(un) Integrated regional information networks articles
- 02/07/08 - Food rations sustain thousands in South
- 25/06/08 - Cyclone assessment reveals critical shortages
- 19/06/08 - Survivors try to come to terms with loss
- 18/06/08 - 5000 water buffaloes needed
- 17/06/08 - Thousands of cyclone victims unidentified
- 16/06/08 - Emergency shelter needs still great
- 12/06/08 - Coping with Cyclone Trauma
- 10/06/08 - Local citizens take initiative
- 06/06/08 - Race to reopen cyclone hit schools
- 30/05/08 - Countdown to planting
- 29/05/08 - Access to Delta eases
- 28/05/08 - Worse than Tsunami
- 23/05/08 - High hopes for cyclone donor conference
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IRIN Article: 02-Jul-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Food rations sustain thousands in cyclone-hit south
LABUTTA, 2 July 2008 (IRIN) - "Our whole village was washed away. We have nothing," Than Tun, a former fisherman, told IRIN.
"We lost everything. With this food, we at least have a chance," Than Tun, 38, from Kayimma Chaung, about four hours by boat from the town of Labutta at the delta's southern tip, said, referring to the rice, pulses, salt and oil he regularly receives from the World Food Programme (WFP).
A resident of the "3 mile" displaced persons camp - a reference to its distance from the town centre - Than Tun arrived two months earlier with his family after Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving more than 138,000 dead or missing and affecting some 2.4 million.
Overnight, close to one million people lost their livelihoods and were left without sufficient food.
According to the UN, just over half of Labutta's 374,000 inhabitants were severely affected by the cyclone, with half its 500 villages destroyed.
By 26 June, WFP had reached more than 300,000 cyclone-affected beneficiaries in Labutta with 3,850 MT of mixed commodities.
More than 500 villages/ward/camps under 50 village tracts, the smallest government administrative zone in Labutta, were covered.
More than 700,000 in need of food assistance
After an assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 13 June, as well as the more recent Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA), WFP estimates that 724,000 people in the delta need food assistance for up to the next six months, the vast majority living in their places of origin or nearby.
While close to half of all households surveyed in the cyclone-hit area by the PONJA reported losing all their food stocks, the percentages were much higher in the frontline townships of Labutta and Bogale, where about 82 percent of households lost all their food stocks.
More acutely, almost 28 percent reported having no food stock available on the day of the survey, while another 43 percent said they only had food stocks sufficient to last between one and seven days.
People were drawing from multiple sources to meet their daily food requirements: 51 percent were dependent on humanitarian food assistance and 54 percent on purchases from local markets, the PONJA results revealed.
Coupled with scarce employment opportunities and no harvest until November, there is an urgent need to provide relief food until livelihood opportunities are able to recover.
WFP and its 12 partners, including both local and international NGOs, travel the waterways of the delta by boat and barge delivering food rations.
"We take the food down to Labutta on larger boats and barges. Afterwards that same food is transferred on to smaller boats and taken inland to remote villages and distribution points along the way," a WFP official told IRIN.
Cash in Yangon Division
Meanwhile, in Yangon Division, which was also badly affected by the category four storm, but where urban markets have largely recovered, the food agency had been providing cash assistance to about 49,490 cyclone-affected people.
"This is the average amount one would spend on food on a daily basis," the WFP official said of the US 50 cents daily allowance.
"Giving them cash will ensure they will be able to buy their own food," she explained of the four-week programme for beneficiaries which began in early June.
The programme, has, however, since been halted by the authorities.
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IRIN Article: 25-June-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Cyclone assessment reveals critical food, water shortages
BANGKOK, 25 June 2008 (IRIN) - An estimated 46 percent of families in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady delta have less than two days' worth of food, according to an initial post-disaster assessment.
The news underscores the urgent need to bring more food into the region almost eight weeks after Cyclone Nargis ravaged the area, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing.
The discovery of significant household food shortages is just one of the crucial early findings of an ongoing assessment of the disaster relief effort by the UN, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Myanmar government, released on 24 June.
