“TOWe have experienced many disasters. Cyclones, floods and erosion have destroyed our home more than eleven times.” Thus begins the testimony of Sabuda Begum, 50 years old. Sabuda lives in Gobindapur, Satkhira, Bangladesh, one of the places on earth most affected by climate change. She has a seventy-year-old husband who, like her, has always worked as a worker in the fields: but if he was paid 250 taka a day – 2 pounds – she was entitled to 100. Feeding her three children has always been very difficult. At least until Sabuda started looking for an alternative, and she didn’t find it: through real “intelligent” agroecological practices, he achieved economic self-sufficiency for his family and his community. Until the day before, a mirage.
Climate change, the story of Sabuda Begum in the days of Cop28
In the days of COP28, stories like these must make us reflect. Because if the female population it is always doubly affected by the effects of climate change due to forms of discrimination and marginalization, it also holds within itself a ability to transform things which must be valorised.
Women, girls and girls are more vulnerable due to the distribution of gender roles and limited access to resources and decision-making power, and this reduces their ability to adapt. But despite the discrimination they suffer, they know how to equally be agents of change. As soon as they are given the opportunity to do so, they know how to implement it decisive improvements for the lives of their families and communities.
If good reasons were still needed to say the necessity ofinclusion of women and feminist voices in negotiations, there are many, at every end of the world. Stories that talk about resilience, climate crisis, biodiversity.
Sabuda Begum works in her vegetable garden (photo Fabeha Monir)
A vegetable garden and a pond for agri-food autonomy
In the case of Sabuda, the lever for change was set in motion by an initiative of Action against Hunger with its local partner Susilan. Both she and her husband have «learned to grow vegetables in our garden, catch fish and have our own livestock. At first we were afraid, because it is difficult to grow vegetables and greens due to the constant rains and the salinity caused by the tides. But my husband encouraged me and we both participated in the training programs with our families.”
Sabudo’s family received 3020 Taka to start a home garden. And 13020 Taka for fish farming. «We worked from dawn to dusk. Our whole family was involved in growing vegetables and working on the pond. With our constant commitment, our garden has grown. After preserving vegetables for our family, I sell vegetables to our neighbors. Now we are self-sufficient.” While selling the fish, Sabuda was able to buy a chicken and muca.
Tofura Khatun, Sabuda’s nephew, processes betel nuts and leaves (photo Fabeha Monir)
Food self-sufficiency in a country devastated by climate change
Today he has an income, he can send his nephew Mahfuz, who is six years old, to school and buy chocolates for the children at home. Her husband’s health, like hers, has also improved: «I don’t have to stay in salt water all day and work non-stop. If I don’t feel well, I can rest and I can always take a break. We are saving to build a new house.”
«We are building dreams from the ruins»
This doesn’t mean that everything always goes right, on the contrary. «The climate is changing and cyclones are frequent. With every cyclone we lose crops, homes and livestock. This year too I lost one of my goats during the flood. Everyone was sad, but what could we do?”. Even just having drinking water is difficult: the salinity has increased and the temperature is increasingly higher. «We are doing our best, struggling with nature and with loss. But we have our vegetable garden, our fishing company, we can provide for our family: we are building dreams from the ruins”.
Action against hunger, the appeal to the Italian Government
Sabuda’s story demonstrates the extent to which working for women’s empowerment means mitigating climate impacts on the most vulnerable people and, at the same time, make them agents of change. And Action Against Hunger has always focused on this front. On the occasion of Cop28, the organisation’s appeal to the Italian Government is to provide funding to the communities affected by the climate crisis. The transition towards sustainable agri-food systems is encouraged. Safe water and sanitation services made accessible to climate change. Because, as the title of the appeal states, “The climate crisis is a food crisis!”.
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