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)

“Why is Myanmar the lowest recipient of overseas development money in the world? This is the result of political pressure to restrict humanitarian aid to Myanmar, arguing that aid cannot reach the population of Myanmar. This argument is not valid, hampers humanitarian aid and increases the suffering of the Myanmar people. We have experience that it is possible to guarantee that foreign aid can directly reach the people of Myanmar. Large-scale health projects, with good monitoring systems that guaranteed that donor money directly benefits the population, have been set up and proven to be very effective to save lives of Myanmar people” (source: Dr. Frank Smithuis frank.m.smithuis@gmail.com)

Frank Smithuis, MD, PhD.

Frank has worked for 20 years in South East Asia, first as a clinical doctor in a Cambodian refugee camp (1988-1992), than as project coordinator in West Cambodia (1993-1994), and later as medical coordinator and general director for MSF in Myanmar (1994-2009). In Myanmar he built up the largest medical programme of MSF in the world, with over 10 million patient consultations. In 2005 he received a PhD for Malaria research in Myanmar. frank.m.smithuis@gmail.com

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.

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.

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.

We are pleased to report that all goods have been received in full by AZG – Medicine Sans Frontiers (Myanmar). Working directly with excellent global organizations with outposts in Myanmar, allows the donations in kind and shipment to be effectively used and distributed for the benefit of the Cyclone victims. All your cash donations were successfully transferred in USD without any exchange loss or risk of compromise.

During this crisis, the CW Asia Fund facilitated the transfer of over $855,000 USD of which $670,000 was raised in Canada with the help of the Radcliffe Foundation and $186,000 internationally. In addition, $444,880 of the $670,000 that was raised from Canadian individuals was matched by CIDA. These funds are being allocated by CIDA to established Canadian and international humanitarian organizations for relief efforts that benefit the people in Myanmar.

Without your generous assistance none of this could have happened. Thank you so much for helping to make the relief efforts so significant by giving and acting so quickly. It is making a big difference!

In summary, we are pleased to advise that the CW Asia Fund has managed to achieve the following objectives since May 8, 2008:

• Secured donations from International foundations and NGOs for Myanmar;
• safe shelters for child protection;
• Secured in kind donations of bulk pharmaceutical products, bulk vitamins, food supplements, dried soy powder, high energy bars, “Gastrolyte” and air freight. Arrowsmith School (Vancouver, B.C.) conducted fundraisers especially for the purchase of Gastrolyte product;
• Donor corporations included Jamieson Labs; Nature’s Path; Health Partners International of Canada; NBTY ; Novopharm; Rexall Drugs; UBC VGH Dentistry Dept, UBC Dental Association and West Coast Seed;
• Obtained donations from Air Canada and Cathay Pacific to transport the donated goods from Vancouver to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Bangkok, respectively. Thai Air then delivered the goods from Bangkok to Yangon at a reduced cost;
• Received approval by Federal Department of External Affairs to provide financial assistance for Cyclone relief in Burma regardless of existing sanctions;
• Awarded $444,880 CAN of matching funds from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA);
• Set up a facility for donations in the UK under www.justgiving.com/burmarelief;
• Posted relief information on our website www.cwasiafund.org; and
• Launched online giving for American and Canadian donors with official tax receipting Give Meaning (100%, 0 deductions) for ongoing rebuilding of schools and healthcare facilities. Kindly forward to family and friends encouraging them to consider… One dollar feeds a family of five per day!

In the coming months the CW Asia Fund will continue their efforts in Myanmar.

Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your generosity allowed timely, effective and appropriate humanitarian assistance to be delivered to the victims of Cyclone Nargis!

Sincerely,
Nina and John Cassils
Co-Founders
CW Asia Fund

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.

Many tour companies have linked themselves to on-the-ground humanitarian relief groups such as Merlin, Save the Children, and the Red Cross. Donations are spent mostly on emergency supplies like cooking oil and pots, rice, salt, water, candles, soap, tools, tarpaulins, and clothing. Mistrustful of the military government-which blocked international aid agencies, including the UN, from entering the cyclone-ravaged delta for weeks following the disaster-former visitors turned to the tour companies they travelled with to ensure that their donations reach the needy. “We face far fewer restrictions on our movements than the relief agencies,” said Brett Melzer, owner of the luxury Malikha Lodge, in Myanmar’s far north, and Balloons over Bagan, a firm that specializes in hot-air balloon trips.

