‘The crisis has united us’

From children donating their savings from tiffin money to women offering their jewellery, from street beggars donating a part of the alms received in a day to corporate entities donating a day’s salaries of their staff — the people of Bangladesh have joined in a united effort to support those devastated by the recent flash floods, contributing in every way possible.
Truckloads of clothing, dates, flattened rice, puffed rice, salt, sugar, water, candles, rice, oil, lentils, saline, lighters, water purifying tablets, soap, and sanitary napkins are being transported to the flood-affected areas, while the cash received are being used to buy more relief materials.
Till 4:00pm yesterday, more than Tk 4.39 crore have been collected at TSC of Dhaka University.
Under the leadership of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, general students of DU and seven affiliated colleges, as well as volunteers from other educational institutions, have joined in to collect, sort, package, and load relief items to the trucks.
Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the platform, wrote on his Facebook page, “Fascism had divided us, but the crisis united us again. The relief you provided is a testament of peoples’ trust on us, and we are giving a detailed account of it.”
Md Rakib Hossain, a volunteer and master’s student of DU’s history department, said, “Now we urgently need to focus on cooked food, items like diapers, milk, and baby clothes. Our activities will continue till flood situation improves,” he added.
The platform has announced to move the mass relief collection to DU’s Central Field, as TSC has no space left to keep more relief materials.
The TSC booth will now accept only cash and emergency medicine, said Lutfar Rahman, a coordinator.
Similarly, students of Jahangirnagar University launched a campaign titled ‘Jahangirnagar Stands with Flood Victims’ on August 22.
Fundraising and donations have been taking place at the new Arts Building, university gates, nearby areas, and along the Dhaka-Aricha Highway.
People from all walks of life have contributed to raise Tk 33 lakh and other relief items till yesterday. The funds and materials are being gathered at the new Arts Building, while two trucks with 1,957 relief packets and a van with baby food left for flood-affected areas yesterday morning.
The students of private universities are not sitting idle either.
AIUB’s social welfare club ‘Shomoy’ raised over Tk 5 lakh and distributed it to flood victims in Feni on Saturday.
Students of Fareast International University collected and packed relief items and 20 volunteers will be heading with those for Feni today, said Amina Akter, a student.
Many individuals are personally collecting funds and sending relief items to flood-hit people.
“I have already sent five lots of clothes, each with 120 sacks. Each sack has 200 pieces of clothing. My domestic help and others are washing the clothes and packing those to be sent to flood victims,” said Farhana.
Advocate Noorjahan Kabir from Uttara collected Tk 4 lakh and two truckloads of clothes from her neighborhood and hopes to send those soon.
Samanta Islam, 12, a 6th-grader at Monipur School and College, said she has donated her tiffin money for flood relief.
[Additional reporting by Sirajul Islam Rubel and Sakib Ahmed.]