Arati Rani is one of the survivors from Sidr. She is 33 years old. Her husband is Biswanath Biswas. He is a daily laborer and Arati is a housewife. They live in the village named Nachnapara, Union: Kalapara Pourasava under the district Patuakhal in a tiny house.

Arati is a hard worker. Beside her household chores, she used to work tailoring to increase her family income with her old sewing machine. Arati makes children’s and women’s clothes for her village. She always believes that if she earns extra money, beside her husband income, their family becomes a little better off. She can spent more money for the education and provide better food for her daughter who is going to school. In this way they were living with joy and happy.

But the days of happiness were destroyed in one night when Cyclone Sidr hit.Their tiny house along with all things were washed away by the wave.

The family of Arati were just saved as they came to know earlier about the terrible news of Sidr by the media. They took shelter in a safe place with others from the village. Each of them prayed and cried to God to save them from the dreadful disaster.

Next morning they came to their homestead and found that their house and pet animals have been totally washed away by the terrible wave. They looked for their house, household belongings, equipment, and sewing machine. But they did not get anything. They went without food for two days. Her husband could not get work and they were unable to earn money to purchase food.

After that the Caritas staff members came to visit their area. She received Caritas emergency relief goods such as rice, pulse, oil, and salt.

Arati was eager to recover her lost sewing machine, which was one of the sources of her family income. After the completion of emergency food and non-food items distribution, Caritas started the implementation of professional rehabilitation program in order to restart livelihoods.

Arati received a Sewing machine and some cloths from Caritas. She started her traditional business with the machine. Arati and her husband are now working hard to regain their former lives. She is very hopeful that she could be able to earn more money from this new sewing machine.

Arati is very thankful to Caritas for providing her such kind of capacity related assistance. She prays to God and wishes “Long live Caritas for standing by the poorest of the poor in the miserable situation”.