Cyclone Nargis: Emergency in Myanmar
Cyclone Nargis
Support the people of Myanmar through ActionAid’s Strategic Crisis Fund.
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UPDATE: November 1, 2008
According to the UN there are more 134,000 people dead or missing and 2.5 million people lost their homes and possessions following Cyclone Nargis. The cyclone destroyed thousands of buildings, power lines, trees, roads and blocked the water supply to large parts of the population, destroying their homes and devastating 60 villages.
ActionAid’s initial relief and recovery work took place through three local organizations, better enabling us to work through the complexities of getting help where it is most needed. Through our local partners, ActionAid continues to provide emergency relief in the districts of Pathein, Laputta, Bogale, Pyanpon and Ngapudaw. We are also working with the voluntary wing of the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce – Myanmar Egress – to ensure the adequate and timely supply of goods and to help in negotiations with the Myanmar government.
With ActionAid funding, Myanmar Egress has reached 50 villages with one-off distributions of food and water, temporary shelters, clothes, household items and medical supplies. We also initiated cash-for-work programs which enable people to earn an income while taking part in repairing essential infrastructure. By the end of September, 12,100 households (60,000 people) across 220 villages were earning a living by rebuidling their own communities.
In addtion to providing rice and water purification tablets, we are providing seeds and tools so that villagers can begin farming again, helping them reclaim the means to support their families and communities in the years to come.
Over the next year, ActionAid will continue to provide psychosocial care - attending to the mental health of the survivors - in Myanmar. Dealing with these issues from the outset helps those caught up in disasters to recover more quickly and contributes to long-term stability at a community level.
Roger Yates, ActionAid head of Emergencies said "Recovery must go hand in hand with the relief effort. People remain very vulnerable for a long time after a disaster so we need to ensure that they are getting all the help they need."
Our rehabilitation program will continue through 2010. Our key areas of interventions will be livelihood recovery in agriculture, fisheries and non-farm sectors and the implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) activities. In addition, ActionAid is now acting as joint chair with the United Nations of the DRR working group.
ActionAid's progress to date:
- ActionAid reached out to over 120,000 people in 410 villages with emergency relief support and provided food to 200 villages.
- We provided non-food, essential items in 167 villages and provided temporary shelter in 190 villages.
- We set up mobile first aid clinics to provide health support and medicines to people living in over 50 villages.
- We established cash for work schemes for building renovation, village cleaning and water source rehabilitation in 167 villages.
- We are providing 240 villages with ongoing early recovery livelihood support in agriculture, fisheries and non-farm livelihood. We helped to plant 12,357 acres of paddy through the provision of seeds and the repairing of 110 power tillers. It is expected that this will yield a harvest of 123,570 quintals that will ensure food security for around 5,000 families.
- We trained 100 community volunteers with psychosocial care skills who in turn have provided support to vulnerable women and children in 160 villages.
Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on Saturday, May 3rd with wind speeds reaching 120mph bringing a sea surge that smashed through towns and villages. The official death toll now, May 24th, stands at 77,738 with 55,917 missing. It is now estimated that 2.4 million people are severely affected. ActionAid is currently working in the worst affected area of Irrawaddy, serving 432 villages providing food, shelter, medicine, cash for work and agricultural assistance along with our local partners KDN, PACT, Myanmar Egress and MDF, some of the largest national NGO's in Myanmar.
ActionAid is well placed with our office in Myanmar and fellows located throughout rural villages. ActionAid’s Strategic Crisis Fund allows us to disperse funds immediately to provide relief in emergency situations. Additionally our established partnership with KDN who is well placed within 276 of villages hit by the cyclone greatly aided in our emergency response. We continue to partner with KDN and three other local organizations PACT, Myanmar Egress and MDF. Our Strategic Crisis Fund, placement and selection of staff, fellows and partners allowed our assessment and relief to begin immediately and within the worst affected areas and populations. Please help support the people of Myanmar affected by Cyclone Nargis.
