DHAKA (UCAN) -- Even for a country plagued by perennial calamities, 2007 was a particularly bad year, according to Caritas Bangladesh.

The local Catholic Church's relief and development organization worked overtime to help victims of various natural and man-made disasters in this Muslim-majority country of 147 million people.

Caritas aided victims of servere flooding in August and September, and then stepped in after Cyclone Sidr hit on Nov. 15. It also helped people recover from landslides, flash floods, fires and crop damage caused by rats and elephant.

"2007 was unique in that it saw the country suffer twice from floods and once from a cyclone," Benedict Alo D'Rozario told UCA News. "Generally we do not have flooding and a cyclone in the same year," the Caritas executive director elaborated.

According to D'Rozario, the two rounds of flooding caused huge losses in agriculture, after which Sidr intensified farmers' losses.

The Dec. 18 situation report of Disaster Management Information Center, the information hub of the Bangladesh government's Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, said the cyclone devastated 742,827 acres of land and partially damaged another 1,730,117 acres.

Sidr killed 3,363 people and injured 55,282 others, while 871 persons are still listed as missing, according to the report. The cyclone also killed 1.7 million animals being raised as livestock.

D'Rozario described the country as also suffering a "flood of rats" in 2007. Between Dec. 20 and 31, he said, Caritas provided emergency food and other relief to 650 indigenous families of the Chittagong Hill Tracts after the rodents decimated crops there, in Bangladesh's southeastern corner.

The Caritas head said Pope Benedict XVI's two appeals, during the floods and after the cyclone, helped them receive "more responses" from donors and partners to help people who needed assistance.

Pintu William Gomes, Caritas Bangladesh's program manager for capacity building in disaster management, assesses the organization's relief responses for the flood and cyclone victims as comparatively quick in 2007.

It delivered relief to the most vulnerable people quicker "because we trained our staff in building capacity to respond more effectively during disasters," Gomes told UCA News on Jan. 4. He said two disasters happened while they were carrying out staff training, which enabled them to put theory into practice in on-site work.

Caritas Bangladesh assisted 103,872 families with relief and rehabilitation in 2007, according to Gomes. Total disaster-assistance expenditures for the year, including ongoing rehabilitation programs, amounted to 230 million taka (about US$3.3 million), almost half in response to Cyclone Sidr. Programs and projects included "cash for work" initiatives, house construction, water sanitation, hygiene promotion and shelter improvement.

D'Rozario told UCA News all households that received relief were selected on the basis of door-to-door visits, with priority given to families with disabled or elderly members, young children or headed by single parents.

Caritas plans to spend 453 million taka in 2008 for continued rehabilitation of Cyclone Sidr victims. This will include further cash-for-work schemes, housing construction, and shelter and school repair.

The Church agency began its activities in the country as the Christian Organization for Relief and Rehabilitation following a devastating cyclone in 1970. It assumed the name Caritas Bangladesh in 1976, and now has a head office in Dhaka and seven regional offices in the country's six dioceses.

It belongs to Caritas Internationalis, a worldwide confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social-service organizations established by local Churches. They work in more than 200 countries and territories

END