While the data collected from 10 days of field research was still being collated and analysed, Richard Blewitt, project manager for the Village Tract Assessment, said it showed survivors of Cyclone Nargis were "living precariously".
"The findings tell a story of a shaken rural economy," he told IRIN from Yangon, the former Burmese capital. "People are rebuilding, but slowly. They are on the edge, and there is a need for continued relief," he said.
The Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) is intended to give both international aid agencies and donor governments a credible, independent picture of the extent of the damage and the humanitarian relief effort so far.
In addition to the Village Tract Assessment - which focuses on how survivors have been getting by since the storm - the final report, due next month, will include a tally of the economic and physical losses from the disaster.
More than 300 people - including international and national staffers of the UN, NGOs, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and ASEAN, with Myanmar civil servants and local civil society volunteers - were involved in what is being described as the first systematic look at the results of the disaster since Nargis struck on 2 and 3 May. The Myanmar government assigned 20 staff members from 18 different ministries to join the assessment effort.
"It is a snapshot of the emergency and early recovery needs on the ground across the 30 most affected townships," Blewitt said.
In addition, the assessment is intended to serve as a common reference point for discussions between the Myanmar government and international aid agencies on how best to help an estimated 2.4 million survivors rebuild their lives.
"What we are trying to do is identify priority needs, create a common information base to share between the sectors, and provide baseline information for future monitoring and evaluation," Blewitt said.
Water shortages
Food shortages were just part of the preliminary findings, with 60 percent of households reporting inadequate access to clean drinking water, while 22 percent reported being under psychological stress.
The study has also found that 59 percent of homes in the delta were severely damaged in the storm and subsequent tidal surge.
And while the region's resilient villagers have rebuilt some form of shelter for themselves, those are mostly fragile bamboo structures, with an estimated lifespan of just two years, far worse than the sturdier wooden houses they had before.
"They are building back worse, not building back better," Blewitt said.
Data gathering
To understand the conditions of delta residents, 32 five-member teams from various organisations this month fanned across the 30 worst-affected townships, which were divided into 128 identical quadrants.
The field teams visited the village closest to the centre of every quadrant, and then surveyed at least two other villages nearby.
To reach these often remote locales, the surveyors travelled by car, motorcycle, boat and helicopter. They also walked long distances to reach some villages accessible only by foot.
In each village, the teams conducted 10 household questionnaires, interviews with a few so-called "key informants", including community leaders, and focus group discussions to gather data.
Survivors were questioned on how much food they had in store, their
post-cyclone livelihoods situation, how they planned to meet their
families' daily needs, and whether they had access to medical care.
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IRIN Article: 19-June-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Survivors try to come to terms with their loss
Today, Saayadaw UT Lawka and the rest of Taung Caung's residents are hoping to rebuild their lives as quickly as possible.
But not everyone has the courage to move on.
Daw Saw Mya, 80, is still haunted by memories of the cyclone and trembles with fear that it might happen again whenever she hears the wind or a light drizzle begins.
She was in her hut in the village with her youngest son when the category four storm struck.
"I held on to a bamboo branch the whole night and didn't let go until the morning. Then my son carried me to his house only to find that it had been demolished," she said.
Rebuilding efforts
Such stories are common throughout the cyclone-affected area, almost the size of Austria.
In the village of Hnarkhaung Chaung, in Yangon Division, some 150 people were killed and all 105 houses destroyed.
Even now, more than six weeks later, many of the bodies of those who perished have yet to be found - and most likely will not be.
But the villagers of Hnarkhaung Chaung are already busy trying to reconstruct their homes.
Like other villagers in the area, residents have received the staple relief package of a mosquito net, a blanket and tarpaulin, as well as some cooking ingredients.
In addition, some private donors have offered residents farming equipment and tools - just in time for planting this year's paddy fields.
However, most are not so lucky.
Pho Htaung, a 46-year-old farmer from the village, lost seven members of his family, including his niece, in the cyclone.
"My niece is in good hands now and is at peace," Pho Htaung said. "We who survived are the ones suffering and troubled as to how to survive and live our lives after the cyclone."
Warning unheeded
Some residents recall how one day before the cyclone struck, one of the villagers hurried back from the main town of Kum Yangon after hearing an announcement on the radio that a cyclone was about to hit the delta.
