Following Amphan, Landless Rights Activist Organization Seeks to Raise Funds for Cyclone Shelter Construction in Bangladesh

Founded in the 1980s, the activist organization Nijera Kori has mobilized landless women and men across Bangladesh to claim entitlements and demand their rights. In May, Cyclone Amphan badly damaged the villages, agricultural lands, and built environment in the Nijera Kori working area within Polder 22 in Khulna, Bangladesh. Under the leadership of landless groups and area activists, rebuilding is underway. With a population of 20,000 living within the polder area, the existing cyclone shelters in the polder can only house 3,500 evacuees. The community has thus emphasized the need for another cyclone shelter to be built to provide a safe place for more area residents during the next catastrophic storm. The shelter building will also function as a new local school. Currently, Nijera Kori is conducting a fundraiser to enable the construction of a new cyclone shelter in Polder 22, which has historically been denied regular resource provision. The effects of the cyclone and flooding in Bangladesh this year have been particularly dire, so Nijera Kori is releasing this wider call for mutual aid and assistance for this project.

For more information about how to contribute to the fundraiser, please contact Dilshanie Perera (Stanford Department of Anthropology, PhD ’20) at dperera [at] stanford.edu (dperera[at]stanford[dot]edu) or Nijera Kori Program Manager, Rezanur “Rose” Rahman at rosenkp [at] gmail.com (rosenkp[at]gmail[dot]com).