Flooding in Dhaka and Komola’s climate change solutions

This is Komola’s story

‘My name is Komola. My husband's name is Martin. I have a son, he is studying in the first year of high school. My husband works as a day labourer.

‘I am a member of the local church and part of a self-help group of Shalom [Tearfund’s local partner]. I am a facilitator in the group. I work on dealing with discrimination between men and women, and I am also a member of the disaster management committee.

‘I didn't study much. I passed the tenth grade in 2004 and then I didn't study anymore.

I was 16 years old. My marriage took place in the same month that my tenth grade results were published. My husband was very poor, but he still wanted me to study. But, we didn't have the financial ability to make it possible, and I didn’t understand the importance of education at that time.

‘I now realise that if I had studied more, my quality of life might have been a little better, but there is no point in regretting it now.

‘We live in extreme poverty, below the poverty line. You would understand if you could see our living conditions.

Transforming Communities through prayer and other practical things 

‘Tearfund’s Transforming Communities activities started here in November 2018. I went to the training, and heard something that I always remember, "If you don't change yourself, you can't change anyone else."

‘Now, everyday I try to read the Bible and pray with my husband and children in the evening. I will not lie, it is not possible every day. But I try.

‘But, Bible study does not just mean reading the Bible or praying. For example, if someone is sick, they need food and financial assistance in addition to prayer.

‘Our road here was broken by a storm, and so our Transforming Communities group repaired it. Later, the road was broken again by another storm, and we received some financial assistance and repaired it again.

‘We do not always succeed. There is success, failure, people’s abuse, their love. You cannot make everyone happy together at once. If you do something, some will say good, some will say bad. If you work, you will make mistakes, if you make mistakes, you will correct them. In this way, we try to gradually improve.

The problem of erosion and a finding solutions

‘Disaster is something that happens suddenly. In a disaster, we suffer a lot of damage. We have floods, droughts, floods again, river erosion, salinity – all these disasters occur here.

‘I had a house here before, but it was washed away by the river.

‘My father used to have a lot of land, but now we don't have enough space to build a house because the river erosion has taken away everything from us.

‘Many people have left this area because of the river erosion as they no longer have a place to live. Some have gone to India, some to Dhaka or other places.

‘I am a member of the disaster management committee. There are members from different areas. We have discussions and make action plans on all the issues – such as what problems are being faced in each area, what disasters are being faced. We discuss problems and plan solutions. I may not be able to solve a problem in my area alone, but the other members of the committee help to solve that problem. We work together in this way.

‘One issue we had is that because of the salinity, we had a shortage of drinking water. Tearfund’s local partner has given us water tanks, but they are not enough.

‘So we, the members of the Transforming Communities group, and the people of the community worked together to construct a dam. After the construction of the dam, salt water no longer came into our area. People could grow vegetables to eat, and there was no waterlogging.

‘Later, our dam was damaged in the Sitrang cyclone. Then, we realised that building a dam using only mud wouldn’t last, we needed to build a dam with concrete blocks. We were able to get assistance with money to buy the concrete blocks.

‘We all discussed the matter and we, the members of the Transforming Communities group, built this dam with the people of the community.

‘Now, there is no more salt water coming in [to where we are living and farming]. One side of the dam wall is a little low, so it has to be repaired. Maybe we will all fix it together in a few days.

Women like Komola and a God-given responsibility

‘I am trying my best in my own way. I think that I have made at least some contribution to the benefit of society in whatever little work I have done. I want to continue working in this way.

‘I am also a women’s leader of the Bangladesh Environment Movement Group. We have to do that development which will be beneficial for our future generations.

‘In the morning, during breakfast, I pray to God to give me the strength to help people without any selfishness.

‘I believe God has given me this responsibility. God does not always work directly, he works through someone. Maybe that’s who I am.

‘I want to thank Tearfund. They have given women like me – who did not have a voice before – courage, and taught us how to talk with people. There is a lot of discrimination between men and women here. Child marriage happens, women face many obstacles in the family and society. Maybe I couldn't learn everything, but I am grateful for what I have learned and I hope that in the future I will always have you by my side.

‘You have encouraged us. You took a step forward, so we could take another step on our own. I am even more grateful that you have worked with a woman like me! I have made an effort but it was not possible without your efforts. We want to do even more development work in the society and help more people.’