“We have the support of the authorities as long as we inform them of our movements and remain apolitical. There is already a sense of trust in place that enables us to move immediately without time-consuming internal meetings and detailed budgets. As tourism companies, we have experience in logistics and are able to handle and receive foreign funds. This allowed many in the industry to react quickly after the cyclone struck.”

Abercrombie & Kent, the large British tour operator, set up a Myanmar Relief Fund. Eight days after the cyclone, one of its relief teams reached the village of Ta Pyan Gyi, where they discovered 279 survivors in a church, the only building left standing. The relief packages-including blankets, mosquito nets, and rehydration salts-were the first aid the survivors received. By June 20, the fund had collected $340,000, including money for tractors and seeds, urgently needed in the rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta.

Yangon-based tour operator William Myatwunna and his staff at Good News Travels were among the volunteers. After we had fixed our own homes, we helped construct shelters for those in the neighborhood. Some of our staff cooked porridge for the survivors. A few tour companies had charitable foundations in place prior to the cyclone. Asia Transpacific Journeys, a Colorado travel agency, collects donations from clients and others to fund a water-filtration facility in Yangon. It reacted to the crisis by stepping up its distribution of clay water filters, which can be lifesavers during a natural disaster where clean running water is scarce.

Tourism to Myanmar has slowed to a trickle following the military regimes violent response in September 2007 to monks who were protesting inflation and living conditions. Even before then, visiting Myanmar (or Burma as it is widely known) had long been a contentious issue. Some Burmese dissidents and Western activists argue that tourist dollars only help to prop up the isolationist military regime. But proponents of tourism counter that foreign visitors not only help support the local economy but also keep the notoriously reclusive country open-and remind the Burmese people that the world has not forgotten their plight.

Tourism plays a vital role in allowing an exchange of information-something the government is desperate to stop, said a tour operator who works in Myanmar and who asked not to be identified. Without this degree of openness, the world would not have seen the Saffron Revolution take place last year. Tourists are one of the few things that the government cannot so easily control.

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).

Why Medical Action Myanmar?
Myanmar’s health system is under-funded. National investment is insufficient and the international community provides very little support. Myanmar citizens receive the lowest amount of development aid (ODA) of all ‘least developed countries’ i.e. 3 USD per person per year compared to 38 USD in CAmbodia and 50 USD in Laos, both countries with higher gross national income (GNI). There are very few medical aid organisations in Myanmar and most operate on a pitiful small scale (therefore being very cost-ineffective.) People in Myanmar have to pay for the health services themselves and most cannot afford to do so. As a result, tens of thousands of people, mostly children die each year of diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, respiratory tract infections and other simple and treatable diseases.

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!

Then she started telling me all about her family & what had happened to them when the cyclone hit. She said that their little house in Dawbom (across the river} the roof blew off & the walls of their house fell down, so they were in the rain all night. She wasn’t able to sell for the next week, so they didn’t have anything to eat except for 4 condensed milk cans of rice, that was distributed one day. Her husband, who is a construction worker – daily laborer – has no work during rainy season. After about a week she was able to start selling again, but they didn’t have any money for repairing their house until she was able to save up enough, over 3 weeks, to buy a tarpaulin, for 12,000 kyats (about $10) that her husband then made into a roof for their house. Whenever it rained, they would all run to a tea shop & sit until the rain stopped, or, if it rained at night, they would all try to sit under any place that gave some shelter. Up to now they haven’t been able to fix the walls, so the rain comes in the sides & they get wet.

Her children range in age from 4 to 15. She is 35 years old. She’s been able to put the 4 oldest in school, but, the last 2 years her 15 year old dropped out of school because he felt embarrassed that he couldn’t the donations of money that the teacher asked the children to bring. She’s thought of letting him work in a tea shop, but really, in her heart, doesn’t want to do that as she said, ‘Children this age should still be playing.’ He stays at home & looks after the 4 year old & also takes his 3 siblings to & from school.

She was able to save up enough money to buy the 3 children 1 uniform each, so, when they come home, he takes their uniforms to his aunt to wash & then dries them (by the fire if it’s raining). She said it was good when school started – June 1st – because then the children could be in a safe, dry place all day. She herself has only 1 blouse & 1 loungji. At night she washes her loungji & dries it by the fire. However, she showed me how the bottom of it got burned because she fell asleep the other night while she was drying it. She has to go out selling every day, as otherwise they don’t have anything to eat. She never steals & has taught her children not to. She also never borrows, as she’s afraid to because they ask 40% interest. If they don’t have something, they do without.

