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My name is Arnab Dewan, and I live in southeastern Bangladesh. I belong to the Chakma Indigenous community, and our home territory is known as Chittagong Hill Tracts. Our region is remote. Because of this, and our history of colonization, we struggle with poverty.
Now, we are also suffering from climate change.
Over the last few years, our region has experienced increasing climate-related destruction. In 2017, a massive landslide claimed 122 lives in my district alone, and injured many more. It was devastating.
In addition to the flash floods and the landslides these create, we have many other challenges. Incessantly heavy rainfall with ear piercing thunderbolts. A lack of safe drinking water. Changes in the traditional growing seasons. This hurts many in our community - particularly women, children, poor people, and farmers. In other words, just about all of us.
My people are resilient. We support each other as we recover from disasters. But our most daunting challenge of all is trying to convince corporations and policy makers to protect and preserve the environment. We have called for change before. Our requests have fallen on deaf ears.
This is why I joined GreenFaith this year and took action during Faiths 4 Climate Justice.
This October, the young people of our Chakma ethnic community raised our voices against fossil fuels and deforestation. Our event was organized in a village named Dighloli Bagh, a 20-minute boat ride from the main town.
On the morning of 17 October, youth and children of Digholi Bagh village gathered at their community meeting center under a banyan tree and marched towards the village's pagoda with banners and festoons.
They sang hymns along the way. They made offerings to the vante (priest). They prayed for peace and equity for all beings. They prayed for preservation of the sacredness of the Earth, our only place to live.
After the religious ceremony, attendees were taught about how climate change is affecting us and how fossil fuels are contaminating our environment. We sent a message to our government that we need climate justice.
And because our country, in truth, has done nothing to cause this emergency, we called on the biggest countries of the world to take responsibility for the problems they are causing.
After the event, one of the vantes (priests) who joined the event invited me to visit other villages and pagodas to spread the world, and was eager to join our work. We are working to build a movement in our region!
I’m proud that my ethnic community is understanding more about climate change and its effects on our lives. I am proud that we are speaking out. This is new for us. Our youth are helping lead the way.
Since the action, we are already seeing behavior changes within our community. As this village is only accessible through water transport, they use engine-driven boats to commute. People are now conserving fuel. The village is cleaner than before; people aren’t littering as much.
Though encouraging, we know that we need our government, world leaders, and corporations to make changes, urgently, for a safe and clean environment.
GreenFaith is holding governments and corporations accountable to make these changes. We need your help to continue this work.
Will you make your year-end gift today?
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Arnab Dewan
GreenFaith Ally in Bangladesh
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