With a 60kg box balanced on his head, a Bangldeshi man makes his precarious way across a bridge built from a single tree branch.
In the box is a 10-person tent, blankets, cooking equipment, tools and a selection of other equipment supplied by the disaster relief charity ShelterBox.
A fortnight after Bangladesh was hammered 155mph winds and a 15ft tidal surge generated by Cyclone Sidr, aid is only just starting to reach many of the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless in the disaster.
UK-based ShelterBox has so far sent help for more than 6,000 people and is packing more aid boxes that will be sent to Bangladesh over the next few days.
The boxes have been sponsored by donors from across the UK – including Rotary clubs, schools business and hundreds of individual supporters. Contained in each box will be a tent and other survival essentials designed for a family of up to 10 people.
Yesterday (Thursday), the first boxes sent to Bangladesh reached the village of Gabatula, which had taken the full force of the storm. The boxes were delivered by volunteers from a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT), working with the Bangladeshi military. SRTmember Mark Pearson said: "We’re the first agency to be providing shelter in this area."
The mission to get the boxes from the capital Dhaka had been a logistical nightmare. Apart from the sheer scale of the disaster, aid operations are hampered by a landscape covered with swamps andrivers. The storm has also destroyed bridges, left roads blocked by thousands of fallen trees and flooded large areas.
In the end, it was the US Navy that helped get the aid moving. On Wednesday, helicopters from the USS Kearsarge flew some of the ShelterBoxes to a forward operating base on the edge of the storm-hit area. Using a number of small boats, the Bangladeshi military then ferried the boxes downstream to Gabatula, where the ShelterBox team were finally able to begin setting up tents and handing out boxes to individual families.
An earlier reconnaissance had identified 3,000 people in Gabatula alone who lost their homes to the cyclone. ShelterBox volunteer John Baddeley, a pharmacist from Dorset, said:"The scenes here are pretty awful. We’ve seen the graves of people who’ve drowned. We’re just glad to get these boxes here and get them out to the families that need them.
Another 400 boxes have also now left Dhaka and should reach the ShelterBox team today. Keith Higgs, a paramedic from Porthleven, said: "It’s going to be a busy few days for us once they arrive."
Until more aid from ShelterBox arrives, thousands of families will continue to huddle together in crude shacks built from sticks, bits of bamboo and lengths of cloth. The UN today announced a six-month plan to help Bangladesh recover from the cyclone.
30/11/07
