Coping with the Storm: A mother and her four children struggle to survive Cyclone Sidr

Meet Salma, a mother with four small children, who evacuated her home as Cyclone Sidr, and its accompanying storm surge, struck their small village of Senerhat in eastern Bangladesh, near the Bay of Bengal.

Tuesday 27 November 2007

The family survived, but their house, pieced together from corrugated metal and perched at the side of a lagoon near a river, did not.

"The water was chest high when we left," said Salma. "Men ran through the village and told us to leave. Now we have no food and nowhere to live"

Salma and her children live along the Tetulia River where families, mired in poverty before the category four storm struck Bangladesh, have been left with nothing. Indeed, few clues remain that Salma's one-room house and its contents ever existed.

Today, Salma and her children are living with a neighbour, who also took in another neighbour and her three children. Together, three adults and 12 children are living in a tiny wooden house, equally precarious as Salma's, but still standing.

Throughout Bangladesh, survivors of the storm face enormous challenges, particularly the need for the basics: food, water and shelter. Many also have lost their means of making a living, their chickens and livestock, and all household goods.

Photo of Salma with her children in Bangladesh. Photo credit: Kate Conradt

What we're doing

We've reached more than 130,000 families in Bangladesh's storm-affected areas, distributing food rations, safe water, blankets and household kits (which include cooking pots, utensils, plastic sheeting, soap and matches).

How you can help

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