But nobody took his warning seriously and he was told to relax and take it easy. It hit the next night instead, leaving some 2.4 million destitute.
Pho Htaung's brother, who is also a monk in the village monastery, was the first to begin helping victims of Nargis, distributing food and relief until new supplies could be brought in.
"We are all taking precautionary measures now," said Pho Htaung. "Each
house has an elevated level made out of bamboo so when the water rises
again we can just run up there to avoid drowning."
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IRIN Article: 18-June-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: 5,000 water buffaloes needed in cyclone-hit south
BANGKOK, 18 June 2008 (IRIN) - Five thousand water buffaloes are urgently needed to help farmers in the Ayeyarwady Delta prepare for planting after a massive loss of draught animals and other livestock in last month's cyclone, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
More than 120,000 mature draught animals - as well as 66,000 pigs, 498,000 ducks, nearly 7,000 goats and more than a million chickens - perished when the Category 4 storm, and its powerful tidal surge, pummelled the region on 2 and 3 May, an FAO report released on 18 June stated.
The lost draught animals would have been used to plough about 120,000 hectares of paddy-land per season to prepare it for planting, the report stated, and their loss is a major setback for the area's rice-production potential.
Myanmar agricultural authorities and international aid agencies are distributing mechanised power tillers so some farmers who lost their animals can still plough their fields in time for the crucial monsoon planting season, which is supposed to be under way.
But the FAO stated that 15 percent of the cyclone-affected paddy lands - or around 122,782 hectares - are so-called "deep water rice production systems", and cannot be ploughed effectively by mechanised tillers, due to the nature of the soil and its high water content.
"Because of the high water levels in the paddy fields, even during the normal monsoon period there is little alternative to replacing the draught cattle and buffaloes, as mechanical implements are considered not suitable," the report stated.
Myanmar authorities are trying to bring 6,000 water buffaloes from other parts of the country into the delta.
But the FAO is appealing for international donors to provide an additional 5,000 draught animals, along with a three-month supply of animal feed, to small farmers so they can be in a position to plant at least 10,000 hectares of rice.
The estimated cost of the initiative, plus additional animal feed for those draught animals that survived but are now too weak and hungry to work, would be about US$3.56 million
The FAO is also recommending that the international community spend $1.86 million to supply ducks and chickens to around 15,000 particularly vulnerable, landless households or female-headed families, for which livestock rearing is a major part of their livelihood.
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IRIN Article: 17-June-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Thousands of cyclone victims unidentified
Thousands of people killed in last month's devastating cyclone in Myanmar may never be formally identified, due to the slow place of body recovery since the tragedy, say aid workers.
The scale of the disaster - and its wide geographical spread - has meant survivors in many remote communities of the Ayeyarwady Delta were left to deal with a large number of bodies, of both family members and strangers, with little, if any, official support.
"It is clear from the information we have been given that there is no planned, concerted or consistent approach being taken," Craig Strathern, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IRIN from Yangon.
"Mostly it's local communities dealing with the immediate problem in their vicinity," he said.
Some cyclone survivors told aid workers of disposing of bodies any way they could - through burial, cremation, or other methods - in the quest to restore normalcy and get on with rebuilding their lives.
"Farmers were saying they just put some bodies in the river," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), who has just returned from the disaster area. "They were desperate to start their paddy season. If they found bodies they couldn't recognise, they just threw them into the river."
Cyclone Nargis, and the accompanying tidal surge that swept up to 35kms inward, left an estimated 133,000 people dead or missing on 2 and 3 May and 2.4 million destitute.
But more than six weeks on, as aid agencies struggle to distribute food, water and other essential supplies, disposing of bodies has been considered far less of a priority, especially as the World Health Organization (WHO) has said the corpses posed little health risk.
Disposal efforts
In some of the more populated areas and key towns, local authorities did make concerted efforts to collect and dispose of bodies, while extra manpower was also brought in from Yangon to help with the task.
However, villagers in more remote or isolated areas were left to do it alone.
