The garden in the eye of the storm
This is a story about the power of nature – the power to create, and to destroy.
It is a story of the power of people. The power of mothers, children, neighbours, working hard to make a future for themselves; the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help those around them, in the face of immense difficulty.
This is a story about the power you have – that we all have - to help change the world - for better, or for worse.
A special village
“I love planting flower saplings,” 14-year-old Dristy says, as she strolls through her garden in southwest Bangladesh. “I recently planted some tomatoes and aubergines as well. I know how to plant trees on my own now. See that Sondha Maloti tree over there? I planted that with my own hands.”
She beams with pride as she points to a large bush bursting with vibrant purple blooms. Birdsong ripples through the air, and the long afternoon sun casts flickering shadows over the various leaves and flowers.
“We have lychee, mango, jackfruit and lime trees, which I really like. Mango trees are the hardest to look after. You have to give a little bit of the organic fertiliser that we make at home, but you have to keep tending to it. We eat the fruits and vegetables we grow, but we also sell them at the bazaar, and that helps my family earn an income.”
She continues to follow the path, which heads out onto the main road and connects her home with the rest of her village – through lush green fields, to gardens and orchards overflowing with life. Dristy knows her village is special. It is special because of the people who live in it - and because of their determination to live and thrive in harmony with the natural world.
A special village
“I love planting flower saplings,” 14-year-old Dristy says, as she strolls through her garden in southwest Bangladesh. “I recently planted some tomatoes and aubergines as well. I know how to plant trees on my own now. See that Sondha Maloti tree over there? I planted that with my own hands.”
She beams with pride as she points to a large bush bursting with vibrant purple blooms. Birdsong ripples through the air, and the long afternoon sun casts flickering shadows over the various leaves and flowers.
“We have lychee, mango, jackfruit and lime trees, which I really like. Mango trees are the hardest to look after. You have to give a little bit of the organic fertiliser that we make at home, but you have to keep tending to it. We eat the fruits and vegetables we grow, but we also sell them at the bazaar, and that helps my family earn an income.”
She continues to follow the path, which heads out onto the main road and connects her home with the rest of her village – through lush green fields, to gardens and orchards overflowing with life. Dristy knows her village is special. It is special because of the people who live in it - and because of their determination to live and thrive in harmony with the natural world.
Dristy lives in an eco-village – a village committed to farming with methods that not only do no harm to the environment, but help it to flourish. These methods are designed to withstand the worst effects of the climate crisis and empower people to earn a good living, better than they could using chemical agricultural techniques.
“When I first received my training on permaculture, certain people in the village were quite sceptical,”
Rupali was one of the first people in the community to experiment with the new techniques. “They said I was suddenly a know-it-all and thought I knew better than them. They believed that in the modern age, you can’t grow vegetables without chemical fertilisers. But I wasn’t interested in their opinions, I wanted to do my own work and prove that I could do it. When I showed them how well my tomatoes grew with organic fertilisers, and they saw how it kept the soil healthy, they started to change their minds.”
Rupali talks quietly, but with great confidence and energy – she does not need to be any louder because when she speaks, people listen. She has helped transform her community into what it is today, with patience, and care, and hard work.
When she first came to the village she says she was very poor, and worried about providing for her daughter – but she sought out her own solutions. She reached out to local experts from the Bangladesh Association for Sustainable Development – BASD for short - a local organisation CAFOD supports in Bangladesh. They worked with her to share techniques that would help not only her and her community, but the entire planet. Now, the village is thriving – in more ways than one.
“An eco-village is not just a place where organic farming exists and you have a chemical-free environment,” explains Rupali. “It’s also where we have respect for all, young and old, and people of all professions have food security and economic security, and our natural environment, including trees and animals, can exist in harmony. Everyone here should be in peace, and they should be able to say with a smile that they are well and mean it. I know it’s not enough if only my family is well-off. It’s not right if I always have food on my table, yet my neighbour barely has nothing to eat. I will stay well, I will keep my environment well, and I need to fight to help the people who are around me too.”
That is what life is like in Dristy and Rupali’s village. The sun shines, the birds sing, trees and plants grow and produce delicious fruits and vegetables. People thrive, happy and healthy.
But there are storm clouds on the horizon.
Gathering clouds
Bangladesh is a country of over 160 million people – almost two and half times the UK’s population.
