Hurricane Sidr: Slum dwellers also come in aid of Sidr victims

Trackback URL

Download PDF

Generosity doesn’t depend on means; that’s what the dwellers of a city slum have proved.

Touched by the sufferings and pains of thousands of homeless people affected by cyclone Sidr, residents of the Karail slum have come forward with whatever little they have.

It is not that these slum dwellers themselves have enough to eat and put on their backs. However their limited ability didn’t stop them from thinking big when it comes to helping those worse off.

Karail Basti is located in between Mohakhali and Banani in the capital and is home to mostly very poor people working as domestic aides, garments workers, rickshawpullers, petty shopkeepers and hawkers.

They have donated one truckload of clothes to Brac authorities for distribution among the now homeless inhabitants in Sidr affected areas.

Taslima Begum, who maintains her four-member family selling rice cakes in the slum, donated two maxis, a new sari and some old baby clothes.

“I felt so bad when I saw the state of the costal people on the television, especially women and children who now have nothing to eat and no clothes to wear during winter,” she told The Daily Star.

“We do not have abundant

assets, but somehow we are getting by. But the people hit by the cyclone have lost everything,” said this compassionate young woman, referring to the damage caused by Sidr that ripped through the southern coast of the country on November 15 leaving over 3000 dead.

Thirty-year-old widow Hazera only makes Tk 1200 a month working as a domestic aide in three houses. She starts work at dawn everyday and finishes late in the evening. Hazera said she donated 40 pieces of clothes including three saris and a bed sheet.

Hazera, a mother of four, said, “We are poor, but the cyclone-hit people are poorer now. They have nothing, no home, clothes or food to eat. We poor people can realise how painful it can be to be in a situation like that.”

Khadeza, another 30-year-old working as a domestic aide, said, “We as human beings must help the Sidr victims, because we may also become victims of similar disasters at any time.”

Like these three women, Shamsunnahar, Hanufa Begum, Abdur Rashid, Abdur Razzak Mollah, Sheuli, Shafia, Abu Bakar Siddiqui and many others extended their compassionate hands towards the Sidr victims, lovingly donating their hard earned belongings.

Karail slum, an almost isolated place within the capital city because of the lakes flowing on its three sides, is home to over 100,000 people. The houses here are tin-shed, shabby and congested with hardly any sanitation facilities. The thin and often malnourished children in tatters loitering around here speak of their poverty.

However, these downtrodden people of this city have shone through the dust and grime in their lives, with the generosity of their hearts.

M Sekander Ali, president of the mosque committee of the slum, handed over the truckload of clothes to Brac authorities. “We shall be happy if these clothes can bring some joy to at least some people in the cyclone-hit areas,” he said.

Brac, which runs some education, health and micro-credit programmes in the slum, has appreciated their donation.

“This is a manifestation of spontaneous people’s feeling towards human beings,” said M Anwarul Haq, director of Public Affairs and Communications, Brac.

Leave a Reply