Can you work effectively in Myanmar?
“You can work here very well, and to say that you can’t is a lie,” said Frank Smithuis, a physician and the longtime country director for Medecins Sans Frontieres. “Look, the human rights record is shaky, yes, and it’s politically nice to beat up Burma, but the military has actually been quite helpful to us.” Dr. Smithuis said the delta had recovered well enough – and that enough other agencies were working there – that he had deployed his staffers to poorer, needier parts of the country.
“Because of sanctions there is a lot of suffering, and we see that particularly in the humanitarian-aid field,” said Frank Smithius, Myanmar country director for Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders. “There’s definitely hope in the aid community that the policy will be reconsidered.”
“The Myanmar people are victims of a humanitarian boycott,” Smithius said. “There is enormous pressure on politicians in the West to look politically correct, and they get human rights brownie points by being very strict on aid.” (Source: Myanmar loses aid to political “brownie points” – Bloomberg 5 May 2009)
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Due to its long term presence in Myanmar AZG was able to respond quickly after Nargis struck Myanmar. Operations started on the 5th of May (Yangon Division) and 6th of May (Ayawaddy Division; Ngapudaw and Laputta).
AZG sent 250 national staff from the large existing programmes in Myanmar and used the medical reserves that were already present in the country.
In the first weeks AZG sent out 8 distribution teams to ensure the distribution of food (rice, oil, fish, beans) and non-food items (sheeting, bed nets, blankets, toolkits) and 8 watsan teams to clean up ponds and wells. Distribution was executed at household level, ensuring that all recipients did acquire the necessary items. AZG sent also 28 mobile medical teams to conduct medical consultations, set up feeding centers for malnutrition and opened 8 fixed clinics in the Ngapudaw and Laputta townships.
By Nina and Dawn
The slogan of this charitable hospital is “For the poor of all communities” and that it truly is, serving the Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus and Christians of Yangon city. We were greeted at the entrance by hordes of patients lined up to collect their prescribed medications. The out patient department was calling patient number 346! And it was only 10:30am. Our group arrived laden with bags of medical supplies, donations in kind from Canada, making for difficult passage in an already very crowd space. The donations we bring each year include sutures, anti-biotics, ambu bags, multi-vitamins, skin ointments, surgical blades, steri-strips, dental instruments and book.
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Over the past four months, we have made tremendous progress towards assisting in the recovery from Cyclone Nargis made possible with your generous donations. Although this disaster has faded from the media, the job of rebuilding lives continues to be a challenge.
Along with providing for the most basic needs of simple food, water and temporary shelter, the donated funds have been used for:
- safe shelters for child protection;
- specialty food bars to curb malnutrition;
- critically required antibiotics and other medicines not available in large quantities within the country;
- materials to construct permanent housing; and
- psycho-social support for children and their families.
On August 6th, close to 8,000 lbs of donated medicines and high energy food were successfully air lifted to Yangon from Vancouver with 100% of the goods cleared without interference from government authorities. The value of this shipment exceeded $300,000 CDN.
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by Colin Hinshelwood
Concierge.com‘s Insider Guide
Last Spring, while Myanmar’s government was refusing foreign aid for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, local travel companies were among the first to provide relief. When little Ma Pandaw grows up, she can tell her pals she was born on a luxurious cruise ship. She first saw the light of day in its bar, which served as a temporary delivery room after the ship was converted into a mobile hospital to treat victims of the cyclone that swept through Myanmar s Irrawaddy Delta in May.
Ma Pandaw s mother, 17-year-old Khin Mar Oo, named her baby in honor of the ship in which she was born. The Pandaw IV was lent to the cyclone relief effort by Pandaw Cruises, one of dozens of tour companies, hotels, and resorts in Myanmar that responded to the Cyclone Nargis disaster by collecting donations and offering their staff, transportation, expertise, and, in this case, a replica of a nineteenth-century steamboat. We have collected $600,000, mostly from former passengers, said Pandaw Cruises founder Paul Strachan, adding that another $150,000 had been pledged.
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A new INGO to provide health services for people in Myanmar.
