One Year After Cyclone Nargis, FXB Cites Progress and Remaining Challenges in Myanmar

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on May 2-3, 2008. FXB International was at the forefront of the relief and rebuilding efforts in the affected areas, providing food, shelter, and health care to survivors. FXB looks back on the progress of the past year, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

(PRWEB) -- This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on May 2-3, 2008. One of the worst natural disasters in the country's history, the cyclone left an estimated 150,000 people dead and thousands more missing and injured. FXB International was one of the first responders to the storm, providing survivors with critical provisions, including food, water, shelter, and healthcare.

Rebuilding After Cyclone Nargis

The role of nongovernmental organizations like FXB was - and continues to be - vital to the relief and rebuilding efforts in Myanmar. Burmese military and government authorities have been criticized for their slow and ineffective response to the national disaster.

In the past year, FXB has worked around-the-clock to help stabilize the well-being of children, families, and communities in Yangon, Mon State, and Ayeyarwady through a number of relief and rebuilding initiatives. The results of FXB's initiatives to-date include:


* 300 toilets were installed, improving sanitation for 1,200 individuals
* 21 water pumps were installed and 29 polluted ponds were cleaned, providing clean water to over 50,000 individuals
* Food and emergency kits were distributed to 24,000 individuals
* Over 2,000 people living with HIV/AIDS were given treatment medicines
* 25 Child Friendly Spaces were established, providing 4,500 children with educational services
* 360 homes were rebuilt

For these efforts, FXB was cited by both the World Health Organization and the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs for the significant role it played. FXB was able to provide this assistance to survivors because of the support of partners, including the British Embassy in Yangon, UNICEF, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. FXB always maintains emphasis on producing sustainable solutions so individuals are better able to respond to survival challenges in the future.

Despite this progress, the country still faces a grave set of challenges. Long-term problems include agricultural damage, scarce food supplies, destroyed hospitals and schools, and a staggering number of newly vulnerable children in the aftermath of the storm. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to be currently homeless and in need of assistance.

About FXB International: FXB is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting children and families hardest hit by poverty and AIDS. FXB began working in Myanmar in 1992 and currently operates several public health and socio-economic development programs targeting vulnerable children and young women.

http://www.fxb.org

READ MORE---> One Year After Cyclone Nargis, FXB Cites Progress and Remaining Challenges in Myanmar...

Cyclone survivors left to their own devices

by Celeste Chenard

‘Postcard from the Irrawaddy Delta’

Travelling from Rangoon and in the south west direction, less than two hours by car is necessary to realize the extent of damage caused by Cyclone Nargis where more than 138,000 were killed or missing, one year after its passage. But it is by meeting the survivors in the Irrawaddy Delta that one can really realize to what extent the population has been completely forsaken.

That’s perhaps the reason why, in some remote villages, the inhabitants are eager to talk. For all of them, before they had rarely seen the visit of a foreigner.

Most people also have never been interviewed by a journalist; it was their first occasion after Nargis to express their concerns about their situation.

Surprisingly and somehow because they have nothing more to lose, they talked in an outspoken way about their poor livelihood or their resentment against the government.

When asked about their first need today, just one year after the cyclone, all the villagers interviewed had the same answer: housing.

Rehabilitation efforts are indeed the first preoccupation of the inhabitants of the devastated region, especially a few weeks before the start of the rainy season.

The reconstruction phase is still underway and in some villages it is far from being achieved: fallen trees are still obstructing roads or gardens, UNICEF or USAID tarpaulin sheets are still covering most of the roofs or walls of the houses, and construction materials are lying on the ground waiting to be used for new constructions.

You can see in each village men working at fixing roofs, rebuilding collapsed schools, pagodas or monasteries. Meanwhile thousands of families are still living in temporary shelters waiting for their new house to be built.

So why is the reconstruction process taking so much time? Where are the barriers? Who bridles the process while rehabilitation efforts, including rebuilding homes and reestablishing livelihoods, education, and health infrastructure are urgently needed?

In most of the villages one visited the last aid received was around two months ago and for most of them, it was a sole bag of rice. This fact raises serious concerns about the aid supplies which are barely still ongoing, particularly in the remote places.

In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, international donors have been very active in providing emergency measures, despite the first limitations imposed by the junta, but what about the mid-term recovery process?

Moreover, just by visiting different villages, one can see an obvious unequal distribution of aid between villages.

In the villages near the main agglomeration or near the highways, the reconstruction is going well. Even if the situation of the population is still precarious, they have rebuilt houses, and infrastructures are coming back to normal.

However in some remote places, nothing was done. Some villages hadn’t received aid not only from the government, but also from UN agencies. No NGOs have reached there yet.

Kan Chung village, part of the Ma Ngay Gyi village group in Bogalay Division, is a good example of totally forsaken villages the more badly hit by the cyclone, but also provided with less supply of aid relief.

In that village group, around 1,000 families used to live and 700 houses were demolished totally. In total, around 200 people died in the village and 300 are missing.

On June 1, children of Kan Chung village will go back to school in their still partly-destroyed school, patched up with the materials the villagers could find, and with “roofs” made of tarpaulins full of holes.

In a village group located in the same division, seven miles from Bogalay, the children are luckier, they will go back to school in an almost finished house built thanks to private local donors.

This gap between areas in the recovery effort can be explained by the government’s pretence of high involvement in the rehabilitation efforts. This reflects a serious breach of trust by the government in such a natural and human disaster.

