| Standing outside her makeshift house on the banks of the Baleshwar River, Manboru said:
"I have no relatives to take care of me so I had to rebuild this myself. Everyone else in my village has lost their home and belongings too, so no one is able to help each other as we would normally do."
Recent figures estimate that around 365,000 houses were destroyed, with an estimated 5.5 million people affected by Cyclone Sidr. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies plans to distribute building materials to 5,000 of the most vulnerable families in the region.
Items including plastic sheeting, bamboo, tool kits and corrugated iron sheets will be distributed along with training to encourage people to rebuild their own homes.
Helping most vulnerable in Bangladesh
As well as providing the materials, the Red Cross is also working with local communities to train people so they have the skills to safely rebuild their homes, many of which have been completely flattened.
Due to the ever-changing landscape in Bangladesh many people have to move their homes regularly, and so items such as corrugated iron sheets are useful as they can be taken off and reused.
Lois Austin, British Red Cross relief operations manager, explained: “People in the affected regions need to have a house that is potentially moveable due to the shifting flood planes of Bangladesh. So unlike with the tsunami for instance, where the rebuilding took the form of concrete homes, in Bangladesh it is much more appropriate to provide items like corrugated iron sheets and bamboo.”
Read the information sheet on the Bangladesh cyclone | 
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