Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Myanmar

Myanmar: CARE staff meet survivors of Cyclone Nargis

At least 66,000 people are dead or missing since cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar. CARE is working in the region to get people the help they need.

We have had the full support and cooperation from the local authorities which has enabled our teams to get into the filed 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 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.