Natore: Shaakhee, a Bangladeshi volunteer organization dedicated to environment protection and social welfare, distributed relief goods to the victims of the recent flood that has proved to be one of the devastating in the history of the country.

The relief goods were distributed on Saturday among 200 flood victim families from three villages of Natore, a northern district of Bangladesh. The villages, all of which are in the Naldanga upazila, are—Chandapur, Khajura, and Parbisha.

Each of the relief packets contained rice, flattened rice, potatoes, and raw sugar. Oral saline, anti-dysentery medicines, toilet soap, biscuits, candles and matches were also there in each packet, said the organisation’s founding convener SM Jakaria Bulbul, who led the relief goods distribution programmme, which was attended by a total of 21 volunteers, including the members of Shaakhee’s convening committee.

Apart from relief goods, the organization helped 10 severely affected families by donating them Tk 300 each. Shaakhee also have plan to help 2 flood victim families in their rehabilitation efforts after the flood water recedes.

Earlier Shaakhee volunteers roamed different parts of Natore town with donation boxes to raise the fund for this relief goods distribution progrmmme. To ensure transparency, the boxes were opened by NDC Shamim Bhuiyan at the conference room of Natore district headquarters on 23 August.

‘Shaakhee’, a Bengali word which means ‘tree’, is a non-profit and non-government organization which started its journey on 16 June this year with the slogan: ‘with environment and people’. At its inception it announced a mission of planting 100,000 trees in Natore, which is known to be the hottest place in Bangladesh.

As part of this mission they have planted 3461 trees in the different parts of the district so far. They have also distributed 4543 trees among young students to make the future generation environmentally conscious in a programme which they named as ‘Tree-giving festival.’