Cash, choice and dignity: A different approach to flood relief

When flash floods swept through Banshkhali upazila in Chattogram, farmer Yunus Ali was going about his daily routine.

For days, relentless rain had battered the area. Like many others, Yunus believed the water would eventually recede. Instead, it kept rising.

He lived with his wife and three children in a modest mud house — the family's only major asset. As floodwater began pouring into their home, they barely had time to react. There was no opportunity to gather clothes, documents or valuables. Their only instinct was to escape.

Moments after stepping into the yard, they watched their home collapse before their eyes.

"If we had come out even five minutes later, all five members of my family would have been buried under the rubble," Yunus recalled.

Perhaps survival is not the same as being saved. Yunus and his family escaped the collapsing roof, but the flood took everything they had built over a lifetime. 

"My house had three beds. There was a wardrobe. And there was a built-in wall cabinet for storing clothes and other belongings. I had it made for Tk26,000. At one time I had around 100–150 maunds of crops. Now I have nothing," Yunus recalled. 

Along with furniture and crops, Yunus lost cash, his national identity card and other important documents locked inside the wardrobe.

"I also had some cash in my wardrobe, but I couldn't take it out," he said. "My NID card was inside too. I had taken a loan from an NGO. I had to get photographs for the NGO loan process. I've shown those documents to many people, including you. I couldn't recover my ID card or any of my belongings," he added.

When survival is only the beginning

When a flood hits, it's not a momentary crisis. People may evacuate in time to save their lives, but survival often comes at the cost of having to rebuild their lives from scratch. When Yunus was explaining his situation, of all the assets he lost, he was mostly worried about his HSC examinee son's exercise books.

"I rented a house near a local market because I couldn't let my children's education stop," he said. "If they lose their education because they don't have a home, their future will be ruined. He didn't even have his books or notebooks anymore. Only Allah knows how he managed to sit for those exams." 

Every family experiences disaster differently. 

While emergency food and relief supplies are often lifesaving in the immediate aftermath, people's needs quickly begin to diverge once the water starts to recede.

For 45-year-old Jasim Uddin, providing for a family of 10 was already a challenge. When floodwater surged, the mud walls of his home, too, began trembling under the pressure. 

Working frantically, they managed to carry just 10 sacks of harvested paddy to a neighbour's elevated house. Nearly 100 maunds remained inside.

"Over the last two to three years, Islamic Relief has increasingly used cash as its primary emergency response modality. Cash provides flexibility. It gives people choice and preserves their dignity. Every family has different needs, and cash allows them to decide what is most important instead of receiving a standard package." Talha Jamal, country director, Islamic Relief Bangladesh 

Barely five minutes after they fled, the house gave way. But the disaster did not end with the collapse of their home.

Jasim had travelled home to help his family during the emergency, expecting to stay only a few days. Instead, he remained for more than two weeks.

"My employer needed me to be available all the time," he said. "When I couldn't return, I lost my job."

Today, nine members of the family share a single room in an unfinished house belonging to Jasim's brother, while one son sleeps in a nearby shop.

The family's belongings, worth an estimated Tk4 lakh, were destroyed. Jasim also lost his entire agricultural investment.

No two families rebuild the same way

Some flood victims need to repair damaged homes. Others must replace lost documents, buy school supplies, restore livelihoods or pay for medical treatment. 

Many simply need cash to prioritise whatever is most urgent for their families.

Recognising these varied needs, humanitarian organisations have increasingly adopted cash assistance as a key component of emergency response.

Putting choice in survivors' hands

Islamic Relief Bangladesh (IRB), which has been working in the country since 1991, launched a rapid emergency response following the Chattogram floods. Within 72 hours, the organisation began supporting communities in the worst-affected upazilas of Banshkhali, Satkania and Chandanaish.

With an allocation of approximately Tk2.47 crore, IRB aimed to reach around 2,000 households — nearly 9,000 people — with multipurpose cash grants, hygiene and dignity kits, and protection awareness activities.

"We have a mandate to respond to humanitarian emergencies across the country, and this flood was no exception," said Talha Jamal, Country Director of Islamic Relief Bangladesh.

Each affected household receives a cash grant of Tk8,000, allowing families to decide how best to meet their own priorities.

"Over the last two to three years, Islamic Relief has increasingly used cash as its primary emergency response modality," Talha explained. "Cash provides flexibility. It gives people choice and preserves their dignity. Every family has different needs, and cash allows them to decide what is most important instead of receiving a standard package."

Islamic Relief volunteers engaging affected people to assess priority needs. Photo: Courtesy 

As cash assistance has become a regular component of humanitarian response, Islamic Relief Bangladesh has also monitored how recipients use the support. According to Talha, post-distribution assessments from previous emergencies have consistently shown that families prioritise their most urgent needs.

"We have conducted several post-distribution monitoring exercises following previous disasters, and the findings have been very positive. Most participants have used the cash to meet their immediate needs, particularly food, shelter and healthcare. To some extent, families have also spent it on their children's education, including books and other school materials. Overall, the cash has primarily gone towards food, shelter, basic clothing and education."

When Yunus received the Tk8,000 cash grant from Islamic Relief Bangladesh, the money was gone almost as quickly as it arrived. There was no room for careful budgeting or long-term planning. The family needed the essentials to get through the next few days.

"I'm not lying," Yunus said. "I couldn't buy anything for the house. I only bought clothes for my children and some food."

Asked whether the assistance had made a difference, he paused before answering, "That Tk8,000 felt like Tk8 lakh to me."

For families emerging from disaster with little more than the clothes they escaped in, even a relatively modest cash grant can become the difference between uncertainty and a chance to begin again.

The needs that often go unseen

But disasters do not affect both sexes the same way. Those who are already vulnerable often bear the heaviest burden, and for women and adolescent girls, the challenges extend more than the visible destruction left behind by floodwaters.

While escaping the rising waters, and fighting for individual survival, few stop to think about what the disaster means for an adolescent girl who has suddenly lost her privacy, or for a woman cut off from essential menstrual hygiene products and other basic necessities. 

These needs are easily overlooked during an emergency, but addressing them is critical to ensuring that humanitarian assistance reaches those most at risk.

For this reason, Islamic Relief Bangladesh also supplements its cash assistance with hygiene and dignity kits designed to support affected families, particularly women and girls, in the days following a disaster.

"Hygiene becomes one of the biggest challenges in the immediate aftermath of flooding," said Talha Jamal. "The hygiene kits contain essential items such as soap, detergent, toothbrushes and toothpaste, while the dignity kits include lifesaving personal hygiene materials for women."