When catastrophes rear their ugly heads we have to be thankful for what we have and where we live, but our brothers and sisters living in these remote regions can’t pick up a phone and call for help. They are not that lucky. They depend on us reaching out to them to send the relief aid they are so desperately in need of.

Emergency teams are rushing to the rescue of the cyclone survivors in the southwest region of Bangladesh, and in India, where as many as 210 are feared dead from the catastrophe. These are only estimates and more are missing or not accounted for. Many of the casualties were children from where a dam burst and they were swept out to sea and drowned.
Disaster relief is being administered and they are struggling to provide shelter, food and water to the regions hardest hit by the water, high winds and mudslides. Only about ten percent of the population has been reached due to the flooding in the areas. Families are finding their homes and their schools washed away or under water. Where do they go from here? The disaster management says that tens of thousands of crops are gone, and more than 175,000 have lost their homes.

Photo: Villagers inspect their mud houses destroyed by Cyclone Aila in Birbhum district of West Bengal state, India.

Over 250,000 have been stranded in the hard hit districts. Hundreds of thousands have been left without homes after villages were washed away taking roads and even livestock. Trees are uprooted bringing down electricity lines leaving them without power and people are barely eating, or not getting fed at all. There is hardly any water to drink due to the salt water flowing into the ponds.
This is the season for monsoons, tsunamis, and bad weather. We have to be ready at a moments notice to help our brothers and sisters who need us and count on us to be there for them, and again, that time has come. They need your help. Please reach out and take somebody’s hand by your generosity. Make their world a better place, if you can.