Bangladesh, January 2010 – Abdura Rassak

When visiting Bangladesh we had a great opportunity to meet two families. Here is the story of Abdura Rassak who is a day-worker, he is married to Hena, and together they have three daughters; Rumana aged 18, Rumpa Sasker aged 15, and little Sweety aged 5. All three girls go to school attending respectively 1st grade, 10th grade, and college. Rumana is not in the picture as she was in school when the picture was taken. In Bangladesh, schooling admission is free for girls through to college; for boys, however, admission is only free through to 5th grade. This differential treatment is constituted by law as girls traditionally have not been attending school. This entails that there is now more girls than boys in the schools, and that the girls are doing better due to the additional years in school. For a poor day-worker such as Abdura, the free school admission has been crucial for his ability to send his girls to school.

Rumpa Sasker, aged 15, becomes quiet when we ask her what she would like to be, when she grows up. All of a sudden, she talks a lot and does so very quickly – she has obviously thought long and hard about this particular question. Rumpa Sasker says that she would like to do all sorts of different things, but she knows that her opportunities are limited due to her poor background. But – she can become a teacher, and she would very much like that. Sweety, aged 5, has not yet felt the same limitations, so she says that she wishes to become a doctor.

In October 2009, the Rassak-family lost their home, but luckily they received help quickly from the Disaster Management Group for which reason, they themselves as well as their belongings were rescued. However, they have still not a new place to live but have instead set up a small camp on a steep slope acting as a dike for the road.

The family lives in the village Sonaikazi among approximately 500 other families – out of these, 200 families have experienced to lose their home. For this reason, the citizens in the village have, on own initiative, built a bamboo construction with the purpose to prevent soil-erosion.

Erosions occur often, but when the water level increases in the river, the soil disappears even faster. The bamboo constructions can ensure the soil if they are placed with about 100 metres intervals. This costs the village 100 workers for three days – so all in all, including materials and wages, each construction amount to about 500 EUROS. The construction and its maintenance are relatively simple and it does not require expensive materials that are hard to obtain.

The Management Disaster Group has also helped to provide 50 pumps with water, which can function even during floods when the existing pumps are under water. They have further obtained the promise that the locale government will finance that at least 40 houses will be raised upon plateaus and that all houses will get sanitary facilities installed.

The Management Disaster Group consists of the following subgroups with individual areas of responsibility:

Early warning group, who by the means of news and other sources assess whether there is a need to send out warnings; if so, this is done by the use of megaphones.

Rescue group, who makes sure to find the distressed people and bring them and perhaps their belongings to safety.

Damage and need assessment group gathers information about the disaster and communicate with the locale government about the current needs.

Shelter management group takes care of the women, calls for medical treatment when needed, and provides shelter.

Representatives for the different groups in the Management Disaster Group tell about their respective functions.