Reports indicate that in many waterways and remote areas without many survivors, bodies have yet to be collected, and recently more than 300 bodies were said to have washed up on a popular beach in Mon state, hundreds of kilometres from the cyclone's point of impact.
"It's been very much left to the local township commanders and leaders to decide how to deal with the problem," Sparrow said. "You are talking about a widely dispersed area, with limited transport and logistics. It's not surprising those have been prioritised for relief and emergency distribution."
Tsunami precedent
The slow pace of body disposal and lack of any large-scale victim identification effort are in stark contrast with the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people.
In Thailand - where foreigners, mainly European tourists, accounted for half the estimated 8,345 dead - authorities set up a forensic operation to identify victims, an initiative supported financially and technically by governments around the world.
The Thai operation used forensic evidence, including fingerprinting, dental records and DNA matching, to try to identify bodies.
In Indonesia, where more than 165,000 people died, efforts were more rudimentary, including visual identification in the first few days, or by personal effects and SIM cards.
But there was a big, official drive to bury bodies quickly in accordance with Islamic custom, and to create marked graves as memorial sites.
"In Indonesia, people accepted they may never find their loved ones, but at least they could go to a marked memorial even if they weren't 100 percent sure their relatives were there," Strathern said.
Identification issues
Myanmar's cyclone survivors appear resigned to accepting lost loved ones without definite proof, or any ceremonial resting places, while local laws mean formal verification of death is not required.
"Here there is the assumption that if we haven't seen our loved ones for two or three weeks they are probably dead," Strathern said. "There is no expectation of something like DNA matching."
The ICRC has been distributing protective equipment, such as gloves and masks, to help volunteers with the task of disposing of bodies and demand for the supplies is growing.
"The priority was to ensure that bodies were buried with dignity and
according to minimum legal requirements . There is a humanitarian issue
at stake - to deal with victims in such a way that minimises the
suffering of their relatives," Strathern said.
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IRIN Article: 16-June-08
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MYANMAR: Emergency shelter needs still great, say aid workers
BANGKOK, 16 June 2008 (IRIN) - Six weeks after Cyclone Nargis battered
Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta, scores of survivors are still without adequate protective emergency shelter and exposed to the heavy monsoon rains, adding to their risk of disease.
Many survivors have tried to create protective shelter for themselves using traditional natural materials, such as palm fronds, several aid workers, who had travelled around the stricken delta, told IRIN. These improvised shelters, they said, were not waterproof, however.
"Six weeks on, there are still people who do not have a roof over their head," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), who has just returned from the delta.
"There are lots of people who have put up temporary shelter, but it leaves them still in great need. They are resilient, and they are doing the best they can for themselves, but it isn't enough."
To date, aid agencies have been distributing protective tarpaulins, but the effort has been hampered by a shortage of materials, exacerbated by the demand for similar emergency material for survivors of the Sichuan earthquake in neighbouring China.
Logistical problems
Agencies have also faced logistical difficulties moving the tarpaulins into affected areas and into the hands of survivors.
The IFRC estimated last week that only 22 percent of those in need had obtained any shelter materials from international agencies.
And while distribution was now accelerating, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated another 500,000 tarpaulins were still needed.
On 13 June, OCHA estimated that just 160,000 households had received some form of emergency shelter, typically plastic sheeting material.
However, Graham Eastmond, a Bangkok-based coordinator with the Emergency
Shelter Cluster, a coordinating group of UN agencies and NGOs, told IRIN
more tarpaulins were on the way.
Already the US Department of Defense has ordered around 125,000, which will be available in Myanmar for distribution from 19 June, while another 110,000 for the IFRC were also en route.
Most of those who had received tarpaulins, though, still needed household kits that would include mosquito nets, blankets and other implements, Eastmond said.
Cyclone Nargis, and the accompanying tidal surge, left an estimated 133,000 people dead or missing when it struck on 2 and 3 May, leaving some 2.4 million people destitute.
Assessments still needed
Aid agencies still do not know exactly how many homes were seriously damaged or totally destroyed in the disaster but they are carrying out a detailed damage assessment, due to be completed by 24 June.
