Aid workers describe cyclone misery

Workers from emergency relief charity Action Aid helping people affected by the devastating cyclone in Bangladesh are sending daily reports to the BBC News website this week.

In the fourth entry, Naima Chowdhury visits a remote district where women and girls are now particularly vulnerable to unscrupulous people trying to take advantage of their desperation.

MOKIT BILLAH - 23 NOVEMBER

We arrived early today and spent time delivering aid to the 1,000 people living here.

People have come in greater numbers hoping to get some food

We gave people a slip with a time to return to collect some aid. Women and children are our priority. People are still queuing now, three hours later.

We managed to deliver 5kg (11lb) of rice, 1kg (2lb) of dhal, one litre (35 fl oz) of oil, two candles, one gas lighter and one huge blanket to each family.

We still need clean water and we hope this will be done by building wells. Then the rebuilding of homes needs to begin. But food is still a priority.

There are many sad stories here. I spoke to one mother called Roshonora, who discovered the body of her 10-year-old daughter three days after the cyclone hit.

'Brother, please help'

She was sobbing, asking why this had happened. She also spoke of her fears that her five-year-old son would get ill because he had drunk some contaminated water.

I asked her where her husband was and she said he was with his new family in Dhaka and isn't really interested in what has happened to them.

Roshonora spoke directly to Wahida, Action Aid's theme leader on emergency response based in Dhaka, on my mobile phone.

At least 3,000 people are still missing from this area and people may not know for years what has happened to a family member

They spoke about what people need here, and Roshonora asked for a small pot to be delivered because, at the moment, she has been feeding her son dry rice.

As she left me, she clung to me with tears in her eyes and said: "Brother, please help us, we are hungry."

I was in this particular village a few days ago and the number of people living on the streets has definitely increased.

My opinion is that people must have heard we were coming, so have come from other parts of town to get some food.

At least 3,000 people are still missing from this area and people may not know for years what has happened to a family member.

Even though the cyclone hit over a week ago, it is still very chaotic. Relief urgently needs to continue. Then we can focus on the long-term solutions for these extremely poor and now vulnerable people.

NAIMA CHOWDHURY - 22 NOVEMBER

Today my colleagues and I went to assess the damage and deliver aid to a highly affected village called Southkhali in Bagerhat.

Short-term relief will not solve the problems of many women

The village suffered the full force of the wave. Everything has been destroyed. Houses have been crushed, trees lie on the road and many children have drowned.

This is the first time we have been able to get here because it is a very remote area, and trees have been blocking the roads.

For six days these people have been without any food, shelter, clean water or electricity. The only relief they have received is 1kg of rice.

We arrived at 1100 and I just broke down in tears. Even now I find it very hard to talk about what I saw there. I don't think I can find the words. No film or painting can ever accurately portray what the place is like.

Smell of death

The first thing I came across was a grave containing 17 dead bodies. The smell is horrible - a mixture of dead bodies and dead animals. There is an extremely high risk of disease here now.

Even now I find it very hard to talk about what I saw there - I don't think I can find the words Q&A: Storm aid effort

Action Aid, with our local partners, will be bringing more aid in the next couple of days and then we will start looking at long-term solutions.

In this area alone, 1,000 people have been killed and 3,000 are still missing.

Most families have lost their children, and when bodies are pulled out of the sea, they can't even identify their faces to see if it is a loved one.

This area is particularly vulnerable because of the lack of food and shelter.

Traffickers have started moving in to take advantage of this situation.

Then there are local policemen, people who are meant to be trustworthy, who are using this disaster for their own ends.

I heard one story of a policeman stroking a young girl's cheek and telling her that if she went with him, he would give her some biscuits.

The girl, who had lost her mother in the disaster, told him that he should bring the biscuits out if he had some.

But how long will they be able to resist these kinds of men?

I warned many women about this, but we need to get them protected shelter and food desperately.

Relief for a month is no good for these women and girls, they have lost everything, their families, their cattle, their homes.

Please keep my country in your prayers.

NAIMA CHOWDHURY - 21 NOVEMBER

I spent my day delivering aid in the red light district of Mongla. The town, situated between a river and a main port, has roughly 175 houses with six to 10 people living in each.

Many of the women from Mongla were refused refuge

It is an area of women and children, only a small number of local fishermen actually work here.

Approximately half of the homes were destroyed by the cyclone.

Thanks to the radio, women here knew maybe a day or so before about the cyclone. When the early warning reached them, they headed towards safer towns for refuge.

