Cyclone Sidr caused devastation to 15 coastal districts when it hit southwestern Bangladesh on 15 November 2007. Wind speeds reached 240km per hour and caused a 5m high tidal surge.

On 30 November 2007, the Bangladesh Government confirmed that more than 8.5 million people were affected by the cyclone. 3,268 people died, a further 872 went missing and 39,773 were injured. Material damage was severe, with almost 564,000 houses destroyed and 885,280 houses partially damaged.

Older people’s needs

On 16 November 2007 HelpAge International’s partner in Bangladesh, the Resource Integration Centre (RIC), immediately deployed an emergency relief team to respond to Cyclone Sidr.

RIC set up a control room to monitor the situation in the two worst affected districts, Pirojpur and Bagerhat. Their relief team conducted an emergency needs assessment and collected data, disaggregated by age and sex.

The assessment identified some 53,000 older people in need of assistance out of a total of 682,823 affected people in Pirojpur. Communities in Pirojpur district were in desperate need of food and shelter.Older people, women and children were particularly vulnerable.

Our response

The assessment prompted RIC to launch a large-scale relief project to meet the basic needs of older people and their families in Pirojpur district. Food packages were immediately distributed to 2,000 families.

Blankets, household utensils, warm clothing and health items were also distributed to older people and their families in Pirojpur and Bagerhat. This distribution was carried out with older people’s associations already established through RIC and HelpAge International’s previous work in these districts.

In December 2007, RIC decided to focus on communities in Pirojpur alone, as this district was underserved by other agencies.

Achievements to date

With funding from the German Foreign Ministry, RIC successfully distributed 4,000 relief packets, containing food, basic medicine and warm clothing, to older people and their families in Pirojpur district, reaching 20,000 people in total.

With funding from the Isle Of Man Trust, RIC provided immediate humanitarian support to up to 1,700 older people and their families who had been affected by the floods.

Food and clothes were distributed, along with water purification tablets to prevent the spread of water borne diseases.

Ongoing work

With DEC funding, RIC is implementing a programme to assist 5,000 families, with food, medicines and other items to support their basic needs. Around 500 houses and latrines will also be reconstructed.

From September 2008, RIC will concentrate its efforts on disaster preparedness work. This will be funded by the DEC, Help the Aged, the Isle of Man Trust and the Rhododendron Trust.