For some 6 million flood-hit victims facing severe food shortage in 47 districts of the country, food relief is essential.

In the northern rice producing districts, hit by flood for the past three weeks, the demand for food is high and will last for at least two months after the floodwaters recede, especially in areas near the Jamuna river.

Here, at Taras upazilla of Sirajganj district, nearly 4 lakh people who rely on farming as their major source of livelihood could only eat once a day due to loss of work. Most of the population here are farm workers, earning Taka 80 to 90 per day, and not going to work means no pay and no Taka. This means hunger and further suffering for family members.

Rehka Boshak, an adivashi here at Taras, said her family ate once a day for the past month when the floods submerged her village knee-deep. Because her husband was not able to go to work for a month, they had to take loan from micro-credit organizations in order to get by. And until now, they are still repaying the loan.

"With the relief food that we have received, we could at least save a little money and be able to pay back what we have borrowed," she said.



Farm-worker adivashis
Rekha's is one among 550 adivashi families who were given relief goods consisting of 5 kg rice, 2 kg potato, ½ kg dal, 1 kg salt, and saline packets for each family by Bangladesh Adivasi Ohdikar Andolon (Baoa) and Volunteer Service Overseas- Bangladesh (VSOB) on September 3.

The Taka3.3 lakh relief fund was sourced from donors as advertised through a website designed by VSOB volunteer Mikey Leung, amounting to Canadian $3,450, £ 500 from VSO Trusty Board-UK, Taka 11,000 from Dinajpur-based Gram Bikash Kendro (GBK), and the rest from Baoa-Regional Development Center. GBK is a programme partner of VSOB's indigenous community rights programme.

In Desigram union of Taras, relief work was done in partnership with Taras-based Adivashi Academy, an organizational partner of Baoa. Jogen Toppo of the management committee of Adivashi Academy said that they based their identification of beneficiaries on the state of severity of flood in the community, landlessness of the household, and the elderly and widowed.

With limited relief goods, beneficiaries were selected from adivashi residents coming from 50 villages/grams located in 8 unions of Desigram, Mathanugor, Taras Proper, Talong, Barobash, Naoga and Magwabirod.

At least 30,000 adivashis including Mahato, Orao, Singh, Maldi and Boshak, live in the borderlines between Sirajganj and neighbouring Bogra. The majority of them are day labourers, and relies on farming as their source of livelihood.

In the neighbouring union of Dhonot of Bogra upazilla, each of at least 600 adivashi families received 5 kg rice, 2 kg potato, 1/kg dal, 1 kg salt, saline packets and water purifying tablets from Baoa, VSOB, and GBK, a programme partner of VSOB. Locally based Jatiyo Adivashi Parishad -- Bogra chapter, assisted the three organisations.

Ratun Robidash, president of JAP-Bogra, said that they based their identification of beneficiaries on state of landlessness, extreme poverty manifested by some begging members, and handicaps in the family.

Most of the residents in these adivashi villages have not received relief goods from the government or any other NGO during the floods. Beaming with happiness, Niyuti Minuti a Mahato from Dhonot, said she received relief goods for the first time ever.

Food relief recipients came from 56 villages located in the unions of Dhonot, Sariakandi and Kazipur. These areas locate adivashis belonging to the tribes Chandal, Partni Robidash, Baddi, Robidash, Zele, Malo, Zoguinath, Pazvon, Mahato, Hazar, Mahali, Zunihari, Nunia, and Boshak.

Like adivashis from Taras, they too are mostly day labourers earning Taka 80 to 100 per day. How they lost their land is a different story.

The Taras Thana Officer, Khalilur Rahman, who graced the relief distribution, said that his office with its limited funds will try to attend to needs of the adivashi families. Rahman said that he has already given out Taka 7 lakh for adivashis including, educational subsidies for primary schoolchildren, health care and the building of a temple.



Fisher folks
Meantime, at two embankments in Taras Proper, located near the Jamuna river, some 6,000 Bengali families who live by fishing and farming as their major livelihood suffer a great deal.

Torrents of floodwaters from the Jamuna river ate up properties and crops worth millions. At least Taka 5,000 to 8,000 worth of seedlings, fertilisers, and labour per acre was lost due to the flood, 23 year old farmer-fisherman Muhammad Nazrul Islam said.

