HODR Project Rayenda has come to a close.
This was a project that stretched the boundaries of our organization and the volunteers who participated in it. The country is desperately poor, struggling with a “caretaker” government, transportation is difficult, it is logistically complicated, and all of these conditions were exacerbated by cyclone Sidr on 15 November, 2008. Even given these conditions, in true Hands On fashion we were able to find projects that fulfilled a need in the devastated region of Bagerhat Division and jumped in to help. The following is a recap of Hands On Disaster Response’s last weeks of Project Rayenda.
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In the last 5 weeks of Project Rayenda HODR volunteers erected 5 playgrounds and built 5 HODR Half houses!
In partnership with Save the Children UK we designed, pre-fabricated, and installed playgrounds for 5 of the public schools in Sarankhola Upazila. A tremendous effort was put forth by a dedicated team of volunteers to pre-fabricate entire playgrounds at our base with amazing accuracy. Install teams of 8-10 volunteers then traveled to remote villages and lived in school rooms or in cyclone shelters during the onsite builds. These teams dug holes, painted, assembled the equipment, mixed and poured cement, and applied the finishing touches of each 10-part playground. Adding excitement to the mix were the crowds of literally hundreds of curious locals who gathered to watch the volunteers at work. Each install team established an amazing rapport with their host community, frequenting local tea shops, encouraging local participation in the builds, taking part in after-work volleyball or cricket games, and spontaneously organizing community sing-alongs. The five playgrounds that we leave in Sarankhola are not only much loved by the children, they’ve become gathering places for adults as well.
In a tremendous surge of effort, regardless of soaring temperatures, our volunteers wrapped the HODR Half program on a strong note. Houses 10-15 went up in record time and the increased speed was matched with increased quality! The volunteers’ dedication has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated by the locals – Bengalis admit that they themselves have no interest working on a hot tin roof in the peak heat of the day! The HODR Half program marks HODR’s most ambitious self-contained housing project to date. The needs assessment, design, and building of the homes has developed the capacity of the organization while expanding our volunteers’ skillsets.
Celebrate Good Bye
In a sea of love the volunteers shared a goodbye celebration with about 250 of our friends from Rayenda. The evening included girls singing the national anthem, traditional dancing performances, local singers, and 2 performances from HODR volunteers. There were some speeches and then the highlight of the evening – a 15 minute slide show set to music from the Bangladesh Idol! It was so fun to see the response as photos of our work and our volunteers and our community people appeared on the stage backdrop. I was told that most of our guests had never seen such a thing. This was followed by our volunteers serving a box meal to all the attendees. Although there was no choreographed dance routine by the volunteers this year – it was still a wonderful celebration.
Lottery and Distribution
It has become a HODR tradition to distribute its assets when it closes down a deployment. The volunteers completed an exhaustive inventory and assembled a list of the 95 most needy families in our area of service (not including the recipients of a HODR Half). On 13 April the invitees (all winners) arrived on schedule and in a very orderly fashion came into our yard and drew a single slip of paper from our mini HODR Half scale model. They were then lead to Rajib where he read from the prize board what they had won and the party began. There was clapping, smiles all around, and even some dancing! It was fabulous. The joy continued on 15 /16 April when the recipients claimed their winnings from piles of wood, sheets of tin, kitchen items, beds, toolboxes, and plastic chairs with miscellaneous grab bags.
Celebrate A Plenty
HODR had a busy social calendar over the past few weeks with invitations to official ceremonies, to celebrate the Bangla New Year, and to share meals in friends’ homes. The grand opening of the Save the Children/HODR playgrounds was held at the Choto Rajapur build site and attended by hundreds of children and adults from the community. We were welcomed by the community as they lined the dusty street awaiting our arrival. Then we had the obligatory speeches, some dancing and an “all hands” performance of “You are my Sunshine.” NGO reps, local and school officials were invited to participate in our hand-painting ceremony. They ran around like children, leaving their blue hand prints on the brightly colored playground equipment. After a ribbon cutting ceremony, we proudly opened the 5 playgrounds of Sarankhola. Other events included turning over ceremonies at: the Amragacchia English Medium School, the Morelganj Lyceum Acacdemy, and a beautiful (albeit quickly organized) ceremony at the Kodamtola Informal school.
We had 50 volunteers join us from 10 different countries with an average stay of a whopping 31 days! Now, the volunteers have scattered to Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Calcutta, Bangkok, Mayanmar, Canada, Ireland, Philippines, places near and far. They left via launch, bus, rocket, and two of them even pedaled off on a van (a local method of transport consisting of a large tricycle with a wooden flatbed)! We leave our Bangla friends with a heavy heart but content in the knowledge that we helped so many in such a short time. We leave confident that we will be together again, somewhere we are needed, to help those suffering after a natural disaster.
Thank you, for who you are and what you do.
Until we meet again…..
Marc Young
Operations Director
Hands On Disaster Response