Volunteers Association of Bangladesh:

VAB is a charitable organization established with the intent of mobilizing funds and other resources in support of the educational activities of poor children. Currently twenty of their schools are inundated under water. VAB has taken up a program to help 1000 of its students by raising $5000.

Details: Bangladesh Flood: Appeal for Helping VAB Schools and Scholarship Holders

Dear Friends:

Ref: Bangladesh Flood: Appeal for Helping VAB Schools and Schoalrship Holders

Following my earlier alert, I now place before you the Appeal I received just now from our Volunteers in Bangladesh. They submit a realistic and timely proposal of sending immediately a Food /medicine Package, costing only US$ 5 (five) each to 1000 students and their families in our 20 affected schools. The details of food/medicine items in each package are also included.

VAB volunteers from Dhaka will go to these affected school areas and the food items will be purchased locally in collaboration with school officials and distributed to affected students and their families. Records of all purchases and other expenses incurred for travel and distribution work will be kept and a report will be prepared along with the financial statement after this relief operation is completed. The summary of the report will be e-mailed to all donors and the full report will be available for review from
the VAB central office in Irvington. I take the personal responsiblity for this report.

During the relief operations and thereafter, VAB volunteers will assess the damage done to the students and their families and make some estimate of the minmum help that may be needed to rehabilitate the studetns and their families at a functioning level so that the VAB supported studetns can start attending school and focus on their studies. The Rehabilitation effort on our part may come later.

The URGENT Need is now for Relief. Please review the Appeal and donate generously. Any amount that you can spare will be helpful and be greatly appreciated.

I am fully aware that many of you are already donating for flood victims. But I urge you to make whatever small amount you can afford just to show your solidarity with your fellow volunteers in Bangladesh in standing by the side of our affected students, their families and the VAB school communities in their Hour of Need.

Please make your donation check to: VAB -Flood Relief Fund and mail it to : VAB, P.O.Box-234, Irvington, New York 10533.

Since time is of the essence in relief operations, we will be extemely grateful for your urgent response. If have any queries or suggestions, please e-mail or call me at: 914-591-8635.

Best wishes and look froward to hearing from you. Cordially, A.T. Rafiqur Rahman

AN APPEAL FOR HUMANISTIC SUPPORT

Bangladesh as a nation, is yet experiencing another devastating flood this year, only six years after the last such flooding in 1998, scars of which are still very much alive in life and economy of this country. Flood has already taken almost one third of the country under water, deaths have reached to 537 lives officially, standing crops are either down or lost in 3 million acres of land and the immediate estimate suggests a loss of property worth 6,667 million US$. The already fragile life and economy of the rural
people in particular have yet received another serious shock, making life even more vulnerable but challenging. Because of the massive and unusual rainfall this year in the Himalayan tracts and the adjacent areas like China and India, Bangladesh also is experiencing a heavy downpour causing such
untimely natural disasters taking million lives under constant threat.

Volunteer Association of Bangladesh (VAB), under its scholarship for very poor students and school improvement program is active to assist 460 secondary students of 23 high schools this year, mostly in rural settings. 20 such schools are under knee-deep water and all regular educational activities have been temporarily halted until situation improves, hopefully sooner. The volunteers of VAB/Prakritajan in Bangladesh are seriously concerned about the damages and dislocations caused to these schools, the
students and their families and the school comminities. They are committed to stand by the side of these flood vicims in order to mitigate their sufferings in whatever way they can.

To frame a comprehensive program to successfully intervene this flood at now and later, the VAB Working Group in Bangladesh sat on an emergency meeting on Wednesday, 28th July 2004 to discuss specific and realistic relief and after flood rehabilitation operations. As a part of the emergency relief,
VAB/Prakritajan group decided to offer food packet to at least 50 students in each school making 1,000 students from 20 suffering schools. The estimated cost of each food and medicine packet would cost a minimum to Tk. 300 or US$ 5 making the entire cost involved into this emergency relief operation be around Tk. 300,000 or US$.5,000.

VAB Bangladesh group has taken drive to raise funds locally and after all funds are accumulated, would go for this relief operation.. On rehabilitation part, decision has been made to assess the acual loss and as a minmum, to offer educational materials to students who have already lost them because of this flood. Moreover, if funds are available, additional supports would be placed to community people who visibly have lost their houses so that only house buildng materials would be provided with expectations that victims would engage their labor to make home stand.

We, the VAB Working Group in Bangladesh, therefore appeal to you all to please come forward with whatever you may have to jointly exercise our human power to stand with this suffering people at this time of their greatest needs. Whatever is small to you is still something great and very useful to
them and nothing is wasted. We so far have been able to collect essential life saving drugs from different pharmaceutical companies and have already initiated several Medical Teams to the affected areas. If you are interested to take part into this human exercise, which we strongly feel that you will, then you are kindly requested to contact Prof. Dr. A T R Rahman in the USA at his phone no. 914-5918635 or at arahman10@aol.com. To contact Bangladesh point please contact Prakritajan office at 278 Elephant
Road (2nd Floor), Kataban, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh, at 861-6897, 967-4273 or at prak@bdcom.com

1. Professor Syed Giasuddin Ahmed, Convener, VAB Advisory Council in
Bangladesh

2. Professor Shamsul Hoq Molla, Convener, VAB Working Group in Bangladesh

3. Principal Hamida Ali, Country Representative,VAB Bangladesh

4. Professor A B M Faroque, Chairman, Prakritajan

5. Dr. James Tejosh Das, Executive Director, Prakritajan

Proposed Contents of Each Food Pack : 1.

Chira ( fried rice), 2 Kg (Tk. 26 per Kg) = Tk. 52.002.
Gur ( molasses juice) 250 gm (Tk. 40 per Kg) = Tk. 10.003.
Match Box, 1 no. (Tk. 1 per piece) = Tk. 1.004.
Candle, 2 nos. (Tk. 5 per piece) = Tk. 10.005.
Bag, 1 no. (Tk. 2 per piece) = Tk. 2.006.
Alum (for water purifying because no water purifying tablet is available) =
Tk. 5.007. Rice, 2 Kg (Tk. 20 per Kg) = Tk. 40.008.
Dal ( lentil), 1 Kg (Tk. 46 per Kg) = Tk. 46.009.
Potato, 1 Kg (Tk. 15 per Kg) = Tk. 15.0010.
Salt, 1 Kg (Tk. 12 per Kg) = Tk. 12.0011.
Buscuits, 1 pack (Tk. 10 per pack) = Tk. 10.0012.
Polythene (to give temporary shade under rain), 1 pc. = Tk. 40.0013.
Oral Saline, 5 pcs. (Tk. 5 per pc.) = Tk. 25.0014.
Paracetamol/ Acetaminophen Tablet, 10 pc. (Tk. 0.50 per pc.) = Tk. 5.0015.

Metronidazole Tablet, 10 pcs. (Tk. 1 per pc.) = Tk. 10.0016.
Whitfield Ointment for Skin Disease, 1 vial (Tk. 10 per vial) = Tk. 10.0017.

Procurement/ Transportation Cost = Tk. 7.00

Total per Pack : Tk. 300.00

Many thanks for your consideration and help Click below to donate online for VAB.