These targeted investments in some highlighted places may be linked to a shameful dual politics of interests.

On the one hand, in the context of the 2010 elections, the junta needs to shows to the delta population its “involvement” in the recovery process. The propaganda efforts of the junta, especially with the ensuing 2010 elections are indeed increasing. But does the junta still think it can make a good impression? Let’s be realistic, no one is blind, neither the international community, nor the Burmese people who are the first witness and victims of the government.

On the other hand, economical interest always prevails, and the delta region it is not the more appropriate or interesting place to inject money for the government. It is a remote area with tourist spots and part of it is inhabited by Karen “rebels”. So why put money in the rehabilitation of that area? Instead it is worthier for the regime to invest in the renovation of the Naypyitaw airport in Burma's new jungle capital to international standards where transportation and communication facilities will be upgraded to facilitate the travel of military rulers to their homes.

A recovery plan prepared by the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations in Myanmar and the Government of the Union of Myanmar, says that $US 690 million is needed from the international community over the next three years to restore people's lives back to what it was before the cyclone.

It is clear that new funding and a period of three years are needed for a return to normal in the region. But the question is why already one year has been spent without a proper recovery action plan?

Actually, the population of the delta is far from thinking about full recovery, they just think about having a proper house, enough food to have at least two meals a day, and accessible drinking water.

If life in military-ruled Burma has always been (Nargis or not) a question of surviving, it is not the reason to forsake the population.

READ MORE---> Cyclone survivors left to their own devices...

Diarrhea Deaths Confirmed in Rangoon

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Sources in Rangoon have confirmed that at least five people have died in an outbreak of diarrhea that hit Burma’s largest city just before the start of the Burmese New Year’s festival in mid-April.

Bae U Ma, a 12-year-old girl from a poor family living in Ward 44 of North Dagon Myothit Township, died on April 20 after contracting the disease earlier in the month, according to a neighbor. Neighbors also confirmed the death of an elderly woman in Ward 7 of the same township. Doctors said three other people had died in Thaketa Township’s Ward 4, where the outbreak was said to be under control.

“I successfully treated more than a dozen diarrhea patients in the past three weeks,” said a physician at a private clinic in Thaketa Township. “But the cases were particularly severe, requiring at least three days of treatment.”

There were also reports that three other patients had died in North Okkalapa Township, although these could not be independently confirmed. Local residents of the township said that there were hundreds of cases of diarrhea in North Okkalapa alone.

Other townships, including South and North Dagon Myothit, Thaketa, Dawbon and Thanlyin, have also reported significant numbers of people suffering from the disease.

No official announcement of the outbreak has been issued, although the Ministry of Health has released repeated warnings in the Burmese-language press instructing people to take precautions against the disease.

Authorities have also ordered the closure of roadside food stalls in areas affected by the outbreak, according to local residents.

Meanwhile, an official from the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on Friday that there has also been a dramatic rise in the number of cases of diarrhea in the Irrawaddy delta over the past week.

“UNICEF and other medical agencies have learned of an estimated 100 diarrhea cases in 20 villages in Bogalay Township this week,” the UNICEF official said, adding that the number of cases has since decreased.

The official also said that UNICEF was aware of the outbreak in Rangoon and was working with government agencies to address the problem.

“We have been cooperating with government health officials in responding to the situation. We are providing drugs and equipment,” said the UNICEF official, who added that she was not authorized to make any further comment.

Despite growing concerns, the authorities have moved to prevent any news related to the outbreak from reaching the public.

“We cannot answer any questions because our senior officers have told us not to speak to the media about this issue,” a government health official from North Okkalapa Township said during a telephone conversation.

A Rangoon-based journalist who has been following news of the outbreak said that if the government did not provide detailed information soon, the situation could get “worse and worse, and then get out of control.”

READ MORE---> Diarrhea Deaths Confirmed in Rangoon...

Schools in Tachilek collect student money for UNICEF aid

By Hseng Khio Fah
Shan Herald Agency for News

Schools in Tachilek Township, eastern Shan State, collected money from students to get schooling materials conferred by the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), according to local sources.

Materials were reportedly handed to the Educational Department of Tachilek early this year by the UNICEF.

The UNICEF had donated stationery supplies to 9 townships in Burma, including Mudon Township, Mon State, and Tachilek, where most children don’t speak Burmese language.

The materials were distributed to the students on 14 February, said a source.

Every student from each school would be given 10 exercise books, 5 pencils, 2 erasers and a ruler.
But the teachers asked 5 Baht ($0.14) from each student before handing the materials to them.

There are 56 schools from primary to high schools in Tachilek. The number of the students is estimated about 15,000.

Students from some schools were asked to pay more from 10 to 20 Baht each, said a source.

“We don’t want to fuss about 5 or 10 baht given to the teachers because we don’t want our children to be embarrassed in their class. They’ve been doing to us like this for a long time now anyway,” said a mother of a student from Makahokham.

Each student from No.1 High School has also been required to pay 10 Baht for drinking water per month, said a mother who has a child going at that school.

The school has more than 2,000 students and each class has more than 30 students.

The said school is known to be for wealthier families, but last year, some teachers from that school were reported of demanding money from students to enter examinations.

Final examinations from primary school to middle school will begin in the last week of February.

READ MORE---> Schools in Tachilek collect student money for UNICEF aid...