© 2008 - Australian Churches of Christ Global Mission Partners Inc. All rights reserved.
BURMA CYCLONE APPEAL 2008
NEWS FROM BURMA
10 June 2008
In one remote village, volunteers reported that 135 people lost everything. “All of the houses are destroyed,” the student says. “We have removed 17 bodies and buried them, but there are still many left under the debris.” In another village they found eight dead bodies. When the volunteers first came to the area, they met people in total shock and despair. “They were crying and angry because they have lost their loved ones,” another young man says. “On our first trip we saw so many dead bodies along the way that we could not count them,” he expresses with sadness.
On the visits to villages, the volunteers distribute much needed relief items to survivors including rice, salt, drinking water and plastic sheeting. They also help to rebuild some of the houses with the old wood and bamboo found strewn about by the cyclone. Four to five families can share one of the makeshift homes. The volunteers report that all the school buildings in the area are destroyed as well, making it nearly impossible for children to return to school as planned at the beginning of June.
Continued need
When another ACT supported local organisation first visited the Irrawaddy area they reported that survivors had hardly anything left. More than 1,300 of the 6,000 people living in an area with 40 villages had died -- with 26 of the villages totally destroyed. “The houses are destroyed, the cattle are dead and the seed is gone”, the relief workers said. The workers took all their savings to hire boats to bring the most vulnerable women, children and elderly to camps.” While relief work is still going on, we have to already think of rehabilitation,” one relief worker shared, adding that there are around fifty days left before the monsoon planting season ends. Rice has to be planted before then, otherwise there will be a serious food shortage within six months. Many of the people left in villages have survived on coconuts over the last few weeks. Local organisations report that they are desperately asking for seeds and diesel for their ploughs.
In one village, relief workers met a young mother who lost her baby while she was clinging to a palm tree. The baby was crushed on her breast. Today, the young woman does not speak and walks around with a coconut in her arms pretending it is her baby. As part of their overall and continued response, ACT members are mobilising community-based psychosocial support to help survivors cope with the emotional consequences of the immense disaster.
They do not consider themselves heroes -- they feel they are simply doing what they need to do. “We feel the responsibility to help,” one 23-year-old volunteer says.
ACT members Christian Aid, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and Lutheran World Federation contributed to this report. Action by Churches Together (ACT) International is a global alliances of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.
Emergency Relief will be provided through ecumenical agencies cooperating together through ACT International.
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Action by Churches Together International)
All excess funds will be applied to developing projects in the region.
