Burma Rescue

JENKS - The deadly Cyclone Nargis left 200,000 dead and 2.5 million people homeless in Myanmar last May, but a native of the land now living in Jenks and local churches areable to help.

By: Don Diehl

International help was denied by the military government. A few assistance from the outside world have been chanelled through local organizations and churches, but not enough help was provided.

Tens of thousands of people in the worst hit areas are barely alive today. The rice fields became dry grounds. Due to salty water brought by the tidal waves during the cyclone thousands of acres of rice field are not usable today.

Dr. Chin Do Kham, president of Global Outreach & Community Development, Inc based in Jenks who is a native of Myanmar (Burma) recently came back from a one month mission trip where he was able to visit the worse hit areas and meet with those who suffered the most.

He reported from his first-hand eye witness account that in many villages three or four families are living together in a 10' x 10' damaged bamboo houses, and urgently in need of help for shelter. With the donations of residents in Tulsa area, he and his team were able to build 120 houses last month. The goal of GOCD is to build "1000 Homes for 1000 Families." The cost of one bamboo house is $400.
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" height="250" width="250"> <param name="movie" value="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/cache/BANNER_79971170618111714.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="loop" value="true" /> <embed src="http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/cache/BANNER_79971170618111714.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" loop="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" height="250" width="250"></embed> </object> <noscript></noscript>"We work in parnership with local community leaders and churches in Myanmar" said Dr. Kham.

Dr. Kham is trying to raise enough money to buy 300 small fishing boats for the most needy people to make a living to supplement the damaged rice field that would not produce harvest this year.

One small finishing boat cost $500. Another urgent project he has is water purification systems and digging wells. To build a decent well for a village cost $2000.

In many villages, 70 percent of the villagers died and a handful of kids left behind that they could not afford to run a pre-school or primary school. Dr. Kham would like to show God's love by loving this helpless and emotionall wounded childred by building pre-schools and provide teahcers for them.

"I interviewed a number of people in the villeges conerning how they cope with their grief over the lost of several loved ones in the family. One by one without exception said that they still cry every night. They took comfort in the fact that they are not going through this alone. Thousands of their neighbors are going through the same." Nothing has been done to help them cope with their incredible emotional pains.

"We choose the housing project as priority this time so that we can develope relationships with the families in the days, months and years to come so that we can share the love of Christ with the Buddhist in due time.

"We felt compelled by the love of God to do this. It's also our evangelistic strategy," he said.