Three-month-old fertilized riceplants got swamped and ricefields practically turned into a vast expanse of floodwaters, which will recede in the next two months.

Not only crops have been devastated. Household furniture, food, and clothing worth at least Taka 3,000 to 4,000 were lost by each household, Alyah Khatun of Taras Proper said.

It is interesting to note that residents of this flood-vulnerable area prepare before disaster hits them by building compartments close to their ceilings to store some food and other things. Yet, floods waters may rise to the ceiling, so raised platforms are not secure enough.

Food is scarce and prices of commodities have shot up high, which makes living doubly difficult for this farming and fishing community. A kilogram of rice, which was formerly sold at Tk. 23 a kilo shot up to Tk. 35 a kilo during the floods.

And while fishermen like Nazrul are happy with their catch, which doubled to some 50 kilograms during flood times, this happiness does not however stay long as prices of food items rise too.

The people who live on embankments and in shanties perched near the char areas were identified as priority recipients of a Tk3 lakh relief mission conducted on Sept 1 by Volunteer Services Overseas-Bangladesh and Gono Kalyan Sangstha (GKS), a locally based development NGO. GKS is a programme partner of VSOB.

While there were so many people to be given relief goods, Selim Jahangir, GKS founder, said that beneficiaries have to be prioritised considering the shortage of the food items. He said a Citizens Committee took care of the identification of recipients based on the need level of the household. The households showed that either one or both of the spouses were jobless, have more mouths to feed, are elderly, and/or disabled.



Volunteering
"Now, my family can eat," Muzdarbagla, one of the food relief recipients happily said to Jonathan Larocque, a VSO volunteer from Canada who works with Shatkhira-based Institute of Development, Education, for the Advancement of the Landless (IDEAL) as organisational development adviser. Ideal is a programme partner of VSOB.

Larocque, along with Canadian, Kenyan, Ugandan, and Filipino VSO volunteers, packed and distributed 400 bags of relief goods, each containing 10 kgs of rice, 1 kg salt, 1kg dal, 1kg flour, 1 kg sugar, 1 bottle of oil, 2 packs of biscuits, saline packets, 1 bottle of vitamins, and Taka 100 to 400 households.

Larocque was then visiting co-VSO volunteer Kenyan Pius Mbaya, who works with GKS, during the height of the floods when he thought of giving some help to the flood-hit victims.

Larocque's family and friends solicited support for flood-hit victims by going door to door to their neighbours' homes. With the help of a Canada-based magazine, Le Journal de Montréal, a raffle draw generated some money, which added up to an equivalent of Taka 2 lakh. An additional Tk 84,000 was added to this amount, sourced from salaries of VSOB staff and from VSO volunteers themselves.

VSOB country director, Shahana Hayat, said: "VSO Bangladesh is very pleased to provide help to its partner organizations and flood victims, with significant support from volunteers. VSO's long term vision is to develop people's optimum capacity so that the country can flourish with human resource."



Rehabilitation
The majority of the people of Taras, and practically most of the people of northern districts, will be waiting for the water to recede. Then they will be able to plant new rice seedlings of the major Aman variety again. Most of these areas are rice and jute producing fields.

According to earlier news reports, at least Tk 72 crore worth of crops, including paddy, jute, sugarcane, and vegetables on 47,407 hectares were damaged by the flood here at Sirajganj. This means additional capital is needed for fertilisers and rice seedlings.

Asked what the residents would do while waiting, resident Alyah Kathun said that they wouldsit and wait. Yet, the GKS founder said that a self-help programme was being designed to let residents do some alternative work while waiting for the waters to ebb. For an agricultural and fishing community, animal raising is also thought of as alternative livelihood. Taras is a new program area of GKS.

"VSO, with much hope, gives a hand to its partner organisations in relief and disaster management activities so that community people can be supported to cope with the food crisis and get back to their normal activities soon," Shahana Hayat further said.

Jogen Toppo, who is not particularly keen on relief work, also said that more sustainable programmes like alternative livelihood for farmer adivashis should be supported.



The author is a VSOB volunteer from Philippines, and is currently assigned at Rajshahi-based Adivasi Unnayan Sangstha.