Bangladesh - Flood Emergency
Doctors for Peace has carried out, in collaboration with the local partner DALIT, a post-flood emergency health intervention in Keshabpur, in the district of Jessore, guaranteeing medical examinations to 5,275 people, including 3,053 women, 1,207 men and 1,015 children. At the invitation of the local partner, Doctors for Peace visited the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, interviewing 15 refugees who were victims of violence and abuse by the Burmese army.
Project Map
The context
The torrential rains that fell between India, Nepal and Bangladesh in October 2017 brought South Asia to its knees with floods and landslides affecting 41 million people. The monsoons, among the most devastating in the last 40 years, have mainly affected the northern and central regions of Bangladesh, which has been underwater for a third of its surface. In Bangladesh alone, 8 million people were involved, over 650,000 homes damaged or completely destroyed.
Activities
With the collaboration of the DALIT Association, a local partner, Doctors for Peace has carried out an emergency health support intervention in favor of the population of Keshabpur (70,000 people) in the district of Jessore, a heavily affected area near the border with India. The heavy floods, which began in July 2017, caused the Kapotakkha River to overflow with dramatic consequences for the inhabitants of the surrounding villages who are in serious conditions of poverty and social marginalization (most of the residents, in fact, belong to the DALIT social class, the most discriminated against in Bangladesh). 7,430 families were affected, 50 villages were completely destroyed and 30 were partially damaged. 1,700 families live in 17 temporary camps. Doctors for Peace, in collaboration with the local partner DALIT, has set up 25 Medical Camps in the 10 most affected villages around the city of Keshabpur (Moddokul, Komorpol, Sabdia, Brommamati, Habashpool, Baliadanga, Altapol, Mulgram, Dormutia, Ramchandrapur). The medical team of the mobile clinic, made up of local staff, visited the adults and children of the villages offering qualified health care and medicines. The Medical Camps were created in community centers, such as schools.
