Reducing landslide risks in the camps of Cox’s Bazar
Above: Anowera Begum stands in front of one of the slope stabilisers she worked on constructing. Photos: Md. Ariful Islam/CARE Bangladesh
Anowera Begum* is improving her own life and the safety of fellow displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh by supporting community efforts to improve the disaster resilience of camp infrastructure.
Camp 13, like many others in Cox’s Bazar, is precarious, with shelters perched on steep hills and exposed to wild weather. Repeated landslides and waterlogging during heavy rainfall in the monsoon season has significantly impacted refugees living in these congested makeshift camps.
Anowera, 42, found an opportunity to make a difference by joining her Block Development Committee, formed and regularly convened by the Disaster Risk Reduction team of CARE Bangladesh with the support of the Australian Humanitarian Partnership response. Through the committee, she learned about an opportunity to work in infrastructure improvement activities.
Above: Anowera Begum has improved her skills in construction by participating in disaster risk reduction activities in Camp 13. Photos: Md. Ariful Islam/CARE Bangladesh
This was not Anowera’s first experience working in manual labour and construction. Back in Myanmar, after her husband had passed away, she used to make ends meet by working as a day labourer in rice fields and sometimes in construction work. She was the only breadwinner in her family with six mouths to feed. She fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in August 2017 with her four daughters and one son after a series of persecutions in her village. Upon arrival, she and her children had no place to sleep, no food to eat, and no one to rely on, living in tents, and later makeshift camp shelters.
Like many others living in the camps, Anowera had also been struggling to meet her family’s basic needs. She couldn't provide them with sufficient nutritious meals, education, clothes, and sports or play opportunities due to limited humanitarian assistance and restrictions on work and movement. Additionally, as a single mother, she found it challenging to find suitable work inside the camp to earn extra income for her family.
Her involvement in a cash-for-work program through the Block Development Committee has been transformative for her family, as well as the surrounding community.
Above: Anowera Begum with three of her six children. The income she has earned through her disaster risk reduction work is helping to meet the family's basic needs. Photos: Md. Ariful Islam/CARE Bangladesh
Anowera worked in a slope stabilisation scheme as an unskilled program participant for 14 days a month, earning 325 BDT per day. Through this opportunity, she could better support her family and developed her construction skills.
"I am so happy about the money I received from working with CARE. I found the work very enjoyable and learned new skills. Also, I used this money to feed my family and buy clothes for them. I'm also making some income by breeding poultry using the money I received," Anowera said.
"It makes me sad when I hear about landslides in the camps and that these incidents are taking the lives of people like us in dangerous conditions,” she added. “We need more projects like this to save our lives from the dangers of landslides during heavy rainfall."
Hundreds of other displaced Rohingya, like Anowera, are benefiting from CARE Bangladesh’s disaster risk reduction activities supported by the Australian Humanitarian Partnership. The response is improving the resilience of families and individuals to shocks and disasters, as well as protecting the community at large from environmental hazards.
*Name changed