Bangladesh

It is monsoon season in Bangladesh, making the delicate balance between water and land more tenuous than ever. It was raining heavily when we disembarked from the ferry on Bhola Island and it continued to rain for much of the day. South of Dhaka some 205 km. (or 11 hours by ferry), Bhola is caught between the rising saltwater of the Bay of Bengal to the south and the ominous churning of the Meghna River to the east.

I am writing from the overnight ferry from Dhaka to Bhola island. Glenn and I spent the morning shooting interviews and b-roll footage at a dismal slum in Dhaka that is home to over 1000 displaced people from the island of Bhola. Bhola, one of six southern islands in Bangladesh, is home to 1.6 million people. But many thousands of people are leaving Bhola as erosion caused by rising sea levels and strong currents swallows the land. Some predict half the island could be gone in 30 years time.

We will be heading off for Bangladesh on Aug. 22 to explore the "ground zero" of climate change and innovative adaptive strategies they are developing there. We will be traveling to Bhola, a large coastal island that has reportedly lost half its land mass over the past decade, to report on the "children of climate change" whose families are battling to stay there. We have just secured an interview with Dr.

Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow

Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow

Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow

Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow

Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow

Lack of control over their own reproductive rights and self-earned money are just a couple of obstacles among many, which many Bangladeshi women still have to overcome. But without tackling patriarchy itself, change will only happen on the surface, says United Nations Development Program Gender Expert Majeda Haq, Part 2

Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow

On the backdrop of a constitution which includes an article that is "a little bit faulty in terms of achieving gender equaltiy" and a two-fold Muslim and Hindu patriarchal culture in place, United Nations Development Program Gender Expert Majeda Haq, explains the uphill battle women face in Bangladesh. She says it will take at least two more generations before society will change. Part 1 of 2

Girls and women learn sewing, English and how to use a computer at Nari Jibon Development Foundation - A visit to a struggling women's project in Dhaka.

A quiet fragile woman in a bright yellow sari drifts in and out of the doorframe of the computer room. Sixty-five-year old Ruma has been with Nari Jibon since the beginning of the project in March 2005. She helps the tailoring students, brings tea, and welcomes guests at Nari Jibon.