But many people refused to help them or provide a safe haven for the women, because of the stigma attached to sex work.

Many were forced to set up temporary homes on the bridges or roads on the outskirts of towns, while others returned to their homes to fight the cyclone there.

The women told me how it was extremely tough for them, having been shunned by the community, but their main concern was what would happen to their children.

Desperate need

Luckily, most people came through the cyclone alive despite being refused help. The number of casualties is not particularly high, so food and shelter are our primary concerns.

Action Aid, with our local partners, has been supplying food packages, which contain dhal and puffed rice, for the last five days.

These women are incredibly poor and also face exclusion from the rest of the community

But next week, if we don't get more aid it will be difficult to continue and the women and children will be in desperate need of food.

We also need to address the wider social implications the disaster has exposed. The port used to be very busy and the women used to get a lot of business.

But in the past few years, this has slowed down and the port is barely used now. These women are incredibly poor and also face exclusion from the rest of the community.

It is a crucial time for these women. It is important we start educating them to work towards earning a living through other means. We then need to start rehabilitation for the children. There may be something positive we can pull from this disaster.

MIZAN RAHMAN - 20 NOVEMBER

I am returning to Dhaka today after spending four days in the town of Barguna.

The town was one of the worst hit, and according to a local non-governmental organisation, at least 2,000 people in this town alone have been killed.

Houses of mud and thatch were destroyed. Photo: Action Aid

But this number is expected to double because scores are still missing.

Women in particular are distraught. Every time a body is recovered, women run to see whether it belongs to that of their missing child or husband.

They are totally distressed, crying and running from place to place.

Before I left, I checked the list and 30% of those still missing were children.

The women here rely on the men not just for their income, but for a lot of the hard manual labour for their home.

Lost loved ones

They don't know how to build a house. Women tell me how they don't know what their future holds now they have lost their husbands.

They fear for their children, and how they will need to be the main breadwinner in their family.

But for now, their attention is on trying to locate loved ones and beginning to deal with family members they may have lost.

Most of the people are living wherever they see space.

We are in the middle of winter here, and from midnight to early morning it gets very cold, so people are living under sheets for now. Most of the houses have gone.

Fallen trees are making access difficult. Photo: Action Aid

Trees litter the roads so it is still very difficult to get in and out of the town.

People are in desperate need of aid here. The first thing we need to provide is food, water and clothes. Then we need to start working on the rehabilitation of houses.

It is very painful for me to see people suffering like this. It is hard for me to express what I feel and the only way I can get past this is helping them.

Action Aid has so far provided roughly 6,000 families with household packages but 20,000 people are still waiting for help.

MOKIT BILLAH - 19 NOVEMBER

I have been working with villagers in a fishing village in the Khulna district which is home to about 2,000-3,000 people, for the past couple of days.

Scores of children are on the streets, looking for their parents

Seeing the devastation the cyclone has caused was like a slap in the face for me.

I can only imagine how it must be for the villagers. Trees have fallen, straw houses have been crushed and there is not enough pure water, food or shelter to go around. People are using sheets to cover the tops of their weak huts while they wait for more aid.

The current fishing season is great for the types of fish that are used for drying, so there were many fishermen out at sea when the cyclone hit.

Families depend on fishing here. Although it is hard to say exactly how many people are missing, many fishermen have not been accounted for, and mothers have told me how their children were swept away while they tried to run to safety.

Hard to be generous

Mothers are distraught, not knowing what to do with themselves.

People are trying to grieve and rebuild their lives the best way that they can.

The cyclone left anguish and trauma in its wake

But it's hard to be generous when you have lost your home and your livelihood. Some market stalls have reopened but people are nearly doubling their prices to recover their losses.

I have never seen so many children on the street before.

Some of them don't know what has happened to their parents. Others simply don't understand what is happening around them. Scores of homeless families have nowhere else to go but set up base on the main road.

So far in this village, Action Aid has distributed 50 family packs including puffed rice, salt and local sugar, and clothes - saris for women and lungis for men.

But much more relief is needed.

Dilemma

I have been working on an assessment of the area to present to the government and overseas donors, and we are hoping that within the next five days, we will be able to provide 1,000 food packages and increase the amount of aid delivered.

People thought the cyclone would arrive on 13 November, two days before it eventually hit.

So for those two days, people were in a complete dilemma about what to do.

Many tried to find space in multi-storey buildings [recommended as a place to take shelter from the cyclone by the authorities] but the majority stayed put.

The physical effects of the cyclone are clear, but the psychological effects may not be known until much later.