After four days of searching, Saiful Islam finally found his daughter and broke down in tears. Initially, Saiful could not locate her at the madrasa where she studied, as the ground floor was completely submerged in water. The flooding was so severe that Saiful couldn’t reach the madrasa to search for her, and the teachers’ cell phones were turned off.
On Sunday, when the water started receding, Saiful made his way to the madrasa near the Lalpole area of Feni Sadar. He boarded a boat and reached the madrasa, where he found his daughter and hugged her tightly. Overcome with emotion, Saiful began to cry. He shared with Prothom Alo that his wife had not stopped crying over their missing daughter. “We didn’t know how she was or what she was eating. She finally found her,” he said.
Saiful, who has three daughters, explained that their home was completely flooded. He earns a living by working on other people’s land and uses this income to educate his daughters. His youngest daughter, Sadia Akhter, is a student at the madrasa. When their house was submerged, Saiful’s family moved to a shelter four days ago, where they subsisted on relief food such as biscuits, puffed rice, and flattened rice. Sadia stayed at the madrasa with her teachers and also survived on relief food for the past four days.
Now, Saiful is worried about how to clean up and repair his house after the floodwaters recede. “Five years ago, I repaired the house with tin and fencing, which cost $150,000. I worked hard to save that money, and I can’t afford to rebuild the house. We left with just the clothes on our backs.”
Saiful’s home is in the Dader Pole area of Feni, where the situation in the village has deteriorated. The roads were already in poor condition, and the flooding has made things even worse.
Finding Shelter in a Truck
The families of Nurunnahar Begum, Rasheda Akhter, Nazma Akhter, and Bahar Mia had nowhere to go when the floodwaters rose. With no other option, they all took refuge in a truck in the Mahipal area and have been there since last Wednesday. Nurunnahar Begum recounted that they couldn’t salvage any belongings; everything was ruined.
Rasheda Akhter expressed their dire situation: “We can’t survive without government support,” she said. “All our dreams are shattered.”
