Funding and in-kind assistance from the United Kingdom's Department
for International Development (DFID) will allow IOM to provide
shelter and material assistance to thousands of vulnerable families
affected by cyclone Aila, which devastated the Southern coast of
Bangladesh last May.

The £1 million humanitarian aid package will allow IOM to
address some of the most immediate needs of the displaced, who have
lived for the past five months in makeshift shelters on fragile
embankments, in public places, near roads and in collective
centres. 

IOM Bangladesh will provide shelter kits containing plastic
sheeting, rope, cleats, knives, and basic non-food items,
consisting of buckets, jerry cans, mosquito nets, and water
purification tablets, to more than 24,000 families (120,000 people)
living in the south-western Khulna Division, which was particularly
affected by cyclone Aila.

As part of the programme, IOM will also set up a temporary
office in Khulna city and work through its network of local partner
NGOs to ensure the effective and rapid distribution of the
assistance, with particular attention being paid to the most
vulnerable such as single female households.

IOM will also set up a Displacement Tracking Matrix, which will
provide up-to-date and accurate monitoring of the affected
displaced and mobile population.

More than 4 million people living in low-lying coastal areas
were directly affected by Cyclone Aila which killed 190 people and
left a trail of destruction.

For more information please contact:

Asif Munier

IOM Dhaka

Tel. +880.2.988.9765

E-mail:  "mailto:amunier@iom.int">amunier@iom.int