Moral Infrastructure and Digital Care: Building Community Resilience in Rural Bangladesh Through Faith-Based Organizations

This article explores how a rural madrasa-orphanage in northern Bangladesh responded to the COVID-19 crisis by providing resilience infrastructure through community initiatives. Based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted through WhatsApp interviews, remote observation, and follow-up field visits, the article traces how the institution navigated economic near-collapse, revived donor networks, introduced digital accountability, and eventually restructured its governance and outreach. The study captures the ethical and infrastructural logic by which an informal faith-based institution becomes a vital site of care, redistribution, and stabilization, particularly when state systems fail. Islamic giving practices like zakat and sadaqa, enabled through digital platforms and relational trust, facilitated the institution’s recovery and sustained the institution over time. The article contributes to scholarship on moral economies, civil society, and alternative economic infrastructures by showing how resilience is enacted through ethical obligation, digital care, and community improvisation. It may provide insights concerning the dimensions and processes of enhancing community resilience through faith-based organizations.