Housewife Taslima Akhter is a resident at the house of Nurul Haque Majhi under Gopal Union of Feni’s Chhagalnaiya Upazila. Water started entering the home last Thursday.
Within a few hours, the water rose above four feet. Taslima took her two baby daughters and quickly left her home. The situation is such that she could not even dress her children properly.
They were rescued and brought to the dormitory of PHP Integrated Steel Mills. Two children were dressed in the clothes provided by the PHP Family. Not only Taslima Akhtar, but around 1,000 flood-affected people have found shelter there.
People from 18 to 90 years old have taken shelter here, along with teenagers, small children, and pregnant women. In addition to being kept in a healthy environment, three meals a day are being provided to them.
There is a medical team of six people to treat the people who have taken shelter. Necessary post-treatment medicines are being provided by the PHP family. They are also getting clothes.
The dedicated officers and employees of the organisation are doing their best to meet the needs of those who have taken refuge there. They are engaged in the service of the people who have taken shelter while keeping the factory closed.
Besides, relief goods are being sent to the people of flood affected areas.
Last Thursday, when Feni and Mirsarai areas were affected by flood, the gate of the factory was opened to the flood affected communities after shutting the factory down. Rescue operations were conducted in its own multiple boats.
The flood-affected people took shelter in three buildings from Thursday night. Clothes, medicine and food were prepared for them in advance.
PHP Integrated Steel Mills Manager Bindu Nath said, “People of different ages have taken shelter in three buildings here, including the dormitory. I have arranged food, medicine, clean water and clothes for them.
“At the same time, every day we went door to door and delivered relief items. More than 500 families were given relief items on Monday. About 1,000 people are in the shelter. They have been given three meals of cooked food till last Sunday.”
He continued, “Special food is being provided to the children. Warm clothes, sanitary products for women have been stockpiled. A six-member medical team is providing medical care. We have also stockpiled medicines.
“In such a natural disaster, our owner instructed us to open the doors of our factory, so that the flood affected communities can take shelter here. In the meantime, relief materials have reached about 8,000 families. We have allowed at least 50 cattle to be kept here.”
This humanitarian initiative of the PHP family has come as a great boon to the flood affected communities, and the people taking shelter here feel that it will be a role model for other institutions in the society.
They say that it is really difficult to provide all these services to so many people. But the owner of the industrial establishment is doing the work silently.
Ankurennesa, a 70-year-old woman from Muhuriganj, came to the factory with the wives of her four sons, two sons, and six grandchildren.
Her two other sons are expatriates in Abu Dhabi. She has lost communication with her two sons as there is no communication with them due to no mobile network.
She said, “My sons are thinking about their mother from abroad.”
How are you at the shelter? In reply, Ankurennesa said, “It is not a simple thing to provide so much food to so many people. We are getting three meals on time. Company employees provide the meals. May the almighty Allah bless them.
Eighty-year old Kabir Ahmed of Gopal Union brought his wife, son and brother's wife and two grandsons to the factory seeking shelter. They have been here since last Thursday.
Informing that everything is alright, Kabir said, “When my grandson became sick, the doctor here checked him and gave medicine.”
Laila Akhter, a 40-year-old housewife, brought her husband and mother-in-law, two sons and a daughter.
She said, “We are getting everything here. Now the water is decreasing. But what will I do when I get home from here? I have no idea. We can't even go home in such a condition, because the house was flooded and everything was destroyed.”
Nurennahar, the wife of a late freedom fighter and ex-army sergeant, brought her two sons. When the water rose to chest level in the house, she came to the shelter by a trawler.
Saying that she is at peace in the PHP family shelter, Nurennahar said, “We are being treated like guests here. Getting every necessity on time; People here are doing a lot for us. I do not know if anyone else would do such good things like this.”
