Cyclone devastates Burma
09/05/2008
The scale of the cyclone disaster in Myanmar is enormous, scaling with the Asian tsunami catastrophe in 2004. After the tsunami and indeed the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, SOS Children paid a central role rebuilding lives and caring for children alone. We are being contacted by donors about our response to the Cyclone in Burma. However after those two crises the central role played by SOS Children arose from our long-standing locally rooted organisations in the countries affected. We were handing out aid whilst others were trying to get through customs and find interpreters. We had local staff who were best placed and trained to deal with child protection issues (indeed we not only had a project on the epicentre in Kashmir but were made guardians of all unaccompanied children by the authorities).
But Burma is different: SOS Children does not run any projects in Myanmar; the current ruling military junta has made it very difficult for any NGO’s to establish in the country. Even though we end up being invited into many "difficult" countries (and are in 132 in total) in the case of Myanmar we cannot operate because of restrictions which the United Nations has declared “unacceptable”. We are concerned that the difficulties which some aid agencies with no tsunami base had spending their funds appropriately may be worse in Burma where no one is in a position to oversee properly.
All SOS Children have is a village on the Thai-Burmese border at Chiang Rai. It is not much but all we could do. This village is designed to address the needs of the Burmese child refugees that flood across the border each year. They are often malnourished and unable to speak Thai. As a result, they often take menial jobs and are vulnerable to exploitation and injury. The schools along the Burmese border are few, and those that do exist have fees that most families can not afford. SOS Children provides food, shelter, water, medical, and educational resources to this community.
Background: On 3 May, the people of Myanmar experienced one of the worst cyclones in history, and as the week dawns we are only beginning to get a glimpse of the devastation and destruction left in the wake of the storm. While it is difficult to asses the magnitude of the devastation, official reports estimate over 22,000 people dead, over 41,000 people missing, and over 1 million people displaced.
Relevant Countries: Thailand.