Yesterday Nandita Ahmed and I met with and interviewed on film Sardar Shafiqul Alam of the International Centre for Climate and Development. He has done extensive research on climate change and gender in Bangladesh. He explained to us his findings that during cyclones, a vast majority of the dead are women. Also, women are critical in climate change because they are responsible for finding food and finding water for their families and climate change has reduced the availability of food and drinkable water. Mr. Alam’s work on climate adaptation, resilience, and documentation are groundbreaking and I plan to work with him to create a 3-day future workshop for the people of Katakhali to monitor and document climate change.
In the afternoon, we interviewed my aunt Mahmuda Hossain Lina about her work as coordinator of the Katakhali eco-empowerment project funded by Samhati. She is truly an inspiration. As a child, she has survived a cyclone in Katakhali by clinging to a coconut tree. Now she spends much of her time in Katakhali to improve the lives of women and children there.She has recently compleded a UN training on climate adaptive farming and will be replicating the training for the villagers in Katakhali.