HEADLINES OF THE DAY: ANOTHER 15,000 PEOPLE DIED YESTERDAY BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO POOR TO LIVE. THE RICH INCREASED THEIR WEALTH YESTERDAY BY $0.3 BILLION. THE 21st CENTURY VERSION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS ONE DAY NEARER.
“O Ye rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.”
Bahá’u’lláh
A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis at willisdavid167@gmail.com. CHAPTER 1: INDIFFERENCE TO POVERTY (Part 68). This blog is a continuation of the review of FREEDOM FROM WANT: THE REMARKABLE SUCCESS STORY OF BRAC, THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION THAT’S WINNING THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY by Ian Smillie published 2009.
Heartland Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) was formed
An organization called Heartland Emergency Lifesaving Project (HELP) was formed and foreign assistance started to come in. if the chief accountant of Shell was running HELP, and if American doctors and a priest were involved, the organization must be trustworthy. There was nothing else to give money to. HELP and the work on Manpura changed everyone involved. All would be drawn back repeatedly over the years, and all would contribute, some in very profound ways, to the creation and evolution of BRAC.
The government effectively ceased to function
Less than a month after the storm, Pakistan’s most important general elections were held, a prelude to ending military rule. Neither Bhutto nor the West Pakistan-dominated army, was willing to cede power to the Awami League or a Bengali prime minister. Strikes and civil disobedience intensified. The government effectively ceased to function, and the economy began to slide. Indian journalist Anthony Mascarenas visited the 16th Division headquarters at Comilla and was told: “We are determined to cleanse east Pakistan once and for all of the threat of secession, even if it means killing off 2 million people and ruling the province as a colony for 30 years.”
The worst man-made disaster of all time
In London, Abed went immediately to Shell’s headquarters, tendered his resignation, and began raising funds for war victims, creating Action Bangladesh. By the middle of 1970, the so-called crackdown was looking more and more like a genocidal war against an entire people as millions streamed to Calcutta, Meghalaya, Assam and Tripura. If the cyclone had been the most deadly natural disaster, this was surely the worst man-made disaster of all time. India declared war on Pakistan on December 3. On December 16 the Pakistan army surrendered.
Clothing, shelter, and renewed livelihoods were the priority
Abed returned in January, forming the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC). Clothing, shelter, and renewed livelihoods were the priority. He chose an area known as Sulla, conducted a survey, purchased tools and agricultural implements for farmers, nylon twine for fishermen, and 3 million bamboo poles for house reconstruction. He wrote BRAC’s first funding proposal for £189,000 and Oxfam approved the project.
They planned to build 10,500 houses but built 14,000
They had planned to build 10,500 houses but built 14,000, distributed 25 tons of rice seed, hired power tillers where bullocks were in short supply, distributed 4,500 pounds of nylon wire and constructed 200 boats for fishermen, provided tools for carpenters and boat builders, bought 125 handlooms for weavers, formed 52 agricultural cooperatives, and organized four medical teams to treat 200 patients a day. Paramedics provided basic health education including information on how to deal with the country’s number one child killer, diarrhea, in all of the 187 villages in the project area.
Abed wrote a new proposal
When the project was finished, Abed reported that £16,500 remained and asked if Oxfam would like the money back. They told him to apply it to the next project so he who wrote a new proposal to take the organization – now named Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee – through to 1974. After nine months Abed knew that poverty and injustice could not be eradicated easily, but did not know that he would confront and surmount some of the greatest development challenges on the planet and everything he knew about economics, health, and education would be turned on its head. Nor could he know that, had he returned to the corporate world, even if he had become president of Shell Oil, he could never achieve half as much as he would with BRAC.