Once the community has recovered from the disaster, it is important to make sure they are prepared for the next one. Friendship helps in anticipating disasters and taking action to protect life and property. In the northern chars, Friendship acts as a bank for people who know they will at some point lose their homes in floods, and who wish to set aside some savings until then. Friendship’s education programme includes Environmental Science as a primary school subject. Students are taught about what causes floods and cyclones, when to expect them, what precautions to take and how to act when disasters strike.
Under the Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) project, community groups fashioned after FCDCs of the char areas, receive preparedness education during regular meetings in order to prepare for future natural hazards. The emphasis during these meetings is on knowledge exchange as they are not only about groups receiving training, but also a way for us to learn from local knowledge.
Cyclone Sidr
On 16 November 2007, a category four cyclone, Sidr, hit the coastal regions of southern Bangladesh. The cyclone caused massive destruction in those areas. Thousands of lives were lost and property, infrastructure and telecommunication was severely damaged.
Immediately after the catastrophe, Friendship initiated a relief and rehabilitation programme for the Sidr victims in five southern districts where it also operated six emergency medical camps instantly after the tragedy struck, and successfully treated 14, 872 patients. Distribution of food and essentials for 978,750 people in seven districts started almost immediately. A total of 648,000 man days of food (18,000 food relief packets containing six days of food for a family of six) were distributed in the five most affected districts. In many areas Friendship’s food packages were the first to reach the people.
On the third day after the cyclone hit, Friendship sent five medical teams from the Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital to the affected areas. A team of six foreign doctors and nurses were also flown in as volunteers from France. Friendship constructed houses for the most affected cyclone victims and also constructed 300 sanitary latrines. A total of 12 deep tube wells were set up to ensure supply of fresh and safe drinking water in these villages. Friendship implemented the whole relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation programme in close coordination with local government bodies, Bangladesh Army, Navy and other NGOs operating in the affected areas.
Flood Relief 2007
The marginalised communities of the chars suffered the most in 2007’s devastating floods. Though hardest hit by the disaster, they received very inadequate relief due to remoteness and inaccessibility of the char areas. Moreover, most of the relief activities stopped with the recession of flood waters. In order to help the flood victims survive the devastation caused by the flood as well as to rehabilitate them in the post-flood period, Friendship initiated a massive flood relief programme in August 2007 with support from various donors.
In the first phase of the relief programme the most severely affected chars in seven districts of northern Bangladesh were targeted for distribution of emergency relief support. In the second phase , relief was distributed among the most affected flood victims in six divisions across the country. The relief and rehabilitation programme continued in 12 districts of six divisions throughout the country and was successfully completed in March 2008.