The initiative involves more than 250 people from UN agencies, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IFRC, and 18 Myanmar government ministries, and will carry out detailed field assessments in the 30 worst-affected townships.
"We are struggling generally in terms of information flow," Eastmond told IRIN, adding that the assessment would assist enormously in allowing aid agencies to better respond.
For now, the Emergency Shelter Cluster estimates that around 480,000 families in the affected area have lost their shelter, though it cautions that this is a very rough, preliminary figure.
Tens of thousands of survivors have returned to their villages from temporary settlements, and a 9 June report from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported "extremely poor" conditions for returnees in some villages visited by its field teams in badly affected Labutta, and said more tarps were urgently needed.
Sparrow said he met a mother of five children - including a seven-month-old baby - who had managed to erect a partial shelter. When asked how she protected the baby - who had already developed respiratory problems - from the monsoon rains, she said, "I hold him closer."
Another aid worker said tarp recipients mainly use them to waterproof structures they have built themselves from natural materials.
"When they get them, they say 'thanks - now we will really sleep well tonight'," she said.
Yet even as tarp distribution accelerates, Eastmond said agencies were beginning to discuss how best to meet long-term shelter needs. Teams are carrying out detailed surveys of building materials available in local markets, and of skilled workers who can help with the task of home-building.
"The next step is early recovery - providing inputs to help people
rebuild their houses. We should be looking at what is the best way of
doing that, what a standard kit of assistance would consist of, with the
aim of producing an adequate shelter for a family. There is a lot of
work to be done," he said.
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IRIN Article: 12-June-08
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MYANMAR: Coping with cyclone trauma
BANGKOK, 12 June 2008 (IRIN) - Survivors of Cyclone Nargis continue to
suffer from pervasive trauma, further challenging the process of
rebuilding shattered lives.
"I've seen a lot of people who are very sad, very anxious and afraid that the wind will blow away everything that's left," said Kaz de Jong, a trauma specialist with the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, who has just returned from a two-week assessment mission to the delta. However, he said he was impressed by people trying to fight back, despite the extent of the misery.
An estimated 133,000 people are dead or missing after the category four storm slammed into Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta on 2 and 3 May, leaving an estimated 2.4 million destitute.
Many survivors obsessively replay images of the disaster in their minds - particularly the last sight of their loved ones, many of whom were swept away or drowned by the tidal surge that swept up to 35km inland.
Others have trouble sleeping and suffer from palpitations and high blood pressure - all symptoms of accumulated stress, De Jong said.
Psychological impact
According to De Jong, many survivors, including children, appeared withdrawn or reported lacking any energy to face the future.
"You all are worried about rice, but people must have motivation to eat it. But at this moment, my life isn't worth living - I've lost all my family," one elderly woman told him.
Despair and despondency are "normal", given the extent of the losses that people have suffered, but limit their ability to rebuild their lives, MSF explained, adding that signs of acute psychological problems were rare.
MSF is working to set up support networks to help victims deal with and recover emotionally from their shocking losses, and to prevent more acute psychological problems.
"We need to help people recover and make their lives worth living," he said.
Many NGOs are also working with local communities to try to help them understand how they can provide psycho-social support for fellow community members, so they can cope with the crisis and their losses.
"In Asia, people aren't typically very open about talking about their feelings so people suffer in silence," James East told IRIN.
"We will work with the community and train up people, and help them to recognise the symptoms of trauma," East said.
Health concerns
Meanwhile, more than a month on, health workers in the Ayeyarwady Delta are working hard to prevent outbreaks of water and mosquito-borne diseases that could claim an even higher toll among the displaced survivors, many of whom are now crowded into temporary settlements in regional towns.
So far, MSF, which had a large operation in Myanmar before the disaster and rapidly deployed many of its health workers into the disaster zone, says its 43 health teams have yet to detect any major disease outbreaks, although they have treated tens of thousands of storm-related injuries, and are now seeing more cases of severe diarrhoea and acute respiratory tract infections.
Heavy monsoon rains provide one of the main sources of clean drinking water in the area, and aid workers have distributed jerry cans to help survivors collect the rain, although concerns about waterborne disease remain high, given ongoing problems with access to clean water, soap and basic sanitation facilities.
