Bangladesh's extraordinary contribution to Sri Lanka tsunami victims

On the day the killer waves hit the coastline of Sri Lanka, D. B. Hemachandra was at his house getting ready to come to the market to open his aquarium shop located near the bus terminus in the southern city of Galle.

The waves carried away everything that he had in his shops, hundreds of fish, glass aquariums, fish food, birds etc. For almost six months he had to live off his savings. He then opened a new shop with the money he had saved.

Later some people of his village approached Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and sought its help. BRAC conducted a survey and gave Hemachandra a loan of Rs.40,000 to expand his business. He received the money within a month and expanded his business.

"With this money I bought more fish, aquarium equipment and birds from Colombo, said Hemachandra.

The shop has a variety of ornamental fish, all kinds of fish food, gadgets that fit into aquariums and also birds.

"A pair of love birds goes at Rs. 3000, while pigeons go for Rs. 2500 a pair," said Hemchandra, who pays a installment of Rs. 880 per week to BRAC for the loan that he has received.

"Hemachandra is a non-target beneficiary, target beneficiaries are the poorest of the poor specially tsunami effected widows or women with disable husband who lost their businesses and livelihood during tsunami," said Nishani Inoka Gamage, area manager of BRAC in Galle.

The money that Hemachandra and nearly 20,000 other beneficiaries received to restart their livelihoods came from people who have suffered from natural disasters in the past.

Over 4.8 million Bangladeshis, who faced cyclones and storms every year and know the suffering, contributed generously to BRAC when it began raising funds to help the tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.

BRAC, a partner of Oxfam Novib, arrived in Sri Lanka after the tsunami with some half a million dollars collected from its own beneficiaries and staff in Bangladesh.

"We mobilized funds through our own network. BRAC has a large beneficiary base of some 4.8 million people in Bangladesh, we raised funds through them and also our staff members contributed money,' said Md. Shahidul Hasan, country programme coordinator, Sri Lanka.

BRAC employees contributed half a day's salary to the Tsunami Relief Fund. The members of the Village organisations gave Taka 5 each while the beneficiaries of the Micro Enterprise Lending and Assistance programme gave Taka 10 each.

In May 2005 BRAC began distribution of assets and loans in the North, South and East of Sri Lanka. Its beneficiaries have received support for restarting or strengthening their livelihood activities.

Indira Rani had a beauty salon on the highway from Galle to Matara. The waves smashed the building and carried away everything that she had in the salon. All the hard work that she had put in for five years to set up her business was lost in a matter of minutes.

"I earned almost Rs. 5000 a day before the tsunami hit us. The shop was completely destroyed and I had to rebuild it from scratch,' said Indira Rani. With little savings that she had, Indira started reconstruction of the shop.

With the Rs 40,000 loan that Indira received from BRAC she brought the equipment and other essentials for the salon.

"Now the business is improving. I can earn about Rs. 3000 to 4000 a day," said Indira. With her earnings she has started repaying the loan, while saving some money to expand her salon.

Over the past one year BRAC has formed 576 village organisations and its programme organizers meet almost all the beneficiaries every week.

"We have community meetings with the village organisations where the people sit around and discuss their needs and decide on how those could be met, " said Nasir Hyder, district manager Galle.

"Almost all the beneficiaries are women, " said Shahid Hasan. "About seven percent of the beneficiaries are men, but we target women especially widows and women headed households as they are the most vulnerable section of the society. Also it is aimed at empowering women and through women the family itself."

Established in February 1972 with the aim of helping some 10 million refugees returning from India after Bangladesh gained independence, BRAC has expanded its operations over the years. It has programmes in all the districts of Bangladesh covering some 60,000 villages and a population of 68 million.

In 2002 BRAC established its programmes in Afghanistan too and is presently working in 17 provinces of that country. Its programmes are on health, education, micro finance and capacity building of non governmental organisations. Also BRAC has set up programmes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

BRAC will expand its operations in Sri Lanka with the assistance from Oxfam Novib and other donor agencies.

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