MAY 27th UPDATE: The overall objective of ActionAid’s relief efforts are to reduce the vulnerability of poor and marginalized households affected by Nargis through proving emergency relief support in the following forms:
-Provide basic nutritional needs and non-food items to the vulnerable and affected households
-Improve health status of vulnerable people
-Ensure physical safety of the vulnerable people
-Strengthen capacity of affected and vulnerable people to participate and influence relief and recovery efforts
-Ensure aid response is coordinated and immediate needs of the people are advocated to concerned stakeholders
We have provided direct relief to over 120,000 of the most vulnerable across 432 villages in some of the most rural areas. As of May 21st we have entered our second phase of relief efforts including critical pyscho-social care. Your support continues to make this work possible.
MAY 15th UPDATE: Food, shelter, medical supplies and water are all critical needs. The early rehabilitation of the agricultural sector has also been identified as being crucial, as the affected area is central to Myanmar's rice industry. People have been migrating outwards from the most affected areas in search of basic necessities. Early estimates suggest that temporary settlements may now be sheltering over 550,000 people in Ayeyarwady and Yangon Divisions. Damaged infrastructure and communications, as well as flooding, pose serious logistical challenges for relief efforts. Weather reports for affected areas in the coming days continue to be unfavorable, with heavy rainfall predicted.
The death toll will likely rise as officials make contact with the worst-hit areas. In one town alone, 95% of the houses were destroyed and more than 10,000 people killed. Several hundred thousand people are in need of shelter and clean drinking water. But damage to roads and communications mean it is impossible to tell the true extent of the situation. ActionAid will continue to provide updates regarding emergency assessment and relief delivery.
A state of emergency was declared Sunday, May 4th across five regions: the city of Yangon, Irrawaddy, Pegu and the states of Karen and Mon. The towns of Bogalay and Laputta, in the region of Irrawaddy, ar among those locations particularly badly hit and where ActionAid has focused our efforts. In Yangon, a city of 5 million, people were queuing up for bottled water and there was still no electricity four days after the Cyclone struck the delta.
Thousands of buildings have been flattened, power lines downed, trees uprooted, roads blocked and water supplies disrupted. Houses along the coast had been reduced to skeletal structures, 16 villages had been virtually wiped out and it has been reported that no help has reached some of the most badly affected regions.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win said his government was ready to accept international assistance as thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis are lacking shelter, drinking water, power and communications. The European Union released five million dollars in initial emergency aid. The United States has offered $3 million dollars in assistance.
Given the destruction, the funding need is likely to be huge, with prices of food, fuel and basic necessities rising dramatically. In some places the cost of fuel has quadrupled to $10 a gallon. Please show your support for the people of Myanmar by supporting ActionAid’s efforts through our Strategic Crisis Fund.
$10 could provide: Clean drinking water to a family of 5 for about 5 days
$25 could provide: A school bag with learning materials to a child or clothes to a family of 4
$50 could provide: Ration Support to a family of 5 members for about 15 days
$100 could provide: Non-food items and other essential items like (plates, frying pan, spoons, tumbler, bowl etc.) to two families
$250 could provide: Immediate shelter to two families (4 polythenes, 4 bamboo shafts and some ropes)
$500 could provide basic medicines and health support to 100 families
$1,000 could a provide permanent home for one family
Rebuilding the community assets, shelter, and schools needs to be treated as a priority. It is also necessary to address the emotional needs of the survivors. Our experience during a similar response after the Bangladesh cyclone shows that it is necessary to address the psychosocial needs of people from the first stages of response itself. A community based model with the active engagement of women and youth can yield wonderful results and fasten the recovery process
Your continued support of our Strategic Crisis Fund will allow us to use this emergency as an opportunity for disaster risk reduction work and the development of early warning systems to reduce the impact of future disasters.
Consider making your contribution a monthly gift to ensure the essential rebuilding work can continue and future disaster risk reduction work will reduce the impact of future disasters.
