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Myanmar digs deep in flood relief effort

In an often divided country, disaster response is a multi-faith effort
Myanmar digs deep in flood relief effort

This photo taken on Aug. 11 shows vegetable farmer Aung Myo Tun, 39, center, helping local volunteers with flood relief before he collects foods supplies for his own family, in his village in Myanmar's Irrawaddy region. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP)

Published: August 14, 2015 10:40 AM GMT
Updated: August 14, 2015 12:17 AM GMT

As Myanmar begins to recover from flooding that has devastated large parts of its northern and western regions, the disaster has also shone a spotlight on the generosity of concerned citizens.

People in this impoverished nation are taking to the streets, and to social media, to raise whatever donations they can for the relief effort.

More than 100 people have been confirmed dead after floodwaters inundated towns and fields in Kachin State, Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Rakhine State and elsewhere, coinciding with Cyclone Komen making landfall near the country’s border with Bangladesh in late July.

More than 600,000 people have been displaced, and the United Nations has said that some 160,000 people were still in need of life-saving assistance.

Some mountainous areas have been cut off by the flooding and by damage to roads, particularly in Christian-majority Chin State, where landslides have wrecked hundreds of homes. In the state capital of Hakha, the earth has shifted so much that the government has said it will relocate large parts of the town to more stable ground.

Talun Kyaeo, secretary of the Hakha Rescue Committee, said the situation has stabilized. But the pressing concern now is rebuilding.

“Now we need clean water and diesel and other supplies as we start to rebuild,” he told ucanews.com by phone.

He said emergency aid has been pouring into town from near and far, including from church organizations.

Karuna Mission Social Solidarity, the Church’s social aid arm in Myanmar, is part of those efforts. An Aug. 11 report provided by the organization’s national office in Yangon said it was supporting six dioceses to provide food, shelter and safe drinking water to more than 120,000 people.

 

Outpouring of support

Faced with the crisis, Buddhist-majority Myanmar is showing a trait not often portrayed in the media: the generosity of its citizens. Students and young people line many roads in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, collecting small donations from drivers stuck in traffic. 

Most of the money raised is used to buy goods that are delivered directly to people in flood-stricken areas, where markets are short of supplies following the flooding, said Win Ko Ko Aung, a Yangon resident who is involved in youth community work.

“We understand that donating is a kind action and it’s part of the religious education we get when are children. I’m really proud of that,” he said of his country’s generosity.

“All religions teach that donations are good, so all the Myanmar young people from different religions are giving donations. You will see Christians doing this, you will also see Muslims doing this, and of course, Buddhists.”

Win Ko Ko Aung said he was also using social media to elicit donations from people overseas.

“We use the power of the Internet,” he said.

In a statement issued in mid-August following a visit to Kale Township in Sagaing Region, the United Nations’ resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, Renata Dessallien, lauded the public’s efforts.

“The people of Myanmar are among the most generous in the world and I am humbled by the incredible spontaneous public outpouring of solidarity and assistance to flood-affected communities,” she said. 

The donation drive has involved many of Myanmar’s students, but also people working full-time jobs. Zin Nwe Myint, a project manager at the language school EduLink Australia, said that she and about 30 colleagues gathered after work on four different days, collecting donations in the streets for two hours.

“You can see lots of volunteer groups going to the streets in Yangon asking and collecting money for flood relief,” she said. “They try to help people in flood-affected areas in their own way.”

The impressive grassroots support on display may be one result of years of government neglect. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit the Ayeyarwady Delta region, killing an estimated 138,000 people. Many died unnecessarily, with the government blocking international efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner and leader of the opposition, used a video posted online earlier this month to call for coordination in the current aid efforts.

“I would like to appeal to the international community to help us generously, and in a coordinated fashion, because generous donations which are uncoordinated tend to go astray or to be less effective than they might be if they are part of a well-laid plan,” she said.

Suu Kyi also pointed out that just days after Cyclone Nargis, the previous government held a referendum over a new constitution. With elections expected on Nov. 8, that charter is still in place, guaranteeing the military's place in politics and barring Suu Kyi from becoming president because she has family members who are foreign citizens.

“This [timing] raised many, many questions about the effectiveness of that referendum, about how acceptable the results of the referendum were,” she said. 

“We do not want such questions to be raised this time with regard to our elections, so let us deal with what we need to do now and in the best way possible, so that the future of our people — politically, socially, economically — is assured.”

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