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TODAY o September 7, 2000
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Atlantan makes plea for Bangladesh
He's calling on other natives of
storm-battered nation to join relief effort.
Saeed Ahmed - Staff
Thursday, September 7, 2000
Nearly a week after a 10-foot-high tidal surge battered their homes and
claimed 142 of their kin, residents of an island in Bangladesh are still reeling
from its effects.
Relief has been slow in coming for Sandwip, an island off the southern coast
of Bangladesh, despite an international appeal by the Red Cross for at least
600 tons of rice to feed the 35,000 people rendered homeless.
Most of the island is still under 5 feet of saltwater; tube wells are sunken and
surface water is contaminated by waste. The people of the island, huddled in
makeshift shelters and school buildings, face a deadly outbreak of dysentery
and cholera --- unless help arrives soon.
But Zubair Hussain, an Atlanta software engineer who's helping with basic
relief efforts in the island, doesn't believe it will.
Hussain says that for Bangladesh --- a nation that is deluged every year by
monsoon rains --- such calls for assistance are being increasingly met by
donor passivity.
"We know that if aid doesn't come soon, the impact will be colossal," he said.
"But we also know how blase the donor countries have become with our annual
cry for help. So all we can do now is simply wait and pray."
Hussain, however, is doing more than that. Having cut short his vacation in the
capital, Dhaka, to leave for Sandwip, he has now started a modest e-mail
campaign, offering firsthand accounts of the displaced residents' plight and
asking friends in the United States to contact their Red Cross chapters with
donations.
"I don't know how much that will help but every little bit does," Hussain said.
"Some of the stories I e-mailed are quite heart- wrenching and if they don't
help impel giving by Bangladeshis in the States for their own countrymen, that
will probably be the most heartbreaking of all."
People wishing to donate money to help with relief efforts in Sandwip may
contact the American Red Cross International Response Fund at
1-800-HELP-NOW.
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