Myanmar four months on...

Although I had been to flood-ravaged areas of Pakistan, it did not prepare me for the destruction that met my eyes as soon as we landed in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. On our way from the airport on May 10, one week after Cyclone Nargis had hit, I saw huge, ancient trees uprooted and flung on to the road. Concrete houses lay in piles on rubble. People stood listlessly in long queues waiting for food parcels.

More than 77,000 people were killed and 55,000 others left missing when Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar on 2 and 3 May. Thousands lost their livelihoods.

After my colleague Harsha Pilapitiya Head of Emergency Response of Muslim Aid Sri Lanka and I checked into our hotel, also home to other NGO workers and UN personnel, we met our local partner, the Cholia Muslim Religious Fund (CMRF) Trust, who are from the minority Muslim community. Ten percent of Myanmar’s population or 5.6 million are Muslims. To my surprise and delight I found that our partners from the Trust, originally from India, actually spoke Tamil, so communication was not a problem.
 
Waiting for permission to go into the Irrawaddy Delta, struck the hardest by the cyclone, we started working in the suburbs of Yangon that had also felt the force of gusting winds and lashing rains. Some of our equipment and all our other personnel were stuck in Bangkok without permission to enter Myanmar. However we had managed to get in water purifying tablets and machines donated by our partners Global Medic, which we passed on the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), who we are working with in Myanmar. The first few days were spent training ADRA on how to use these machines. After that, with funds from Muslim Aid, we began distributing dry rations, non-food items and hygiene kits in Yangon. The cyclone victims were extremely poor to begin with and had now lost even the little they had – bamboo houses in smithereens, brick schools reduced to pieces, fishing boats smashed and rice tillers broken.

The people of Myanmar are gentle and easy-going. No one is in a hurry.  They do not fight or lose their tempers. They are endlessly patient and accepting of the worst that life throws at them. Despite extreme poverty in a land full of rich natural resources, they are not corrupt. Despite living in the outskirts of the capital city, it is a rural life where they catch fish in the early mornings and evenings and in the daytime tend their fields. Houses are perched on the edge of the fields, surrounded by water, which is used for drinking, bathing, washing and cooking. It also serves as the bathroom. When it rains and water levels rise, sewerage comes into the house. In the months we have been interacting with them, we have been teaching people the basics of hygiene and sanitation. Poorly educated despite claims of high literacy rates, Myanmar’s people lack simple knowledge on how to lead healthy lives.

After spending several weeks in Yangon, I was allowed into the Irrawaddy Delta, where the real destruction was evident. Working with ADRA, we provided water purifying machines and trained volunteers in camps, hospitals and schools. In one town, a school had lost half its children and all the school buildings were destroyed. They were rebuilt with plastic sheeting and the pupils continued their classes on the floor. Sodden school books were left in the sun to dry. With all their possession gone, the children had no clothes to attend school in so we gave out green and white uniforms. In other areas ponds, the main water source for the people, had become contaminated with skeletons of humans and animals. We supplied technical assistance to ADRA to dredge the ponds and clean up the beds, wading into the slimy mud to pull out debris. 

Back in Yangon, we have enlisted some staff and many volunteers. Despite having lost so much themselves, the people of Myanmar are determined to rebuild their country. They are not waiting for help but using their meager resources to patch up the best they can. Many of our volunteers are HIV positive, a serious problem in Myanmar where the infection rate is under reported and the disease is untreated. Many victims are women who caught HIV from their husbands. When Ramadan came around, we distributed small loans to seven HIV positive women, four of whom were widows bring up children alone. They are using this money to make sweets to break fast and if successful, we will give them another loan to set up businesses.

Although the storm has passed, many difficulties still await the people as they struggle to rebuild their country and their lives. When the rains stop in the Delta area and Yangon, the ponds will not be completely full and the dry season could bring water scarcity. Repairing infrastructure is a real challenge as is transport and communications. Without their fishing boats and farming equipment, the people will not be able to make a living. In any case, most of fields have been contaminated with salt water and cannot be planted.

Working in the countryside also poses many challenges for us. We have to travel by boat on bumpy journeys lasting several hours. Even in Yangon, e-mail and the internet are unreliable at best. By now I have got used to sleeping on mats on the bamboo floor and easting frugally. The people are very welcoming and grateful we are helping them. Without TV we have to entertain ourselves so evenings are spent singing and playing the guitar, for they are a musical people.

I have had a few hair raising moments like the time we were caught in a storm. On absolutely flat land, there is no place to shelter so we just had to ride it out. I lay on my mat looking up at the fragile roof waiting for it to be ripped off at any moment. Luckily, the winds passed without causing major damage.

All in all, the four months I have spent in Myanmar have been very rewarding as I can see that I am doing at least a little bit to make life better for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

Mohamed Ashquaff, Emergency Relief Officer, Muslim Aid Sri Lanka