8 December 2007

We at the Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation (CCEC), a MAP network partner since our formation in 1993, are making a special request for your assistance to help cyclone victims to survive, recover, rebuild, and for rehabilitation of the coastal environment.   The CCEC office located in Khulna is not far from the most severely Cyclone Sidr impacted coastal communities, and we have the capacity and desire to provide much needed assistance, but your critical and timely support is needed.

Cyclone Sidr, likened to a mini-Tsunami due its powerful 5-6 metre tidal surge hit the Bangladesh Sundarban coast, 15 November 2007, officially taking 3,243 human lives to-date but it is estimated this figure could rise to 10,000. Seven million people of 12 districts are affected. 138 km of embankments were destroyed.  Five million people are facing housing shelter problem. Hundreds of fishermen of Dubla fishing island community died because there was no avalable cyclone shelter.   A huge amount of infrastructure including housing, schools, communication towers, fishing boats, piers, etc. were smashed with the Sidr tidal surge and wind velocity of 250 km/hr.  Barguna, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Barisal, and Jhalokathi coastal districts face unbelievable serious damage with extensive loss of human life, livestock, rice paddy, shrimp farms, and other agricultural lands which have been left barren. Crops were just about to be harvested.

The relief effort has started, but many villages in remote areas are left with no food, no water, no shelter, no clothes, and they may not be reached in time.  CCEC is ready to assist areas where we've been working, but we need your partnership so we can get emergency supplies to where they're most needed.

Sundarban - the UNESCO declared World Heritage Site - is the world largest mangrove forest. It took a direct hit which helped to save coastal lives and resources by sacrificing herself as a buffer.   The magnitude of devastation would be manifold if not for the Sundarban mangroves which suffered extensive damage according to early reports.  A great deal of assistance will be required in the medium- to long-term to rehabilitate this critical protective barrier against future cyclones and tidal surges.

Since 1993, the CCEC, a local environmental NGO based at Khulna, has been working for Sundarban biodiversity conservation and promoting sustainable harvesting involving the Sundarban stakeholders, the Bouali (wood and thatch cutters), the Mouali (honey extractors) and the Jalley (fisherfolk and crab harvesters), the most vulnerable group.

If you would like to contribute, any assistance in the form of money - small or large - it is most welcome.   Please find our banking details below.  We guarantee that all incoming support will be used directly for food, water, fuel, shelter supplies and longer-term mangrove restoration efforts. We are obviously not a 'relief organization,' but our local contacts, networks and on the ground experience, working in the affected areas will be of great help for effective coordination and distribution and longer-term development. 

CCEC promises to continue doing our utmost to bring relief to those in need.   We've a full project proposal which we would be happy to share with you for Sundarban mangrove restoration around BWDB polder 32 to help prevent future cyclone damage.

We thank you for your concern and support.

Sincerely yours,

Mowdudur Rahman
Director
Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation (CCEC)
House # 93, Road # 2,
Sonadanga R/A,
Khulna-9000
Bangladesh
Phone: ++880 41 810982
E-mail: ccec_bd@khulna.bangla.net

Legal status (registration identity):  The CCEC is registered by the Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Rules 1978 under the NGO Affairs Bureau, Government of Bangladesh on 26 October 1996. Registration No. 1085

======

To support this work, please click here.  The link will take you to the giving page of Global Greengrants Fund where you can make your tax-deductible gift on-line. 

Please be sure to designate your gift for the Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation.

Global Greengrants Fund
2840 Wilderness Place, Suite A
Boulder, CO 80301
USA

Be sure to note on your check that your donation is for CCEC in Bangladesh

Call Global Greengrants Fund at:  +1 303 939 9866

Global Greengrants Fund makes small grants to environmental activists in the Global South through a network on 19 advisory boards.  Greengrants will use their network to make the grant of your funds to the Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation. 

Submitted by:  MAP Asia


>>> All Action Alerts