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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By MATT KIELTYKA, 24 HOURS
A Lower Mainland couple is doing their best to make sure Myanmar’s cyclone victims aren’t forgotten. Nina Cassils and her husband John – together with another couple from Calgary – have been raising funds for international organizations since Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar in May.
Through private and online donations at cwasiafund.org, Cassils has raised about $740,000 for on-the-ground relief efforts, and she’s gone there to lend a hand herself.
“Imagine a wave coming and continuing through to Surrey, ripping at every tree and building in between and killing women and children,” she said.
Knowing how far a Canadian dollar can go in Myanmar, Cassils set up CW Asia Fund to fund relief efforts through four organizations, including Doctors Without Borders. But as Western society’s memory of the disaster fade away, so do the funds. “It’s a shame because so much more needs to be done,” she said, who is involved with local and international charities. “People don’t even have to give that much. They don’t realize that a dollar can feed an entire family.”
Up to 300,000 people were killed by the cyclone, with another 2.4 million living with the aftermath. Damage has been estimated in the billions of dollars
In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the Myanmar Tourism Cyclone Relief Team had been initiating its relief effort for the Cyclone Nargis Victims by sending aid directly to those who are desperately in need at Phya Pone District and nearby Townships at lower Ayeyarwady Delta.
As of June 2008, the Myanmar Tourism Cyclone Relief Team had been able to reach out to 5,000 families reside at 70 villages with aid items worth US$ 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
Dear Nina,
Just to let you know that I have the 2 receipts for $20,000 and will mail them to you. Will also enclose a report.
I just want to add, that, from what I have heard here on the ground, XYZ is doing a very good job of responding quickly to the needs in the Delta. It is very providential that XYZ already had a presence in that area because of the Tsunami. These local organizations are much more able to respond quickly than either the INGOs or the UN as they don’t have all of the bureaucracy to deal with, so I would encourage you, in your fund raising, Nina, to continue to donate to local NGOs rather than to the INGOs.
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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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