Program and Activities Emergency post Flood relief

Bangladesh is a flood prone tropical country in South Asia. In Bangladesh we enjoy 6 seasons in a year. Rainy season viz a viz flood in one of them. Rainy season so as to say flood is involved inextricably with the life of Bangladeshi people. Most of the people, those who live in the flood prone areas, invite flood as if without it something in their life would remain unfulfilled. In fact normal flood brings fortune for the people- it gives fertility to the land. But in some years this flood becomes so vigorous and destructive that it makes the poor people poorer and also brings misery to the country’s economy. Flood of 2007 was really a big and destructive one. Flood water together with torrential rain almost inundated more then three fourth areas of the country. Besides damaging the crops, it destroyed roads, culverts and many dwelling houses of the poor people. Those who did the fish cultivation and fish culture on commercial basis incurred maximum losses in this flood. An old people, aged 70 years, say that this type of flood together with torrential rain is not seen by them in their life time.

Therefore, Fazlullah Foundation provided emergency help for their survival since 2004 to 2009: in the form of drinking water, food and other necessary items. The programme was supported financially by the different donors and involved 25 volunteers. The relief goods were transported by 4 boats and trucks, distributing in bags containing a set quantity of rice, lentils, potatoes, and salt, pulse and one bottle of cooking oil.

As you know super cyclone, SIDR that hit Bangladesh on 15 November 2007 devastated vast areas in the South-western coast. The cyclone severely ravaged four districts - Barguna, Bagerhat, Patuakhali and Pirojpur and badly damaged another eight districts. According to official estimates nearly two million households with 8.7 million people were affected, 1.5 million houses damaged, 4.1 million trees destroyed, and crops in one million ha of land fully or partially lost. The cyclone hit at a time when aman rice, the predominant source of staple food in the area was about to be harvested. The impact on national and household level food security which was already severely affected by two consecutive floods in August and September is likely to be severe. The challenge to the nation now is restoration of livelihoods of the affected households. An agricultural rehabilitation program needs to be initiated immediately to generate employment and increase food production, to minimize the effect on rising food prices and household level food insecurity. That time our organization provided emergency relief to the 547 families.