The landscape is a complex network of rivers and floodplains. Great waterways like the Ganges, and its many smaller tributaries, have traditionally served as lifelines to people living along their banks, washing up fertile soil for farming, and allowing for easy transportation of goods over long distances through the use of boats.
But as the global temperature rises, these same waterways have brought danger and destruction. Melting ice brought down from the Himalayas has caused rivers to swell and break their banks, destroying crops and homes. In coastal regions, rising sea levels eat away at the available land and salt the earth so nothing will grow. On top of this, changing weather patterns have lead to unpredictable seasons, and increasingly violent and destructive storms have become commonplace.
Because of all these factors, Bangladesh has been ranked 7th in a list of the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis. It has been estimated that by 2050, more than 1 in 7 people in the country will have been forced to leave their homes due to climate change. This is despite the fact that the country produces just 0.56% of the world’s harmful emissions.
Dristy’s village is in the south west of the country, near the coast. Approximately a quarter of the country lives here trying to make a living – many from traditional means such as fishing or small-scale farming. But the threats of cyclones and floods mean that people simply can’t continue as before. There are only so many times you can build back after a disaster before you run out of money, tools and the energy it takes to continue.
It's important to understand how difficult it is to recover after each disaster. It takes money to buy back what you’ve lost. It takes time and skill to mend what has been destroyed – crops, homes, equipment. And perhaps most importantly, it takes sheer, dogged determination. With more frequent and extreme disasters, you have less money to buy seeds, tools, or pay people to help; less time because you need to build back before the next one strikes; and worst of all – less willpower. Where would you get the strength to build back if everything you had created was going to be destroyed again?
This is a question many people in Dristy and Rupali’s village have faced before. It is one they pray they do not have to face again.
When the storm breaks
“We stayed in the house, but the wind was howling a lot.”
Dristy frowns. She is remembering Cyclone Amphan – the devastating storm that tore through south east Asia in May 2020, leaving more than half a million people in Bangladesh homeless.
“A lot of our trees and plants were destroyed. I don’t remember a storm like this happening before. It was scary, so I stayed close to my mother.”
She looks with concern at the houses nearby.
“They also destroyed people’s homes.”
She remembers every home in her village that has been destroyed by cyclones and every precious crop that has been drowned by floods. Her story is one millions of people around the world would recognise.
“The adults around me,” she says quietly, “talk about natural disasters – they worry about them. They talk about them now more than ever.”
Rupali shakes her head sadly at the way things have changed since she was a girl.
“When I was little,” she says, “I heard there was a great flood in 1988, but while I was growing up, I have no memories of experiencing any big floods or storms like in the stories I heard of ’88. But during my adult years, we had Cyclone Sidr in 2007, and then Cyclone Aila in 2009. Suddenly, we started having such storms almost every year.”
And the storms are just the tip of the iceberg.
“We’ve had erratic rain patterns recently,” she says, listing off the ways the changing climate is making life harder for her family, “The rain destroyed many of our saplings. There’s also the issue of it being hotter than it was before. When that happens, we have a lot of trouble with water, especially if the smaller ponds dry up. Not everyone is able to collect rainwater at home, and even if they do, it might not be enough. Many families struggle to afford to buy it, and they have to cut down on other expenses to have the money to spend on drinking water.”
Rupali has no doubts as to the reasons for these changes.
“The environment is being polluted, and we humans are responsible for that. All these extreme weather events like storms, rain, floods—this is also humanity’s fault. In developed countries, they have too many factories and cars on their roads, but the impacts are felt in countries like Bangladesh. But here, locally, we can also try together to change things, so we can leave a beautiful village or a beautiful world for them.”
The climate crisis has no sense of fairness. It hits those who have done the least to create it hardest. In countries like the UK we produce far more than our fair share of carbon emissions year after year, and yet most of us remain relatively secure – while people like Rupali, doing everything they can to live in harmony with the environment, face disaster after disaster.
Her resolve to play her part in protecting the world she loves, even in the face of such injustice, is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
When the storm breaks
“We stayed in the house, but the wind was howling a lot.”
Dristy frowns. She is remembering Cyclone Amphan – the devastating storm that tore through south east Asia in May 2020, leaving more than half a million people in Bangladesh homeless.
“A lot of our trees and plants were destroyed. I don’t remember a storm like this happening before. It was scary, so I stayed close to my mother.”
She looks with concern at the houses nearby.
“They also destroyed people’s homes.”
