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Disaster preparedness and risk reduction can be a major factor in preventing the loss of lives in natural disasters and helped save tens of thousands of people in the areas affected by cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh.

Save the Children has operated in Bangladesh since 1972 and has been working to prepare coastal communities for cyclones since 2005- including recruitment and training of local disaster management committees and over 900 emergency management and preparedness volunteers; prepositioning of rescue boats and relief goods; and emergency cyclone drills for some 10,000 residents living in the area affected by cyclone Sidr. The cyclone hit the southern coast of Bangladesh on the evening of November 15th, impacting 5.4 million people- half of them children- across 30 districts. Alerted to the coming storm, families quickly fled their homes, leaving behind assets and household items. The storm and resulting floods destroyed homes, household belongings, food stocks, water sources and sanitation facilities in what were already very poor communities.

Save the Children had been monitoring the path of the cyclone for several days before it struck and began responding before it made landfall- working with communities to evacuate. As a result of its preparedness, Save the Children was able to begin distributing lifesaving relief goods, evacuating ill and injured survivors, and assessing the most immediate needs of children the very next morning.

Over the next six months, Save the Children reached over 200,000 families with relief and helped communities to rebuild schools, roads and sources of livelihoods in seven districts.

To date, we have provided 50,000 families with emergency relief goods; 176,000 families with food and 80,000 people with medicines or other health support. Save the Children operated safe play spaces benefiting more than 20,000 children in the months after the cyclone; provided more than 12,000 families with latrines and reconstructed community water sources providing drinking water to more than 376,000 people.

Six months on, Save the Children continues to support the recovery and development of children affected by cyclone Sidr. We are helping to rebuild schools and ensure the most vulnerable families are able to recover their sources of food and livelihoods. Save the Children has a long term-commitment to children in the southern coastal regional of Bangladesh, one of the most disaster-prone areas of the world, and will continue working to increase community resilience and preparedness.

To read the six month report, please download it here [Adobe PDF, 625 Kb].

For more information please contact Kate Conradt, Director, Media and Communications, Save the Children USA on +1- 202-640-6631 or at kconradt@savechildren.org