On 10 June, the health cluster, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), reported that its disease early warning system had detected 685 cases of acute respiratory infections, 117 cases of bloody diarrhoea, and three cases of dengue fever.
While a high number of cases of dengue fever is normal for this region
at this time of year, greater numbers are expected this year given the
living conditions after the cyclone, WHO said.
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IRIN Article: 10-June-08
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MYANMAR: Local citizens take the initiative in cyclone-hit south
BANGKOK, 10 June 2008 (IRIN) - Five days after Cyclone Nargis battered Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta, Win Aung, a lecturer in Yangon, the former capital, drove to the outskirts of the city to see whether the rumours of massive destruction in rural areas were true.
He was quickly driven into action by what he saw: flattened villages and people huddling in monasteries, schools and other temporary settlements, pleading for help.
Days later, Win Aung led a convoy of his business friends - including some rice traders - in six trucks laden with sacks of rice and onions for the hungry survivors.
It was the first of a series of missions taking Win Aung and his friends deep into the disaster zone to distribute food, mosquito nets and other supplies to the destitute.
Since Nargis struck, countless people from Yangon and elsewhere in Myanmar have joined in spontaneous private efforts to assist stricken compatriots left homeless and hungry by the cyclone.
In private cars and hired trucks, businessmen, students, journalists and artists have streamed into the devastated delta to distribute life-saving supplies to the needy.
Many more, including Myanmar migrants and students overseas, have supported friends' efforts with cash and material donations. Win Aung found that as word spread of his initiative, he began receiving many phone calls from acquaintances eager to contribute.
"The private sector has taken a leading role even though they have no humanitarian experience," Win Aung explained.
While these private efforts have been un-coordinated and at times amateurish, they nonetheless reflect a heartfelt desire by many local citizens to help - while UN agencies and international charities struggle to cut through red tape to scale up their own relief efforts.
"We do believe that a substantial amount of the assistance that has reached people - certainly in these first four weeks - has come from essentially local charity [with the] citizens of Yangon simply driving down into the delta areas and handing out food," Paul Risley, a spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN.
Myanmar's government has expressed ambivalence towards such initiatives.
After cyclone victims began lining the main roads in the hope of obtaining supplies from passing cars, authorities circulated fliers urging donors not to distribute aid along the roads.
In one case, reported in the media, a convoy of 48 private trucks was impounded, and their drivers charged for traffic violations, on the return to Yangon after a relief trip.
Win Aung said local authorities' attitudes varied greatly. In one place, authorities demanded his group leave their rice and other supplies with them to distribute, which they refused to do, opting to leave with their goods.
Elsewhere, officials were more tolerant and supportive of their efforts and allowed them to distribute directly to victims.
Yet despite the extent of private relief efforts and the sheer numbers of well-meaning citizens involved, Win Aung said far more needed to be done to ensure the survivors' welfare and a sustainable future.
"What we have done is just a drop in the ocean," he said.
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IRIN Article: 06-June-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Race to re-open cyclone-hit schools
BANGKOK, 6 June 2008 (IRIN) - Myanmar authorities, international aid agencies and local social groups are racing to repair damaged schools to have children in the cyclone-devastated Ayeyarwady Delta back into the classroom by early next month.
The move is seen as an important part of the recovery process for children. "The issue around getting schools open again is partly education, but you also want children to be back into a routine - back into a sense of normalcy as quickly as possible to help them overcome everything that's happened to them in the last few weeks," said Guy Chase in Myanmar.
Nationally, most schools in Myanmar re-opened on 2 June, after their traditional hot-season break.
But the formal reopening of schools in the cyclone-stricken Ayeyarwady Delta and the outskirts of Yangon was postponed for a month, following extensive damage to school facilities, although local authorities in some of the delta's larger towns have tried to re-open already.
Some Myanmar dissidents and aid groups have criticised the drive to get kids back into the classroom so quickly in the midst of an on-going emergency relief operation.
However, Michael Bociurkiw, a UNICEF spokesman, said the 2004 Asian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake showed "there is no better way to help families and to help children than to get [children] into the classroom."