One time her youngest was crying to her that he was hungry, so she said, ‘Just a minute.’ & she went & had her hair cut off & sold it so he would have something to eat. Her hair is very dull, which shows she’s malnourished. She wanted to stay home today, because she was losing her voice, but the thought of her children being hungry made her go out to sell. She buys the snacks from a woman who makes it and then tries to sell everything she has, but some days, especially when it’s raining, like it has been for the last 4 days, she doesn’t make much profit. When she was selling today, it started to rain, so, she sat down on the stairs of the hospital. She was feeling really bad, but just then someone came & bought 1,000 kyats worth. Then, she walked around the corner & started down my little lane and she saw me!

I tried to think of what I could give her that she might accept. Because she accepted clothes the last time, I got a jacket of mine & a t-shirt that I gave her. I didn’t have any children’s clothes at the house. I also got all of the pencils I have & a pad of paper for her children to use at school. I told her that, for the sake of the children, I wanted to give her the money, 20,000 kyats (about $16) to buy tarpaulin for the sides of her house. At first she said she wouldn’t take it, but, when I told her that she should take it now, and then when they are doing better financially, she can repay me. She brightened up then and accepted the money. I could tell that she was depressed & really wanted to talk. As she was telling me all of this, the tears would come to her eyes & she said, ‘I don’t know what I’ve done so that I have such a hard life, but I just want a better life for my children.’ I told her what a good job she was doing by making sure her children went to school, even though she can’t read herself, and by raising them so well.

We talked for about 45 minutes. Then we went out together – she to go home & me to go to the pharmacy. She held my hand as we walked down the lane & told me to be careful that I didn’t slip & fall. She also told me to please go to her home with her next Sunday as she really wanted me to visit. I didn’t tell her that foreigners aren’t allowed to go across the river without permission – just told her that I would be away, but that maybe, when rainy season is over I could come.

This isn’t a very dramatic story or anything, but it shows the lovely hospitable nature of many people here, even in the midst of SO much poverty and, on top of that, the extra problems that have come to them because of the cyclone – not just in the Delta area, but here in the peri-urban townships of Yangon. Of course there are also many who steal & lie and some of the children who are really rude and difficult, but I appreciate SO much these people, especially the women, who are trying their best in the midst of such hardships – makes my problems very, very insignificant.

P.S. I just read something: ‘Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.’

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.

Day II
We have gone twice to across the river; the first was just plain visits and the second time we brought some food stuff to give to some 80 families, candies and biscuits to some children. The needs in that place is so enormous with more than a thousand families living in very poor condition, the picture you received is only a small portion, of the 80 families we have given food. In addition, there are 4 widows and I am sure there are many HIV positive people too. I can not make any commitment about helping this one village because the needs are so great. But if you like to help people there which I know you are very willing I should recommend that a Burmese staff who knows something on community organizing should be the one to manage the project, I will certainly help in what ever way I can but I cannot do it on my own…too much needs to be done.

Day III
Sorry for responding so very late. I have been in bad shape the last days; I was down with flu after the visit and giving out of food across the river. I am better now. Thanks for the vegetables seeds but as of now they cannot yet be planted because this village like many others is still submerged in water. Not unless we buy pots and soil so people could plant vegetables in pot but also there is the problem of stealing in the neighborhood. I don’t know during summer if it possible to plant vegetables in their backyard, Also, their are alot of poor families so how can we choose whom to help. Some families that we were not able to give food last time complains because they are all neighbors to the families who received food but we told them they will be the one to be given next time. Next step is find sisters working with people in this area. Thanks,

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.

The estimated budget for a school which could accommodate 100 -120 students is approximately US$ 2,000 ~ 2,500 including basic structure (i.e. 30′ X 60′ X 13′ hall types building with corrugated zinc sheet roofing, bamboo walls with timber poles); facilities (i.e. gutters, tables, 5 blackboards, benches, chairs, hygienic drinking water and toilets facilities); stationeries; and uniforms.

As of today, the project for the below listed elementary schools from Grade 1 to 5 is progressing very well and soon those will be ready to reopen for 2008/9 academic year.

• Ka Zaung Village
• Ka Dah Village
• Kayin Tha Bye Kan Village
• Ko Eine Dan Village
• Kyon Dah Village
• Kyon Thut Ta Nyi Village
• Kyaik Hpo Village
• Gwa Gyi Village
• Sa Byu Zu Village
• Nyaung Ta Bin Village
• Nyaung Taw Gyi Village
• Pa Thi Village
• Shitt Pe Village
• Thon Dat Village
• A Zoke Ka Lay Village

Members of the travel trade are also urged to look into the possibilities of donating cash or in kind for such humanitarian assistance as they desire.