She remembers every home in her village that has been destroyed by cyclones and every precious crop that has been drowned by floods. Her story is one millions of people around the world would recognise.
“The adults around me,” she says quietly, “talk about natural disasters – they worry about them. They talk about them now more than ever.”
Rupali shakes her head sadly at the way things have changed since she was a girl.
“When I was little,” she says, “I heard there was a great flood in 1988, but while I was growing up, I have no memories of experiencing any big floods or storms like in the stories I heard of ’88. But during my adult years, we had Cyclone Sidr in 2007, and then Cyclone Aila in 2009. Suddenly, we started having such storms almost every year.”
And the storms are just the tip of the iceberg.
“We’ve had erratic rain patterns recently,” she says, listing off the ways the changing climate is making life harder for her family, “The rain destroyed many of our saplings. There’s also the issue of it being hotter than it was before. When that happens, we have a lot of trouble with water, especially if the smaller ponds dry up. Not everyone is able to collect rainwater at home, and even if they do, it might not be enough. Many families struggle to afford to buy it, and they have to cut down on other expenses to have the money to spend on drinking water.”
Rupali has no doubts as to the reasons for these changes.
“The environment is being polluted, and we humans are responsible for that. All these extreme weather events like storms, rain, floods—this is also humanity’s fault. In developed countries, they have too many factories and cars on their roads, but the impacts are felt in countries like Bangladesh. But here, locally, we can also try together to change things, so we can leave a beautiful village or a beautiful world for them.”
The climate crisis has no sense of fairness. It hits those who have done the least to create it hardest. In countries like the UK we produce far more than our fair share of carbon emissions year after year, and yet most of us remain relatively secure – while people like Rupali, doing everything they can to live in harmony with the environment, face disaster after disaster.
Her resolve to play her part in protecting the world she loves, even in the face of such injustice, is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
A global crisis
Dristy and Rupali’s story is one of thousands upon thousands of people facing the worst effects of the climate crisis – and doing what they can to survive and thrive.
Marsabit County, Kenya
In Marsabit County, northern Kenya, a historic drought has lead to the worst food crisis in 40 years. Livestock have died in droves and drinking water is hard to come by.
“As long as I have known, I've never heard of such a drought,” says Talaso. “There were always dry spells, but there were always rainy seasons as well. The dry spells would come in, then the rainy season would come, then the dry season, then the rainy season. That was how it normally went. But now it's different.”
Talaso did whatever she could to feed her children, and her neighbours came together to help each other through. And thanks to support like yours local experts from our church network have been providing food packages to families like Talaso’s. 398 families in Marsabit received food packages between August and December.
“When the food assistance came it really helped and now Ali is feeding well,” says Talaso. “My health and the health of my son have since improved. Even his weight is very good.”
Sindh Province, Pakistan
In Pakistan, unprecedented flooding left more than a third of the country underwater, destroying acres of farmland and forcing thousands to leave their homes.
“One night there was heavy rain while we were sleeping,” says Azah. “In the morning, we realised our home was flooded. Our livestock were also submerged in the water. So all of us, including the cows and goats, moved into a temporary shelter at the roadside.”
As well as the most immediate needs, Azah is worried about her children’s future. She is concerned about the impact this crisis will have on their chance to get the education they deserve.
“My children's books also got soaked,” she says. “Now we will have to buy new books and shoes, but the school is still flooded, so it remains closed.”
Pará State, Brazil
2022 saw the highest level of burning in the Amazon in 12 years. This destruction, driven largely by wealthy corporations clearing land to produce goods for export, could have a devastating impact on our planet.
“Four or five years ago fire came and burned everything,” says Zé Galinha. “I was here when the fire started. It came at night. There’s nothing you can do. It claimed everything. The fire came from the cattle farms. It ruined my forest. I had a lot of Brazil nut trees and wild fruit in the forest and the fire ruined everything. And last year the fire came again.”
But Zé Galinha is doing his part to push back against the destruction. He lives in a community dedicated to farming in harmony with the natural environment, and actively reforesting the area.
“I plant 300 trees a year,” he says. “This is a forest of the future.”
All around the world, people are facing the worst effects of man-made environmental devastation. And, all around the world, ordinary people are doing their part to fight back.
A global crisis
Dristy and Rupali’s story is one of thousands upon thousands of people facing the worst effects of the climate crisis – and doing what they can to survive and thrive.
