Sally Williams/BRCRawshan Ara, 35, is one of ten community mobilisers hired through the Bangladesh Red Crescent’s community disaster preparedness project, which is co-funded by the British Red Cross.
Community mobilisers play a key role, filling the gap between the Bangladesh Red Crescent’s cyclone preparedness programme and community level action, ensuring cyclone shelters are used during a disaster and that they protect the whole community, particularly women who traditionally are expected to stay home and look after their belongings and children.
The measures put in place by Rawshan and the other community mobilisers and Red Crescent volunteers ensure that early warning translates to early action.
Reducing women’s vulnerability
Three out of the ten mobilisers are women, a crucial step towards reducing the vulnerability of women to cyclones in disaster-prone Bangladesh.
As one of a handful of women in this role, it has not always been easy to work in conservative Muslim or Hindu communities, particularly when trying to change attitudes to risk around gender.
Ali Asgar, project adviser for the British Red Cross, says: “Noakhali was a difficult area to work in at the start of the programme three years ago. When I would visit I was not able to talk to the women, but three years later this has changed. Through the local committees and women’s volunteer forums that have been set up, I see a huge change in attitudes. At the start, women committee members were not allowed to attend meetings – their husbands would go for them. Now it is a different story.”
Personal tragedy
Rawshan is motivated by personal tragedy, making her determined to help others, particularly women, in the face of disaster. “I come from a highly cyclone-prone area of Bangladesh. I have seen my whole family suffer time and time again from cyclones. In 2007, when cyclone Sidr hit, I lost my closest cousin. She was almost nine months pregnant at the time. After seeing so much suffering, I wanted to do something to help people affected by cyclones.”
Rawshan is responsible for nine cyclone shelters in the Noakhali district of southern Bangladesh. She trains disaster preparedness committees, which comprise 15 people from the local community based around the Red Crescent cyclone shelters. She helps them better prepare their own communities for disasters, such as cyclone Aila on 25 May 2009.
“Aila was the first cyclone to hit Bangladesh since I have been working for the Red Crescent,” Rawshan says. “With Cyclone Aila people put their training into action. After sounding the warning signal, I visited the island area of Noakhali and saw all the women safe in the shelters with their children and their belongings.
“I was so proud to see the way people responded, showing a positive attitude in the face of disaster. Seeing the community thinking about reducing their own vulnerability and turning this into action gave me a great sense of peace.”
Read more stories from women in Bangladesh