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Oxfam’s Gabura hive reminded me to post about Shorbanu.

I met Shorbanu earlier this year when Oxfam brought her from Gabura to Britain to speak to people about her personal experiences of climate change.

She’s a good spokesperson because her life has been affected by the changing land, changing water and of course cyclone Aila.

She and her husband used to be farmers but because of the rising salinity in the water their crops failed. He, like many of the men featured in the Gabura videos, went into the forest to gather honey, but was attacked and killed by a tiger.

Bringing up four children alone, Shorbanu was then hit by cyclone Aila. She said:

“I had just cooked the food for my children and was calling them to come and eat when I found the water was flooding into my house.

“It was all around us. I rescued myself and my children by climbing on to the roof of the house. Then suddenly the mud walls started to collapse and I was left just floating with my children on the roof.

“I was unconscious and when I woke up I found myself on an embankment. The place was totally destroyed, the schools, the buildings, everything.

“So many people died. There were corpses floating around me. We have never known this kind of flood before.

“Things have changed. Water levels have risen. There used to be six seasons but now there is no monsoon.”