Marsabit County, Kenya
In Marsabit County, northern Kenya, a historic drought has lead to the worst food crisis in 40 years. Livestock have died in droves and drinking water is hard to come by.
“As long as I have known, I've never heard of such a drought,” says Talaso. “There were always dry spells, but there were always rainy seasons as well. The dry spells would come in, then the rainy season would come, then the dry season, then the rainy season. That was how it normally went. But now it's different.”
Talaso did whatever she could to feed her children, and her neighbours came together to help each other through. And thanks to support like yours local experts from our church network have been providing food packages to families like Talaso’s. 398 families in Marsabit received food packages between August and December.
“When the food assistance came it really helped and now Ali is feeding well,” says Talaso. “My health and the health of my son have since improved. Even his weight is very good.”
Sindh Province, Pakistan
In Pakistan, unprecedented flooding left more than a third of the country underwater, destroying acres of farmland and forcing thousands to leave their homes.
“One night there was heavy rain while we were sleeping,” says Azah. “In the morning, we realised our home was flooded. Our livestock were also submerged in the water. So all of us, including the cows and goats, moved into a temporary shelter at the roadside.”
As well as the most immediate needs, Azah is worried about her children’s future. She is concerned about the impact this crisis will have on their chance to get the education they deserve.
“My children's books also got soaked,” she says. “Now we will have to buy new books and shoes, but the school is still flooded, so it remains closed.”
Pará State, Brazil
2022 saw the highest level of burning in the Amazon in 12 years. This destruction, driven largely by wealthy corporations clearing land to produce goods for export, could have a devastating impact on our planet.
“Four or five years ago fire came and burned everything,” says Zé Galinha. “I was here when the fire started. It came at night. There’s nothing you can do. It claimed everything. The fire came from the cattle farms. It ruined my forest. I had a lot of Brazil nut trees and wild fruit in the forest and the fire ruined everything. And last year the fire came again.”
But Zé Galinha is doing his part to push back against the destruction. He lives in a community dedicated to farming in harmony with the natural environment, and actively reforesting the area.
“I plant 300 trees a year,” he says. “This is a forest of the future.”
All around the world, people are facing the worst effects of man-made environmental devastation. And, all around the world, ordinary people are doing their part to fight back.
A local solution
Back in Dristy and Rupali’s village, a woman walks down the street. People stop what they are doing to wave and greet her, and she takes time to chat with each of them, laughing and asking them about their work. This is Mili – an eco-farming expert working for our partner organisation, BASD. She is one of the thousands of local experts CAFOD supports around the world to help their communities adapt to the climate crisis and thrive.
“I walk down the streets, and the women working on the sides go, ‘hey, aren’t you the agriculture lady?’”
“It means a lot to me to do this work, and then to have our efforts recognised. When we enter the eco-villages, we see the results—people talk to us with so much gratitude and happiness.”
Mili has lived in the area her whole life. She grew up in a very conservative family, and initially they were resistant to the idea of her getting a job or working outside. But since joining BASD she has excelled as a teacher and a leader, and her self-confidence has soared.
A local solution
Back in Dristy and Rupali’s village, a woman walks down the street. People stop what they are doing to wave and greet her, and she takes time to chat with each of them, laughing and asking them about their work. This is Mili – an eco-farming expert working for our partner organisation, BASD. She is one of the thousands of local experts CAFOD supports around the world to help their communities adapt to the climate crisis and thrive.
“I walk down the streets, and the women working on the sides go, ‘hey, aren’t you the agriculture lady?’”
“It means a lot to me to do this work, and then to have our efforts recognised. When we enter the eco-villages, we see the results—people talk to us with so much gratitude and happiness.”
Mili has lived in the area her whole life. She grew up in a very conservative family, and initially they were resistant to the idea of her getting a job or working outside. But since joining BASD she has excelled as a teacher and a leader, and her self-confidence has soared.
“I discovered how wonderful it is to talk to people and get to know them. I have this courage now that I didn’t have before. I can actually stand up in front of people and talk to them. I understand my rights and I know I deserve them.”
An important part of Mili’s job has been helping women and children learn their rights and empowering them to play an active role in their community – and, like Dristy and Rupali, many have taken the lead in shaping the future of their village.
But, like Rupali, Mili is worried that the climate crisis is putting that future at risk.