Besides giving children an outlet, a structure and an opportunity for healing, getting them back into school also "gives parents and caregivers time to start focusing on rebuilding their lives" without worrying about their children's whereabouts, Bociurkiw said.
Chase also said there was concern that if children did not return to
school quickly, they might never return at all.
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IRIN Article: 30-May-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Countdown to Planting
BANGKOK, 30 May 2008 (IRIN) - International aid agencies, led by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), are in a race against time to assist rice farmers in Myanmar's cyclone-devastated Ayeyarwady Delta from missing the planting period for the crucial monsoon paddy season due in the next few weeks.
Aid agencies say getting farmers back on their feet quickly is essential to avoid a protracted food crisis that would affect not just those in the disaster area, but impoverished households throughout Myanmar.
The FAO says the window is only a few weeks to start planting to ensure at least a partial harvest in the delta.
"Our top priority is to have the rice crop in during the month of June, so there will be at least some rice harvest before the end of the year and the pressure will be off on food aid needs," Diderik de Vleeschauwer, an FAO spokesman, told IRIN.
"If they cannot plant, the country will have a shortage of rice, and be reliant on food aid beyond the emergency relief phase," he said.
The Ayeyarwady Delta has long been Myanmar's most important rice-growing area, accounting for about 65 percent of total annual rice production.
But most farming families lost all their seeds, fertiliser and livestock when cyclone Nargis struck on 2 and 3 May, leaving them without the basics for planting.
However, not all surviving farmers in the area will be able to return to rice cultivation this season - if ever.
According to the FAO, about 700,000 hectares of paddy fields - or 20 percent of the delta's total paddy land - may need rehabilitation.
Aung Din estimates the cost of replacing lost farming inputs at around US$300 per family, but says "it's much more costly to feed people".
Money, however, is not the only obstacle to ensuring planting gets under way.
"It's a logistical challenge - it's a narrow window and you are moving big, bulky things," she says. "It's not only a race against time, but they all need it at the same time."
Yet the cost of failure could be significant.
On 23 May, the FAO warned that Myanmar's "already severe food security "situation" had worsened since the cyclone, with rice prices doubling in many parts of the country, and the price of other food staples, such as cooking oil and eggs, also rising.
Poor families in Myanmar spend an estimated 60 to 70 percent of their household income on food, which gives them very little margin to cope with a sharp rise in food prices.
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IRIN Article: 29-May-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Access to Delta eases
BANGKOK, 29 May 2008 (IRIN) - Almost a month after cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, a small but increasing number of international aid workers is now gaining access to the worst-affected Ayeyarwady Delta, aid agencies report.
This follows a reversal of policy, which had effectively barred foreign aid workers from traveling to the area, by the authorities last week. The delta was devastated on 2 and 3 May, leaving at least 134,000 people dead or missing.
Access remains contentious issue
But more than three weeks on, as aid workers continue to struggle to reach some 2.4 million cyclone survivors in need, the issue of access remains contentious.
"The need for more experienced staff in the delta is and remains critical," Terasse said.
On 25 May at the international donors conference in Yangon, the former Burmese capital, many donors made the issue a pre-condition for millions of dollars in cyclone assistance.
Other NGO's still report no improvement in their ability to access the area.
"Our staff is not finding access to the field any easier than before," complained one aid worker, who asked not to be identified.
Entry process remains difficult
The process remains difficult, he said, with international aid workers in Yangon wishing to travel to the field now obliged to apply to respective ministries as well as the military. The application is then sent to Myanmar's remote capital of Naypyidaw for approval - a process that can take two or three days.
Moreover, most NGO workers are obliged to travel to the field with a liaison officer, typically from the Ministry of Social Welfare, he added.
Added to this is the uncertainty of the current atmosphere and the speed at which the whole process is taking place.
"It is still too early to understand exactly what this new operational environment means," Marcus Prior, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme, said.
Yet with so many aid workers now wishing to enter the delta, coupled with the government's resolve to manage that process, it is difficult to see that speeding up soon. NGOs or organisations that already had a presence in the country appear to fare better in the application process, while those not formally recognised by Myanmar struggle.
