International Journal of Social Work and Human Services Practice Horizon Research Publishing Vol.3. No.5 December, 2015, pp. 169-175 Coping and Resilience: Women Headed Households in Bangladesh Floods Venkat Pulla 1,* , Tulshi Kumar Das 2 1 Coordinator, Social Work Discipline, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane 2 Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh *Corresponding Author: Venkat.pulla@acu.edu.au Abstract Literature is bountiful in relation to different theories and approaches that advocate for resiliency in individuals, families and communities. One widely acknowledged fact is that people build up resilience on the basis of their experience that they gain through their day-to-day hardship and struggles. For those who often live in fragile environments and vulnerability, there is the capacity for resilience to become a part of the culture of a community; becoming absorbed, entrenched and then bequeathed to each subsequent generation. This paper spotlights a group of women who live in an area of Bangladesh that is known for both its poverty and its regular tendency to flood, hereby regularly putting them, their families and their communities at risk of losing lives and/or their livelihoods. Through their narrations, the authors will demonstrate the human capacity to endure adversity, loss, vulnerability and destruction and still maintain the indomitable spirit of acceptance, hope and flourishment. Coping strategy is a central theme throughout. The authors provide accounts which outline the means by which these women practically and psychologically, prepare for and endure the regular and destructive nature of flooding. A brief discussion occurs in relation to the implication of some aspects of social work assistance in the context of women and floods. 'This is every year affair. As the affected ‘ we don't have to lose our dreams and hopes, we need to face it and move on for survival’ (research participant). Keywords Cultural and Generational Resilience, Adversity, Vulnerability, Hope, Endurance Introduction As the storm rampages In your crumbling hut The water rises to your bed Your tattered quilt Floats on the flood Your shelter is down (Bhattacharya, 1969) Coping and resilience are interrelated and interdependent. Resilience simply refers to the meaning of an individual's predisposition to cope with stress and adversity, while coping is generally described as an approach people employ to deal with a crisis successfully (Davis, 1996; Paul and Routray, 2010). Both the strategies are intertwined in the process of management of stress and adversity during the period of crises. Perennially alternating calamities do produce critical conditions but they also seem to offer communities with variable strengths to cope and adapt (Pulla, 2013, Reivich, and Shane. 2002). The objectives of this study were to understand the coping and resilience of women headed households living in haor 1 areas in four districts of greater Sylhet, Bangladesh. Already facing the adversity of poverty, this paper describes the nature of their coping in floods, the nature of resilience, outlines the adoptions made for their future amidst helplessness, and gives credence to their enduring capacity to persevere, adapt and most importantly, maintain hope. The women whose narratives that we present here confirm that resilience depends on the capacity of individuals and families to deal with and adapt to their presenting environments alongside the reinforcement of strengths to cope with the stresses and adversity experienced during the period of crisis. The authors begin with a brief description of the geography and a glimpse into the way of life of these women, their families and communities. 'the company (by which they mean multinational companies) trawlers, don't leave a thing... they catch all fish... yet our men dare to go to the seas, rain, and storm, they never heed to weather warnings they go, go and hope every day to return' but that ill- fated day in 2009 he never returned' Hafeeza talked about her husband and said that each 1 Wetland ecosystem. ISSN: 2332-6840 (Online) 2332-6832 (Print) Copyright © 2015 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License