To assist in relief efforts to Myanmar, which suffered a catastrophic cyclone
on May 3, Community of Christ is giving $50,000 from its Oblation fund to CARE
International. Community of Christ members have expressed an urgent desire to
help, and we have also been aware that relief agency access to Myanmar has been
difficult. Thanks to generous ongoing support of the Oblation fund, we are able
to respond.
CARE International has worked in Myanmar for 14 years and has 500 staff
members already positioned in the country. Community of Christ members are
encouraged to contribute to the Oblation fund to enable additional aid to be
given. We want to help with both immediate relief and the rebuilding effort that
will be necessary in coming months.
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photo © CARE International |
The following was reported on CARE’s Web site (www.careinternational.org.uk/)
on May 15, concerning their ability to provide relief to Myanmar:
CARE is responding to address urgent needs for safe water, sanitation,
food and basic family items for displaced people.
We have had the full support and cooperation from the local authorities
which has enabled our teams to get into the field and get our emergency
response started.
Nay Myo Zaw, one of CARE’s staff on the ground, has been distributing
blankets to survivors who were camped in a high school building in Pathein,
the capital of the Irrawaddy Delta. Nay spoke to a grief-stricken fisherman
whose life had been changed forever. Before the cyclone, he had a family of
five: a wife and three children. He tearfully told Nay that none of them had
survived.
While visiting one of the 27 camps in Myaung Mya Township which shelters
approximately 10,000 survivors, Nay met a man who witnessed his neighbours’
house, with four people inside, be literally torn from the ground and blown
away. Within minutes his own house was swept from its foundations by the
floodwater and he and his family were drifting rapidly. The family managed
to survive by holding onto a tree until the floodwaters subsided.
We really need your donations so that we can keep helping the people who
need it most, just £10 ($20) can buy a kit that will provide a package that
contains t-shirts, sarongs, mosquito nets, plastic sheeting, blankets,
cooking and eating utensils, toothbrushes and toothpaste amongst other
things.
Here are some of the ways in which we have been helping so far:
- We have distributed water in two townships (South Dagon and Thaketa)
in Yangon to approximately 2,000 families (10,000 people) in temporary
shelters and other community members who have no access to town water
supply. This included distribution of bottled water as well as cleaning
wells and toilets at collective centres (schools and pagodas).
- We distributed rice to 3,000 people in seven collective centres
using locally available food. Further distributions are planned with the
World Food Programmes likely to include rice and high energy biscuits.
- 50,000 family kits are being assembled in Thailand. The family kits
include blankets, jerry cans, plastic sheeting, clothes, kitchen and
hygiene items.
- Assessments have been completed for Tha Ke Ta and East Dagon
Townships in Yangon. Rice for approximately 900 people, hygiene supplies
and diesel for power pumps have been provided.
