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.
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How many days were you in the Delta?
Three days
How long getting there?
7 hours by car which is enough to kill you, 7 hours by ferry and 2 hours by my raft with a 40 HP motor. Left at 2 am and got there for dinner. Very difficult trip!!!
What did you see?
50 % of the homes have USAID plastic sheeting on their homes. Lots of homes completely destroyed. Very sad eyes. Lots of children and life moving on as normal. Except the people are having to live on hand outs rather than making a living. They want to get back to making a living. Shortage of, actually a lack of supplies,i.e. have no fishing nets and they desperately need these nets now or they will miss the fishing season!
And in terms of permanent physical damage to the landscape?
I did not see any real physical damage to the landscape. It certainly is very beautiful down there.
What was the state of rebuilding?
Those that can rebuild are rebuilding. Those who cannot are not rebuilding. I don’t think there is any corruption. I met with hundreds of villagers and their only request was for nets so they can start fishing next week when the fishing season starts.
What is mood of the locals?
Very sad. Most have lost so many family members. They feel hopeless because they have to depend on hand outs and can not get on with their life because they lack the tools to earn a living.
Did they look healthy or hungry?
They are fine. Just very depressed and feel hopeless. In your opinion what do you see or sense will be the most difficult issue in the coming months? Post traumatic stress!!! Food shortages!!!
Trust you are well…When will we see you in BKK? I hope to be back down in the Delta in November and December. I truly hope you can help with some fishing nets ASAP. The season is just starting and it is during the next 3 months that the majority of the fish are caught for the year. After meeting with hundreds of villagers it was obvious that this is what is needed more than anything. Your help would be very much appreciated. Thanks, KM
The Kitchen Soup project is going great and delighted to help.
Sorry for late Reply because I was seriously ill for 3 days and I could not go anywhere. I went to clinic and now I feel better but I am coughing non-stop. I also take medicine for cough but it is not better.
I go to help every Friday to cook and deliver the food with my new friend Merlyn. We together feed the children rice and curry and also check what the monk needs for coming week to feed the children. There are 138 primary students, who can not afford to attend school so instead they come and study school lessons in this Monastery. There are 3 teachers, 5 cooks and about 15 monks at this Monastery. Last month, we made a meeting with teachers and monks to donate weekly to feed the children.
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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!
Wow Nina!
You are doing a lot of stuff! You work so hard! That’s really amazing that you were able to raise that much money, though I knew you aimed for more. My trip to Inle Lake was very good! Golden Island Cottages Resort Hotel was the nicest hotel I stayed at during all of my travels by far! The manager and all the hotel staff were super nice to me. And Joe took me everywhere! We saw the library you set up and the children were so adorable. Then I met up with one of the staff to Mandalay and she took me and another traveller on a really great tour of all the sights. I was even taken to the fresh market and our guide bought me a bouquet of roses for 50 cents! Then I went to Bagan with a traveller friend I made. I think this was my favorite part of Burma!
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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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To date, 150 Physician Travel Packs have been delivered to partners around the world for emergency relief in 2008. Haiti and the Caribbean region have received 66 PTPS, while 34 were delivered to Myanmar, (white boxes above shipped free of charge by Air Canada to Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific to Bangkok, Thai Airlines into Yangon, Myanmar) if 28 to China and 24 to Zimbabwe thanks to the generosity of Canadian healthcare companies.
The May of Misfortune.
Cyclone Nargis hit land in Myanmar on May 2, 2008. As organizations around the world were still negotiating aid endeavours, a major earthquake struck the Sichuan area of China on May 12. HPIC responded to both of these disasters with donated Canadian medicine.
Medical aid for Myanmar was channelled through the Canadian group CW Asia Fund and used on the ground by AZG (Medecins Sans Frontieres, Holland). AZG reports working with local staff to deliver medical aid through fixed and mobile clinics in more than 300 villages. According to Nina Cassils of the CW Asia Fund, “Working directly with excellent global organizations with outposts in Myanmar allowed the donations to be used effectively for the benefit of the cyclone victims.”
Excerpt from Health Partners International Canada
For more information contact:
Margaret Buchanan, Manager, Media Relations – email: mbuchanan@hpicanada.ca
Is it possible if we can spend about Ks.25 lakhs ($2500CAN) for next trip? Please we want to give more. Not enough food to give.
Last trip, we delivered Rice 20 bags. And added 20 more bags of rice once we realized how much needed. Then we had enough to deliver to 4 villages.
The neediest things are;
FOOD: Rice, Water, Salt and Oil.
Even for meat/protein, they can make fishing as their custom!
Our estimation for about 400 families/I hope at least 800 peoples will be able to eat the rice for 5 days!
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The combined efforts of Metta Development Foundation, AZG, Save the Children Myanmar and MFH & Medical Relief Society Hospital.
AZG (Medicine Sans Frontieres – Holland), in fortunate position, because could divert national staff from the large existing programmes in Myanmar (over 1,000 staff) and could use the large medical reserves they had in country. In the early weeks have reached 200,000 people, have moved 200+ staff into the fields along with 9 international aid workers. In the first week 40 trucks were sent with goods to Delta, 10 boats are distributing goods and staff further south. Two cargo planes flew into Yangon airport with medical supply, mosquito nets, and water and sanitation equipment, including water treatment kits that produce 10,000 liters of drinking water per hour, 30,000 liters water bladders and other materials. 2 more planes followed. AZG has planned 8 million USD for the activities in the initial 3 months
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From: A Myanmar NGO observer
Three camps have been setup in a football stadium and on a golf course. Yesterday supplies were delivered to 670 families staying in the football stadium. And the distribution of supplies continues daily in the two other camps.
About 3200 families are living in 1160 tents. Some villagers have come back from villages to the camp as it is not feasible for them to live in villages. Water is also the main issue in villages. More and more families are coming and the more tents are built up each day.
The township is trying to reopen the schools with no fees to be charged to students, to accept any student even without official transfer certificate and no need to wear school uniforms. Thirty-six schools to be constructed by a private company with a donation of 110,000 roofing sheets.2000 roofing sheets have been received and also school tents are being provided. It appears less than 50% of schools in this rural area can be operational by July 1st.
Water is still the most urgent need in camps.
Over the last few days 1000 families have been sent back to their villages with donations of tarpaulin, bucket, jerry can and soap distributed through NGOs.