“There have been many changes in weather patterns, which is why we are focusing so much on eco-villages and permaculture, so that the crops don’t get destroyed, in storms or in rains. The erratic weather is our biggest challenge. Like this year, there were weeks and weeks of rain, which was totally unexpected, and created food security issues during that period.”
But despite the challenges, Mili is optimistic that the methods she is sharing will continue to help the community thrive.
“Our members are growing vegetables in sacks, on elevated platforms made of bamboo, but they didn’t know these techniques in the past. So regardless of changing weather patterns and more natural disasters, they are still being able to grow crops.”
She looks around proudly at the fruit trees and lush green gardens of the village, flourishing despite the recent storms.
“Earth, fire, wind, water—the idea behind the eco-village is creating villages that preserve the harmony of the elements found in nature and build an environment where we don’t hurt any of nature, but actually help to improve it. And the community that exists in eco-villages will be able to leave behind a village where their future generations will be able to inherit a beautiful environment, where the air and water is clean and the earth is fertile.”
“I discovered how wonderful it is to talk to people and get to know them. I have this courage now that I didn’t have before. I can actually stand up in front of people and talk to them. I understand my rights and I know I deserve them.”
An important part of Mili’s job has been helping women and children learn their rights and empowering them to play an active role in their community – and, like Dristy and Rupali, many have taken the lead in shaping the future of their village.
But, like Rupali, Mili is worried that the climate crisis is putting that future at risk.
“There have been many changes in weather patterns, which is why we are focusing so much on eco-villages and permaculture, so that the crops don’t get destroyed, in storms or in rains. The erratic weather is our biggest challenge. Like this year, there were weeks and weeks of rain, which was totally unexpected, and created food security issues during that period.”
But despite the challenges, Mili is optimistic that the methods she is sharing will continue to help the community thrive.
“Our members are growing vegetables in sacks, on elevated platforms made of bamboo, but they didn’t know these techniques in the past. So regardless of changing weather patterns and more natural disasters, they are still being able to grow crops.”
She looks around proudly at the fruit trees and lush green gardens of the village, flourishing despite the recent storms.
“Earth, fire, wind, water—the idea behind the eco-village is creating villages that preserve the harmony of the elements found in nature and build an environment where we don’t hurt any of nature, but actually help to improve it. And the community that exists in eco-villages will be able to leave behind a village where their future generations will be able to inherit a beautiful environment, where the air and water is clean and the earth is fertile.”
In Rupali’s garden, she kneels down next to her daughter to help her gently press the soil in around a young sapling she has just planted.
“I like to imagine all the fruits and flowers I will grow, and it makes me feel so good,” says Dristy as she works. “I only wish it didn’t take so long! It would be great if you could just plant the saplings, and then they grow the very next day. But it’s very satisfying to watch them grow.”
Rupali stands, and slowly walks back down the path to the house. She turns at the doorway and looks back at the girl – the young woman - carefully tending to her trees.
“I never called my daughter and said do this, learn that,” she says, thoughtfully. “But she would always watch me work, and she was filled with curiosity and always asked me questions. I want my daughter to learn about everything. She shouldn’t just be limited to schoolwork. I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up, and she said she wants to be a doctor. I asked her why? Then she said, people in villages can die without healthcare, because they don’t have the money to go to the doctor.
I’m so proud that she thought of these things on her own, and I realised that her decision is the right one, and it’s not for me to say what she should do with her life. Her way is the right way. She wants to stand with the people of her village. My dream is that she becomes her own person.”
The last rays of afternoon sun shine down on the garden. The branches of the young trees sway gently, heavy with the promise of the fruits they will one day bring.
Rupali smiles.
What CAFOD does
We work closely with organisations like BASD throughout Bangladesh to help people get the support they need to stand on their own two feet. It’s through local experts like Mili, working in their own communities, that we are able to help the most hard-to-reach people and communities around the world.
We are part of the Caritas Church network – one of the largest networks in the world, with a presence in 165 countries. And because we are part of the Church network, we can reach people in places other organisations are not able to.
It is extremely important to us as a Catholic aid agency that we help everyone, regardless of faith. We live out our faith and see these life-saving and life-changing works as an expression of our faith.
Your support is crucial in allowing us to reach vulnerable people around the globe who continue to struggle with the things we take for granted.
Words: Jack Ellinas
Design: Jessie Keable-Elliott
Video editing: Joe Newman
Photography: Amit Rudro / Shutterstock
Illustrations: Nasheen Jahan Nasir
Tech Lead: Philip Abbott
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