Colonel Flintoff says: ‘We are very grateful for the initial support. This will enable us to provide house-building materials of bamboo and wood plus corrugated iron sheets for the families most severely affected. The price of corrugated iron sheets is very high now – the cost has been rising for a couple of years. Because of this we still don’t have sufficient funds to plan for a livestock distribution. We need to do this as many cattle have been lost.'

Bramwell Ryan, a Canadian Salvationist photographer who was working in the region when the storm hit, is with a Salvation Army relief team in the Gopalgong district. After a visit to the village of Bandhabari (population 200) he reported back: ‘I saw tremendous damage. Travelling with the local corps officers Captain Kalpona, 32, and her husband Captain Moshi Biswas, 35, we visited their neighbours, learning how they survived the cyclone and how much damage they sustained.

'We were crossing a small stream on a rickety double-strand bamboo bridge when we saw Ratan Khan, 55, and his wife Anwara, 45. When the storm hit, the 10-member Khan family hid under a bed but the house started to come apart and they fled outside and took shelter in a hay stack. Their entire home is destroyed.'
 

 

 

 

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