When cyclones devastate Bangladesh or Burma -- as with the tsunami and other natural disasters -- people everywhere ask, “How can God allow something like that?”  While I do not want to minimize the struggle we have with suffering in this world, I fear that God may be asking of people, “How did YOU allow something like that?”

Bangladesh periodically experiences tremendous natural catastrophes.  In 1970, a similar cyclone and tidal surge hit killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people or more.  Despite India sending warnings of the storm to Pakistan, the political hostility was at a level that the warnings might not have been received or acted upon for any of a number of reasons.  This was one big factor contributing to Bangladesh (it was then East Pakistan) beginning a fight for its independence just a few months later.  In 1991 another cyclone hit that killed a minimum of 138,000.  The 1991 cyclone wiped out almost an entire island, but when an investigation was made regarding why no one heeded the warnings, it was found that the people were so poor there were virtually no radios.  So the death toll in the most recent cyclone in Bangladesh was much lower than similar previous incidents.  That is because people have given money, and development organizations have built cyclone shelters that saved countless lives.  Early warning systems and alerts broadcast through radio, television and loudspeakers motivated perhaps the biggest evacuation in history as six million people fled the area.  However, more could be done.   Previous political leaders of Bangladesh are currently accused of illegally diverting funds and accumulating personal fortunes.  Each of those fortunes could pay for enough shelters to have protected every life that was lost.

Henry Kissinger wrongly predicted that Bangladesh would be “a perpetual basket case.”   Because of the creative leadership of Bangladeshi citizens like Professor Yunus, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize for his groundbreaking work in micro-finance, the hard work and cooperation of the Bangladesh government and the unconquerable spirit of the Bangladeshi people, real progress is being made.  But there are still a huge number of people that are caught in a cycle of astonishingly severe poverty.

Bangladesh is subject to flooding and cyclones, but the land was also created by precisely these same forces.  Floods are both the curse and blessing of Bangladesh, which is the world’s largest delta region at the confluence of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers.  This has made it incredibly fertile, with the depth of topsoil measured in yards not inches.  Bangladesh is just barely larger than Iowa, yet it has about 160 million people, or about one half the population of the United States!  Despite having right at 3,000 people per square mile, they are still able to grow enough rice and grain to feed themselves most years because of the wonderful fertility of the soil.  However, the density of the population also means that a very large number of people are devastated, even when only a relatively small area of land is affected.

Thirteen years ago, I was a co-founder of a small but creative development organization in Bangladesh called Symbiosis.  Money from One Great Hour of Sharing and other International Ministries funds, along with Australian organizations, has enabled the radical transformation of the lives of many people.  You have been a partner through your giving to the World Mission Offering and One Great Hour of Sharing in enabling Symbiosis to relocate victims of shifting rivers, educate the children of prostitutes, rebuild the houses of widows after a tornado, and providing for over 6,000 cataract operations.  Symbiosis has taught over 10,000 adults, mostly women, how to read, write, save their own money (well over $200,000) in cooperatives, and invest that money in their own income generating enterprises, and much more.   I encourage you to read more at:  www.symbiosis-int.org

Thank you for your commitment to the make a profound difference in all areas of the lives of people who would not have the opportunity any other way.                   

 

With gratitude, hope and joy,  

Walt White