Dear Mrs. Nina & Mr. John,
Greetings!
Thanks for your message and concern in this tragic moment in the country.

We, all our family members and the staff members’ family are safe although there have been big damages at homes. Luckily, there hasn’t been any damage at the office. We will be back functioning at normal operation as soon as the electricity and internet is back. This is the first moment the authority could start the limited internet access.

The Storm was indeed terrible. I and everyone in town are not yet recover from the shock. We were very very scared. It will take so much of time for the areas and people to get back to normal. As you see in the news, there are many a casualties, people homeless and there are many more problems await. 90% of the infrastructures is down. But, we pray and hope that things would recover quick. However, reconstruction everywhere is extremely slow as the damages are enormous.

Read more …

Hi,
We are spending the money on food [rice oil, fish, plumpy nut], plastic sheeting, water purification and medical teams with medicines.
10 team ‘s medical + water + food/sheeting distribution.
Money is good.
Sending stuff is not good for the moment, because up to now it seems that everything will be confiscated by the gov’t.
Very very busy. Cheers,

Two days after we left Myanmar with high hopes and plans for our next few months of aid work, Cyclone Nargis hit the most vulnerable areas of Myanmar along the Iraraddy River. While we were still in Bangkok, John and I began to receive news updates from the field and were forced into a state of shock at the level of devastation and destruction the cyclone had created.

…”Cyclone Nargis” destruction is massive due to 3 – 8 meter surges that went deep inside the country, in effect worse than the Tsunami. Entire villages swept away even 50km behind the coastline… There go your children, there go your wife and there go yourself. We began immediately without assessment of damages to send truckloads full of food, shelter material and a medical team with medicine on a boat to an island. The next truck, boat to another island and so forth. There were many many dead bodies…..

We knew that the logistics and challenges of bring emergency relief aid to the 1.2 million Burmese in remote areas was going to be a challenging undertaking. The best solution for immediate aid was for us to join together with other private donors, local businesses and local NGOs to help those in distress. Returning home through Taipei, we committed to our friends and partners in Myanmar that we would begin fund-raising and co-coordinating relief aid supplies as soon as we arrived home.

Read more …

Hi Nina,

Thanks for the information… the cyclone made terrible mess in here….all the biggest trees fall to the ground……road block. No electricity and official thought that it will be back after a month.

No telephone and no internet connection….accept me using UNICEF internet in Trader hotel which is still working. Many people homeless and there is not enough drinking water and medicine in the city.

UNICEF and all the donor agencies are doing emergency preparedness and response here.

That all for now and I will write you later
See you soon

Hi Nina,

Thank you for all the information you have sent. I don’t have regular access to email, so bear with me for late reply.

It has been an ordeal since last Friday. My apartment’s window frame fell and all the rain, with 90 degree and 300/km wind blow, came into the room. One of the patios became a pool with its clogged drainage, and that also caused water to leak to the floor. All night we tried to barricade windows and doors with heavy chairs and tables. My hands got totally red and sore for ringing towels 1000 times to get water out! Now the city is full of fallen trees and electric wires.

Read more …