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Bangladesh

Bangladesh (MAABD001) - Programme Update 2

Attachments

Programme purpose:

Bangladesh is one of the most disaster prone countries of the world. It is often buffeted with disasters like cyclone, floods, mudslides, and earthquakes. These disasters often put the people of Bangladesh in tough situations and further eroded an already weak socio-economic condition. As such, IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent) and BDRCS (Bangladesh Red Crescent Society) are working together to provide immediate relief and to improve the situation of people who are struggling with the impact of disasters regularly. The activities of BDRCS and IFRC, are always aligned with strategic goals of the Movement. The disaster management unit is constantly looking respond quickly to any kind of disaster to save peoples' lives and protect their livelihoods. Likewise, to improve health conditions, BDRCS and IFRC are working together with communities to educate people in first aid, public health in emergencies and other public health issues. BDRCS and IFRC endeavour to keep the seven principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in mind when carrying out activities; and promoting social inclusion and a culture of non-violence and peace in communities.

Programme summary:

Throughout the year Bangladesh has witnessed several manmade and natural disasters. The mudslide in Cox's Bazaar killed at least 55 people. Besides this, a sudden flood around mid August caused severe damage to the corps and livelihood in the North western part of Bangladesh. In addition, two depressions formed in the Bay of Bengal also caused floods in the southern part of Bangladesh in October. Because of these disasters, BDRCS and IFRC remained heavily engaged in relief work throughout the year. To build resilient communities to flood and earthquake, BDRCS has initiated programmes like community based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) and earthquake preparedness and response programme ( EPRP). IFRC's health department is actively working together with BDRCS to achieve Global Agenda Goal 2 to enable healthy and safe living. Despite many limitations of the Bangladesh health programme, Bangladesh received accolades for outstanding achievement in immunization for covering children.

Bangladesh reached almost 83 per cent in measles coverage.

As bird flu and swine flu are comparatively new health problems in Bangladesh; most of people in the rural areas have no idea what these strands of influenza are. So it is essential to initiate a strong awareness programme to prevent these sorts of health problems. As river erosion is a major cause of displacement of the people in rural Bangladesh, a large number of families are forced to leave their original places and settle in new areas mostly in poor hygienic and dietary conditions - malnutrition is very common among displaced people. So BDRCS and IFRC have taken initiatives to raise awareness in the communities about nutrition, hygiene and other health related issues. Furthermore, as one of the major causes of death in Bangladesh is traffic accidents, IFRC and BDRCS have also initiated a road safety programme to raise awareness on the issue and also to train and develop community volunteers so that they can provide first aid services to the injured people in road traffic accidents.

Financial situation:

The 2010 budget of CHF 2.71 million was revised downwards to CHF 2,525,209 (USD 1,927,390 or EUR 1,927,390) of which 205 per cent is covered. The reason for the high percentage of coverage is due to the reallocation of funds and activities from the cyclone Sidr Operation (MDRBD003) to the annual country plan and budget.

Partner National Societies for 2010 include:

The Red Cross Society of China Hong Kong branch, Danish Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross/Finnish government, Japanese Red Cross, Netherlands Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross/Norwegian government, and Swedish Red Cross through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Besides International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) and IFRC, BDRCS works with other bilateral and multi-lateral partners. BDRCS has around 40 partners from the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, United Nations agencies, community-based non-governmental organizations, government bodies including the ministry of food and disaster management, ministry of health and family welfare, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department, OPEC and so on.

On behalf of BDRCS, IFRC would like to thank all partners and contributors for their generous response to this appeal.