News from Myanmar (Burma): Aid is getting through

Friends,

In my last blog post, I reflected on the unfolding situation in Myanmar (Burma) just days after Cyclone Nargis hit. More than three weeks later, the situation remains dire, but Lutheran World Relief and our partners are succeeding in getting aid to those who need it – more than 100,000 so far. My colleague Joanne Fairley, LWR’s Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Middle East, has just returned from a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, with our partners in Action by Churches Together. I’d like to give her the opportunity to share with you here what she learned during her visit.

As I write to you, aid workers are entering the Irrawady delta region and assessing the situation of the people affected by Cyclone Nargis. International media has been mixed on whether aid is getting through to people here. Our partners on the ground would like us to assure friends in the U.S. that aid is getting through and has been from the start. The process of responding to a disaster of this magnitude, as you would imagine, can get chaotic, but our local partners are hopeful, especially since the talks between the U.N. chief and Myanmar’s top generals went well.

On the ground, the situation in Myanmar remains very grave and urgent. It is amazing to me just how many facets of life have been disrupted by this horrific natural disaster. There are millions without homes or shelter. Some village based camps have been set up and people have been given plastic sheeting to use as shelter, but these supplies are very much meant for short term relief and will need to be replenished often if people are to remain safe and healthy. In the camps, there are many unaccompanied children and women who have lost both their husbands and their farms—these are the most vulnerable because they have no one to support them. Clean drinking water continues to be a problem and already there have been illnesses reported from dirty drinking water—mainly dysentery.

The agricultural cycle is also of great concern right now. There is a very narrow window of time for the re-planting of the rice paddies if there is to be a fall harvest. The re-planting must happen within the next three weeks or this agricultural season will be a loss. Myanmar depends on its rice harvest not only to feed its people but also for export. The loss of the rice harvest would plunge the millions of already vulnerable people of the region into a situation of poverty and hunger from which it would be extremely difficult to recover. Non-governmental organizations are working hard to coordinate planting in hopes of avoiding this additional devastation.

In meetings with local partners I asked what they wish LWR could do to help. Our partners told me that first and foremost, they’d like us to stress to the American public that aid is getting in and that it is desperately needed and appreciated. The road to recovery from this disaster will be a long one. Much aid is needed to reach all those affected and, looking forward, more aid will be needed to sustain them through this crisis.

Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, LWR’s partner in global aid alliance, has pledged over $5 million USD to Myanmar for both emergency and long-term aid. They ask that we support the ACT appeal and give as much as we possibly can. I know that is not possible without the help of our dedicated and faithful supporters, so I ask that you send this message on to them so that they can know that their dollars are making it across the Myanmar border and are reaching the people who need it the most.

I am thankful that LWR is able to respond in emergency situations such as this, even in places where we have not traditionally had a presence. There is much more work to be done here, many more people to be reached. Working together with our local partners, LWR can have a real and lasting impact on the region, utilizing our experience from the 2004 tsunami and employing our accompaniment model of partnership.

I pray that the people in the U.S. will join us as we embark on this urgent yet hopeful mission.

-- Joanne Fairley

A Victim in Myanmar, but of What?

My morning New York Times (8 May 2008) stunned me into an ultra-alert, awake state. A bloated body floating in a dirty swamp, arms extended to the heavens, as if calling out for mercy. The hard-to-look-at photograph is captioned: “A victim of the cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma) last week.”

A colleague at LWR and I mused over this grotesque photo and thought about the meaning of “victim.” This unnamed person’s entire history on Earth is reduced to the word “victim.” Does his being a cyclone “victim” give anyone the right to plaster his half-clothed body as page one fare? We wondered aloud about some of the other things of which he was first a victim:

• of inadequate warning systems
• of no escape routes
• of being ruled by a military junta
• of the environmental destruction of mangrove forests that would have buffered the land from the raging sea
• of no resources
• of our indifference?
  

The latest reports fear that there are 100,000 more “victims,” perhaps neighbors, family-members, friends of this man floating in mosquito-infested waters. Malaria, which is also now raging in Myanmar, will turn a mosquito-bite into a death sentence.

My mind goes to the quarter million “victims” of the December 2004 tsunami and the millions more who are rebuilding their lives and their livelihoods. With joy, I've visited some communities where that’s happening: Accompanying Lydia, Hope Crushed, Traditional Architecture.

While hundreds of thousands of “victims” are teetering on the brink of life and death today in Myanmar, Lutheran World Relief is representing the heart of U.S. Lutherans, and your support is desperately needed.

We will accompany women, children and men who are homeless, sick and crying to find a road to recovery. And we will do this in a way that guards their dignity. For we know they are much more than mere “victims,” they are children of God, our sisters and brothers in the human family.

Please support this live-saving work.