republished from an e-mail message from Guide Tours

Dear Friends,

Greetings from The Guide Tours Ltd. We hope you and your families are well.

Reports and pictures from the devastating effects of cyclone Sidr have certainly reached your homes. Caring words from all over the world are reaching us with concerns and requests to extend a helping hand.

Natural disasters have and will always strike and effect the poorest of our country the most. We cannot close our eyes to the suffering. As a Tour operator we highlight the beauty and diversity of Bangladesh, while also working towards poverty alleviation. We truly believe that tourism can play an important role in our country’s development. Our long-standing commitment towards the conservation of the Sundarbans has been reaffirmed by seeing the importance of our only remaining natural barrier to the sea during this recent disaster. Although the mangrove forest and its inhabitants took a serious blow, many areas further north were protected by the mangrove forest. We are all shaken by the devastation caused especially to the coastal areas, where many temporary fishing villages were completely destroyed and many lives lost. However, we cannot even start to imagine the effects the cyclone would have had without the protective shield of Sundarban.

Some of our guests have decided not to avail their scheduled tours to the Sundarban forest this month. Although we regret their decision, we understand the reasons and will not charge any cancellation fees this month. Instead we kindly invite you to contribute your cancellation fees towards ongoing relief efforts. With your support we hope to rebuild the tourist facilities in Kotka & Kotchikhali, after ensuring the most immediate required relief to people in and around the forest. Our Sundarban Tours will be running as scheduled.

As a leading Sundarban tour operator we are in the privileged situation of having three vessels that can now be used to distribute relief in areas accessible only by boat. Our vessels started assisting the urgently needed relief work immediately after the cyclone hit. We are focusing on the settlements within the forest (mostly fishing villages and forest stations) and the adjoining areas of Sundarban. In the first phase we are taking down essentials such as drinking water and food. Until today we have already supplied over 3 lakh (4,500 US$) worth of food, water and warm clothing to fishermen, forest department staff and villagers. In the second phase we will assist the rebuilding of shelters, homes and essential facilities.

If you would like to contribute, any assistance in the form of money, dry non-perishable foods and blankets or warm clothes is welcome. We guarantee that all incoming support will be used directly for food, water, fuel, shelter supplies and other essentials. We are obviously not a ‘relief organization’, but our local contacts in the affected areas are helping us coordinate the distribution.

The Guide Tours Ltd. family promises to continue doing their utmost to bring relief to those in need.

We thank you for your concern and support.

Yours sincerely,

Elisabeth Fahrni Mansur, CEO
Hasan Mansur, Chairman

The Guide Tours Ltd.
Darpan Complex, Gulshan-II
Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh

Tel: 880-2-9862205, 9886983
Fax: 880-2-9886984

For your information:
1 US$ = 3-4 Liters of Safe Drinking Water
10 US$ = 20 Kilo of Rice or 10 Kilo of Lentils
100 US$ = one day ship fuel required for transport

Details for Donations:

Name of the account:
The Guide Tours Ltd.

Name of the Bank:
Standard Chartered Bank
Dhaka. 2, Dilkusha c/a, P.O.Box-169, Dhaka-1000
Swift Code Number: SCBLBDDX
Account number: 01-1104772-01
Comment: Cyclone Relief

or, please consider a local or international Relief or Aid Organization for your donation.

***
In order to facilitate donations, we (Belinda Meggitt and Mikey Leung) are accepting funds on behalf of Guide Tours via online payment gateway Paypal. You will need your credit card to donate, please see this link to learn more, or simply click the “Make a Donation” button below. You will need to register for a PayPal account in order to donate. On Dec. 7, we will then wire these funds directly to Guide Tours for restoration work in the Sundarbans.

Tags: Bangladesh,Cyclone Sidr,Fundraising,Guide Tours,Relief
Categories: Sundarbans
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BBC World Service’s Bangladesh Boat Diary has gone online and live as of October 29.

For the next month, 48 people—scientists, BBC journalists and others—have crammed onto the M.V. Aboshar, a vessel of Guide Tours, to write, photograph and broadcast news from the riverways of Bangladesh.

Their chosen theme is climate change, in which Bangladesh is a focal point because of its unique geographical position in the world. The country is mostly housed within the delta of two major rivers: the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. During the monsoonal rains, a torrent of water comes down from the Himalayas via these rivers, flooding most of the surrounding areas along the way. But that’s not the only reason for the flooding.

Because Bangladesh is also a scant few meters above sea level, it is also particularly vulnerable to tidal surges from the Bay of Bengal. When the tide pushes back against river water coming from the mountains, the water does not drain out from the country with the same efficiency. It is this effect that will become particularly poignant in a climate change scenario—Bangladesh faces a future of flooding when its massive rivers cannot drain out properly because of rising sea levels. Because the tiny nation is almost one of the most densely populated, millions of people will be affected.

The Bangladesh boat diary will be the internet’s version of the journey; users will be able to track the boat’s progress live via the world service website and see the boat’s exact location via an embedded GoogleMap.

Tags: Bangladesh,BBC World Service,Boat Journeys,climate change,Floods,Guide Tours
Categories: Sundarbans, Travel
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