A team of three young members of AUTUMN Foundation is going to revisit the Aila affected areas today. The trip has been arranged in order to find out the current situation of those areas and more importantly, the people who are living there. The members are Fazle Abed and Saad Hussain, accompanying them is Muktadir Irtiza Miraj, an excellent young photographer, check out some of Irtiza’s work here.

Last year cyclone Aila tore into the southwestern coast of Bangladesh, wreaking havoc in several coastal districts killing hundreds of people, thousands were injured and homeless. Cyclone Aila slammed into parts of coastal Bangladesh, triggering tidal surges and flooding that forced half a million people from their homes. Officials in Bangladesh moved about 500,000 people to temporary shelters after they left their homes to escape huge tidal waves churned by winds up to 100 km/h (60 mph). Heavy rain triggered by the storm also raised river levels and burst mud embankments in the Sundarbans delta. The worst affected areas were the Satkhira district and the Khulna district. The affected areas are home to hundreds of thousands of people as well as the world’s biggest tiger reserve. You can view images and a report of that time here.

The team is going to visit Dacope, one of the worst hit areas of cyclone Aila. Dacope is adjacent to the Sundarbans and close to the river Shibsha and Passur. The team will visit affected sites like Kalinagar, Nalian, Gunari, Sutarkhali, Kalabagi etc.

AUTUMN Foundation would like to thank all those who assisted us to plan the trip, especially Hasan Mehedi of Humanitywatch, Nuzhat Imam of Oxfam in Bangladesh, and Kajal Ahmed Leon of Save the Children-UK Bangladesh Programme. We would also like to thank Rubayet Ahmed of AUTUMN Foundation for his relentless effort while gathering information on the Aila affected areas.