My team at Concern Universal had a second field trip over July 2-5th, this time to a southern district called Barisal. The trip formed part of our 'Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction' project, which involves working with 67 partner NGOs to build up their capacity to deliver their own community programs better. Half of the trip involved this capacity building training, while the other half involved visiting a few villages and schools in which two partner organisations ran various education and training programs. I was lucky enough to go this latter trip, and we were joined with representatives from the five partner NGOs that were from Nepal and they had traveled down to Bangladesh to join in this visit.
It was fascinating and harrowing to visit some of these villages, one of which was barely 500m from the Bay of Bengal. During the massive Sidr cyclone in 2007, waves over 6m had pummeled the coast, including this village, which was devastated. However through participating in some of disaster preparedness activities that the NGO was running, they were able to slowly build their resilience. This included raising houses on mud platforms, building portable cooking stoves that families could take after disasters, using coconuts as floatation devices, and developing early warning systems. Two years later the village was hit by cyclone Aila, but because of these interventions, damage was reduced.
During meeting the villages, seeing their preparations, and hearing their stories, I was moved by what these people had gone through, and the sheer tenacity and hope which they approached their situation. They weren't going anywhere, and it was impressive to sense some of the pride that they had in their community.
It seems in start contrast to the clamouring and complaining that I am reading about in Australia regarding the carbon tax. Over here, no one is debating climate change - their are no Lord Moncktons deniers spreading the seeds of doubt. Millions have been facing a changing climate, and increasingly severe natural disasters, for decades, and thousands of NGOs, research institutes, and community initiatives have been quietly working away at methods of adapting to the onslaught. At these times I cant help but to feel ashamed of my own country and our bubble of illusion that we are desperate to prop up, despite the fact that our denial is actually costing the lives and livelihoods of people here in Bangladesh.
Further trip details are here.
Hi Michael
ReplyDeleteI'm loving your posts.
When Pathak & I were travelling around doing our climate change workshops, everyone could easily explain in large-scale, & also very detailed ways, how the climate was changing. Multiple impacts are being felt. No-one denied that.
But many people had decided that this was God's will. And therefore wasn't necessarily something to be thought about, prepared for, or demanding of change...
Still others said, "We can survive whatever changes are still to come. We must survive. But we can't do anything to stop the emissions. What are you doing to stop the emissions?" Indeed. That question still haunts me. The cultural relativity of it is staggering....what can I say? "Oh, I don't drive a car, I ride a bike!"...most villagers only dream of being able to afford a bike, let alone a car! "Oh, I buy 100% green energy"...many villagers don't have electricity at all, or it's only intermittent. All the things I do seem piecemeal, not particularly costly personally, and simply inadequate when in a Bangladeshi village context (where someone has just told you that they lost two children to the cyclone, etc.).
Thanks for your posts & gorgeous photos! Please keep them up.
cathryn