Bangladesh, January 2010 – Suliman Kha
On Thursday June 11th, Rainmaking hosted a charity dinner at restaurant Noma where 85 guests raised 600.000 DKK for climate projects in Bangladesh. The project had been pre-approved by EU who 4-doubbled the collected amount. As a result 2,4 million DKK was donated to make a difference for some of the World’s poorest people.
Since then, we have had a chance to visit Bangladesh and to see how the work progressed. Here is the story of one of the families we had the pleasure to meet.
Suliman Kha is a farmer and casual laborer; he has only a small piece of land at which he grows jute, tobacco, rice and spinach – the production varies over the course of a year. Through this project, Suliman has learned that his soil can be better exploited if the crop varies. He has also become acquainted with the new and more robust rice sort, which can endure being under water for 50 days. This is a very big advantage as it means that the rice will not be destroyed by the floods that come each year in June and July.
Sulimans wife is named Mocheda Kinok; she takes care of the house and their cattle; they have a cow as well as two “shared-goats”. This means that they do not own the goats, but they take care of them and as a provision, they get 10% of the selling price, when the goats are sold. The animals live inside the house as they are very great assets for the small family.
Suliman and Mocheda have a daughter aged 9; she attends 2nd grade at school and dreams of being a teacher when she grows up.
The family’s house is situated in the village, Purba Dewabari. They have always lived in this village, however, no less than five times have they experienced that their home has disappeared in the floods. They have lived in their current house for four years, but it is also build upon a plateau, installed to ensure that the floods cannot sweep the house away. As a further insurance, stones have been placed under their beds and tables to make sure that a small flood will not destroy their few possessions. Yields are stored in barrels with waterproof lids buried in the ground, and other possessions are placed high up under the ceiling on a shelf built for this purpose.
Suliman himself has participated in building their house, and he and Mocheda are very glad that they can now create a future for their daughter. They are very aware of the great importance of the work made by the Disaster Management Group, and have themselves experienced the crucial impact of the help, they received when their homes disappeared – so today, they are happy to contribute when some of the other people in the village need a place to be when the floods are coming.
2,500 people are living in Purba Dewabari; 700 of these are adults. The village has two schools; however, 20% are illiterates, and 50% of the adults are able to sign a signature. There is no possibility to receive medical treatment in the village, so it is imperative to be able to travel to the nearest, larger town.
Until now, 15 houses have been built upon plateaus. There is no shelter in the village, so the houses built on plateaus function as shelters for the other citizens until they are rescued to the mainland. The village has no boats so they are dependent that the Disaster Management Group’s alarm system is working.
The primary occupation in the village is fishing (from bamboo rafts and from shore) as well as agriculture where eight different crops are cultivated.
The house of Suliman and Mochedas
