By Nina and John
Canadians on this trip: Mark and Dawn Marshall, Tim Norman, Ross McClellan

Our first trip was with Serge Pun and Associates (SPA) travelling from Yangon to Pathein with 109 of their donors, volunteers and staff all involved with the initial emergency response. It quickly became apparent as to why international aid agencies all had so many difficulties and were met with a logistic nightmares trying to deliver assistance to the homeless victims of Cyclone Nargis.

We departed Yangon City at 7:00PM for the 100-mile journey on a very rough road. After arriving in Pathein 10 hours later, at 4:30am, we transferred to an express riverboat for a further 4-hour trip arriving at the village of Auk Pyun Wa on Middle Island at 9:00AM. At one point our river boat lost its steering coming to a halt up on mud flats due to deep fishing nets set up by local village entrepreneurs.

Our visit as a happy occasion, to witness the formal dedication ceremony attended by 35 foreign donors, 40 local donors and suppliers, 25 SPA logistics personal and field staff. The villagers had stayed up most of the night in anticipation of our arrival and this special ceremony.

Cyclone Nargis slammed into Middle Island (Hainggyi Island) completely burying the entire island underwater and completely destroying most villages, and trees in its path including the entire fishing village of Auk Pyun Wa as it sat exposed on the eastside. The population of 589 was reduced to 368, with 127 huts, the monastery, the pagoda, the primary school, and four shrimp paste factories were badly damaged or destroyed. SPA, a Myanmar and Singaporean based business, chose the task to rebuild one of the 50 totally destroyed villages in the 700-kilometer area assigned to them and other local businesses by the Burmese government. SPA ‘s choice of rehabilitation was to create an “environmentally sustainable pilot village” as a model for the entire SE Asian region with the expert knowledge of the Israeli team lead by Dr. Efraim Laor, world leader on large scale sudden disasters. The funding was provided by the Singaporean Red Cross (80%) and by private local and foreign donors (20%). The Burmese government supplied the timber, alu-zinc roofing sheets and concrete.

The result includes 125 homes constructed at a cost per home of $900 USD, each with running water and electric lighting (solar powered), a common gravity storage water tower, elevated walkways, a new river pier, a village administration building, a village medical clinic, a primary school, and a substantial two storey concrete building, raise on concrete pillars for a community center and a refuge in the case of future life threatening storms or tsunamis. The total cost for the entire village was less than $500,000 US!

It was such a contrast to the horrors experienced by these villagers just a few months before. Few trees and shrubs remained after Cyclone Nargis swept through. Following the formal dedication and handover ceremony, monks gave blessings and a feast and ceremonial activities followed.

The second stop on this journey was a nearby village, Thin Gan Gone Village, which is just starting to rebuild new housing and a new medical clinic. The cost of this clinic, fully equipped, will be $10,000USD. The concrete shell of a pre-existing building will be used to make way for healthcare. CW Asia Fund has committed to fund this much needed clinic. The pre existing structure will provide a cost effective building that will be able to withstand future flooding.

When the storm struck this village located on low lying land on the west side of a stream, the stream became a raging torrent that washed out the small wooden bridge. The villagers in this lower village drowned, as they could not cross to reach the nearby higher village. SPA had just completed the construction of a new large concrete bridge that will withstand future floods so that this tragic outcome will not be repeated.