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IRIN Article: 28-May-08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: Worse than the tsunami
BANGKOK, 28 May 2008 (IRIN) - Jemilah Mahmood, an obstetrician and member of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team - and one of the first international aid workers to access Myanmar's cyclone-devastated Ayeyarwady Delta - is no stranger to disasters.
After her 12-day visit to the country, the veteran aid worker shared with IRIN her assessment of the situation.
"Flying over the affected area, I couldn't help but think this is worse than the 2004 Asian tsunami; so many deaths and displacement over such a large area. The flood surge was certainly much wider - up to 35km in some areas compared with 5km or 6km in the tsunami."
Makeshift homes
"International assistance is still just reaching a small percentage of the affected population and that's not good enough.
"At this point, shelter is the primary need. The rains have already started and soon the monsoon will begin. People are still living in tents, while others are in makeshift homes or taking refuge in schools.
"And with schools reopening in June, there is of course a lot of pressure for them to find alternative places to stay.
"Added to this are issues of access to clean drinking water, sanitation, food and healthcare, coupled with pressure on local communities to get back to their farms and begin replanting.
"Once the monsoon hits, it will be hard to replant. That could mean no crop for the next season. In fact, there is a fear that there will be no harvest should they fail to replant in time."
Partnerships
"Access to the cyclone-affected area remains a challenge, but it's improving. More and more NGOs are getting visas to Yangon at least, as are a number of UN staff.
"Given that reality, I cannot underestimate the importance of building partnerships with local communities and organisations on the ground, many of whom are having a real impact.
"Relief is reaching people through these local channels. Additionally, although we can't deny that the government is involved, there is great need for more information and transparency.
"What's important is finding which of these different channels to deliver aid is working and use them.
"Critically we need to ensure there is a clear logistics pipeline where assistance can be channeled to the people. It's happening, but we need to make it more regular.
"People need more relief, more shelter, as well as more food and water. Although it's increased tremendously over the past few weeks, we need to do much more.
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IRIN Article: 23 May 08
(UN) Integrated Regional Information Networks
MYANMAR: High hopes for cyclone donor conference
BANGKOK, 23 May 2008 (IRIN) - UN officials and international aid agencies hope to boost the pace of fund-raising for 2.4 million victims of Cyclone Nargis at a donor conference in Myanmar on 25 May. At the same time, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that the government had relented on allowing foreign aid workers access to the worst-affected areas.
Huge needs
The flow of funds, however, is far short of what is needed. "It has been fairly slow," said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "What we are hoping will happen in the next few days is that the donors will get a clearer picture and feel more comfortable in committing in greater amounts," Pitt said.
The UN estimates that only a quarter of those in need have so far
received international help.
"There is plenty of money floating around, but it needs to be clearer that the flash appeal can be implemented before people donate," said one UN official, who asked not to be identified.
USG Ban told reporters on 23 May, following his meeting with Myanmar's leader Senior General Than Shwe in the remote capital Naypyidaw, that the contentious issue of international aid workers entering the country had now been resolved. "He has agreed to allow in all the aid workers," Ban said.
Although Myanmar had allowed in some experts from the UN and ASEAN countries for assessment, the teams did not have free access to the devastated delta region, and were taken only to a handful of carefully controlled sites.
"Relief phase over"
On 22 May, General Thein Sein, the prime minister, told Ban that Myanmar authorities believed the relief operation was over, and it was time to focus on reconstruction, which they estimate will cost $11.7 billion.
Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of ASEAN - a 10-member regional bloc of which Myanmar is a member - acknowledged the same day that the wide divergence in assessments between government authorities and international aid agencies over conditions on the ground would prove a deterrent to additional fundraising.
ASEAN, which is to play a role coordinating the global aid effort, has called on Myanmar's military leaders to permit a detailed needs assessment, with support from technical experts, hopefully before this weekend's conference.
"The outpouring of goodwill very much depends on the facts and realities that are verifiable," Surin told journalists in Bangkok. "We have to have some form of agreement so this conference will be able to garner assistance based on figures accepted, scrutinised, and validated by competent, objective, neutral agencies."
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