Medical Action Myanmar (MAM) is a new international medical aid organization whose mission is to improve the health of the poorest people within Myanmar. It’s principal goals are to provide basic medical treatment and prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The motivation for the creation of this new NGO is the unmet health needs in Myanmar.
The driving force behind MAM is Dr Frank Smithius, former director of MSF and a long-term veteran in health activities in Myanmar together with three former colleagues Dr Khin Zarli Aye, Dr Ni Ni Tun and Renee Mous. In addition, a number of health professionals who have been involved in health activities in Myanmar are supporting MAM including Professor Nick White (Oxford and Mahidol University), Dr Alex Winkler (former director of MSF) Holland, currently director of Doctors for Children and Guy Stallworthy (former directore PSI Myanmar, currently working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).
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It’s very sad to hear so many within Yangon are living in harsh conditions in damages homes without any help. We’ve seen the same problem in area we are volunteering in. Our team came back on Saturday and said that they had visited the villages that were rated 2nd on the scale of disaster but they are very desperate and have not received any aid. They need basic things like food and tarpaulin and clothes as they are busy planting right now but have no food or money to sustain them. The worst hit villages are now been well cared for. We are therefore concentrating still on getting food and clothing to those villages that are hardest to reach and have not received aid yet.
Yes, everyone is busy focusing on the Delta. However, I will see if there is anyone with the organization and infrastructure to help. Everyone’s funding is for the Delta regions. I think any work in Yangon would be dependent on if you were able to raise the funds for this. Hope you can!
I walked out of my apartment today to go & buy something at the pharmacy & a lady selling Myanmar homemade snacks, whom I had talked to before, was coming down our little lane. When she saw me, she broke into a smile and said, ‘Auntie, you’re still here. I haven’t seen you for so long so I thought that you had left.’ When I asked her how she was, she said, ‘Oh, I’m not very well. I’m losing my voice so I can’t call out what I’m selling very well.’ She looked very thin. I asked her if she had sold much that day. She then took down the big pot on her head & showed me the banana-leaf wrapped snacks in the pot. There were probably around 40 left. I asked her how much they were & she said, ‘The usual. 200 kyats each (about 15c.). I said that I would like to buy some, but she said, ‘No. I’m going to give you some.’ I didn’t feel good about that, but I could tell that she would not feel good if I paid for it, so I said, ‘Why don’t you come into my apartment for a little while so we can visit.’ She agreed to that, but she was still insisting on just giving me some of her snacks, so I said, ‘Why don’t we trade our snacks? I’ll eat yours & you can eat mine & we can have a cup of green tea together.’ So, that’s what we did. I had forgotten that last year I had asked her how many children she had (5) and that I had given her clothes for her children, until she reminded me.
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Greetings from Yangon.
Day I
Yesterday we went to visit several villages on the opposite side of river with a new guide because foreigners can’t go with us. We talked also with several locals along the way. Oh a very poor area with the houses submerged in water. Sending you some pictures I took. We will be going there on Sunday to buy some food and give it to some families, so I will be using some of the money from our own meal fund. There is a big school nearby but it seems impossible to give to everyone from our own meal fund because there’s a lot of students to feed, maybe when we go there next time I will try to learn more of some possibilities. Next trip we will give some money to a few mother’s to start little businesses of selling fruits in town. I don’t know really know whom to help since all the people are so poor and a lot of them, maybe a thousand families or more. We talked with the village chief and he said there is no problem with the government interfering.
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In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the Myanmar Tourism Cyclone Relief Team had been initiating its relief effort for the Cyclone Nargis Victims by sending aid directly to those who are desperately in need at Phya Pone District and nearby Townships at lower Ayeyarwady Delta.
As of June 2008, the Myanmar Tourism Cyclone Relief Team had been able to reach out to 5,000 families reside at 70 villages with aid items worth US$ 80,000 approximately both in cash and in kind. The Myanmar Tourism Cyclone Relief Team is now involving in rehabilitation processes as the 2nd phase of ongoing relief effort, especially in the educational field by rebuilding and repairing schools in the Phya Pone District, Ayeyarwady Division.
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