What gives me hope

My search for some semblance of hope during such an emergency brought me to the people of a particular organisation involved in what I think comes closest to nation building in Bangladesh. Here I met some rather strange people. Certainly underpaid, if not unpaid, and overworked, most of the people in this organisation work as volunteers. Their only motivation is to contribute to the onerous task of nation building in their own ways. They are inspired and driven by what they believe in and they firmly believe in people's capacities. They believe it is absolutely possible for Bangladeshis to take charge and develop their motherland on their own. When the floods hit, the water swept off thousands of homes while unaffected affluent folks remained oblivious, thousands of these volunteers across the country took matters in their own hands and began their relief and rescue efforts. Many of these volunteers are teenagers, still in school, who have dedicated their time, their very meager resources, and at times their own rooms to the flood affected people. They shared inspiring stories of courageous people fighting this life-altering crisis with great dignity and grace. They reported numerous

stories of people who have lost everything, are in miserable conditions themselves but are prioritizing and helping others. I share only a few of these anecdotes in the hope that they will perhaps inspire a few more souls or at the very least, inform those who have resigned that there is reason to have faith.

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Volunteer Mamoon told me a story of a team of 25 young people in

Manikganj, led by another young volunteer that has been traveling in a boat around the submerged area of Bariajhuri and Dighi. They have been collecting and distributing relief materials round the clock and the last I heard had not returned home in 10 days. They are a team of heroic rescuers ensuring the safety and well being of the people trapped in the water. This team, that includes local volunteers from this organization, has been singing songs of courage and inspiration, performing to give people strength,

boost morale and show their solidarity.

Hanif, a young bus conductor exemplified people's sincere compassion and concern for each other. Like all the other families in a shelter in Dhaka, his home is under water and he had to bring his family to the shelter. When the relief team offered him some food, he refused. He did not allow the children in the family

to accept any help either. He explained that he is still able to earn a daily income as the buses in the city are running. Instead, he brought in couple of other families that desperately needed help and asked the volunteers to give his share of relief to them.

I heard of an innovative distribution mechanism from a volunteer in the Barogram area near Dhaka. To ensure that the most vulnerable of the people are being prioritised, the staff of the organisation consulted the local volunteers who are well

aware of people's sufferings and damages. The local volunteers identified the neediest of the families. They were then given a "token" in the form of a missive that stated their extremely vulnerable status. These families met at the local mosque, the only dry place in the area, to receive relief materials collected by the organisation. In Narayanganj, when the volunteers

reached a shelter, they asked the people there to distribute them. In a great show of unity and solidarity, people identified the neediest of the families and decided to distribute the materials to them first. They also made a secondary list of people who should receive aid from the next shipment. At the end of the night when it became impossible to continue, the people designated one place where they left the packets of undistributed oral saline and announced widely to people about it so that they can get them from this

place when needed. This also helped them centralise critical information such as instructions on how to prepare saline solution, etc to ensure proper dissemination. All of this was led and executed by people we generally consider to be uneducated and hence unintelligent, resource poor and therefore miserly and criminal.

Volunteer Bornali reported from

Mymensingh of a family living in desperate situation, having lost their house to roaring floodwater. The family had reluctantly accepted some rice and pulses in the morning from Bornali's relief team. In the evening, the mother arrived at the team camp with the food they had prepared with that donation to share it with the rest of the team. Such a considerate, generous act of courtesy and humanity came from a family with very little material possession.

The young volunteer members of this organization have been leading relief effort in their respective areas without any help from others. They have set up Oral Hydration Corners in shelters and flood-affected neighborhoods, and initiated systems of collection and distribution according to the needs of the areas. Members of the Mirpur unit in Dhaka even gave up one meal a day in solidarity with the hundreds of hungry flood affected people! They have decided to donate that meal to the shelters until people can return to their homes. Some teams are working as night patrols equipped with nothing more than flashlights and bamboo sticks, guarding the people in the shelters from miscreants or the homes that they had to leave behind.

Volunteer Juboraaj told me stories from Kaundia Union of families with very little means, trying to survive this crisis without donations and handouts. The Dhar family, the Hossains, the Rahmans, the Shutrodhar family, all have lost their homes and are living in shelters or in other people's houses. These are only a few of many families from the Kaundia unit who have refused food assistance and/or offered them to their neighbors and other people instead. They offer to donate their

share of relief to others, even if they have enough for one meal only. Some even refuse based on the hopes of some income the next day. These are people who the world has labeled as "extreme poor," never recognising the wealth of their conscience, the richness of their hearts, and the depth of their principles. Their struggle to maintain their dignity and self-respect, their determination to survive this disaster with pride and confidence is not only respectable but examples to be copied by the rest of the world.

These people are the reasons I choose to have hope. During a time when inspiration is a rarity anywhere, I have found it in abundance among these young volunteers and flood survivors. Their patriotism, generosity and above all, humanity are not only contagious but also transforming. An Ivy League education doesn't even come close to what I have learned from the people and the young generation of Bangladesh. They are the faces that will keep me going in the uphill battle of a never-ending war against poverty.

Afreen Alam is an MA candidate at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York.