Burma Rescue
Knowledge and Aid Resources for
Nargis Relief and Recovery Projects
Latest News
October 16, 2008 Aid groups blast ASEAN-led report on Myanmar relief effort
JAKARTA (AFP) — A coalition of humanitarian groups heavily criticised Thursday a report on Myanmar's cyclone disaster, saying it glossed over the junta's obstruction of aid and human rights abuses.
The Burma Partnership, which represents 19 aid organisations, released an "alternative" report to provide what it said was a more accurate picture of the response to Cyclone Nargis, which left 138,000 people dead or missing in May.
"When we studied the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment report prepared by the UN, ASEAN and the Burmese regime, we realised that it failed to describe the obstruction of aid and human rights abuses committed by the military regime in the areas affected by the cyclone," Khin Ohmar of the Burma Partnership told a press conference.
"As independent civil society organisations, we felt the need to tell the other side of the post-Nargis story."
The generals ruling Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, drew international outrage by refusing to...
October 05, 2008 FAO to extend cyclone aid project period for Myanmar
YANGON, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations will extend the period of its Myanmar cyclone aid project for another six months to run until next year, Flower News reported Sunday.
Some 33.5 million U.S. dollars of fund for the extended project are being sought, the FAO resident representative was quoted as saying.
The extended project is designed to benefit 50,000 lesser-land-owned and 100,000 landless storm-survived households, the sources said, adding that the fund will further help develop agriculture, livestock breeding and forestry undertakings locally until next summer.
In July this year after May storm, the FAO agreed to provide emergency relief aid supplies for an initial six-month period to storm survivors in two cyclone-hard-hit regions of Ayeyawaddy and Yangon for the resumption of their agricultural and fishery production, according to earlier local...
October 04, 2008 Myanmar: Aid still needed
Five months ago, Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar which killed more than eighty thousand people and left 50,000 missing and 20,000 injured. It was the worst natural disaster which devastated the southern part of Myanmar.
The ruling junta of Myanmar was initially criticized for the slow relief work and for refusing the entry of international relief groups. Thanks to international pressure, the junta welcomed relief efforts from other countries. After several months, relief groups noted the improving situation inside Myanmar, with regards to the coordination of humanitarian assistance. A report from Refugees International:
“Aid agencies today report an unprecedented level of access and mobility in the Ayeyarwady Delta, which is a tribute to the successful fight by the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and the United States for humanitarian access. But the gains in delivering relief supplies, gathering information about needs and supporting local communities...
October 01, 2008 Only half of Myanmar cyclone aid fund delivered
YANGON, Myanmar: Only about 50 percent of funds needed by the United Nations to help Myanmar after the devastation of Cylone Nargis have so far been contributed, the U.N. said Wednesday.
The U.N. sought a total of US$482 million from member states and other organizations five months ago in the wake of the May 2-3 cyclone, but it has managed to collect only US$240 million, the organization's Yangon office said in a statement.
Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster in the country's modern history, killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government.
It affected 2.4 million people living in Yangon and the important rice-cultivating Irrawaddy delta — yet agricultural recovery has been the one of the least-funded sectors, said the statement.
The top U.N. representative in Myanmar, Bishow Parajuli, said funds were still needed to provide support as its aid efforts move into the rehabilitation phase after the immediate needs...
September 26, 2008 In Myanmar, cyclone continues to take a toll
Five months later, more than 2 million survivors still live on food aid and other assistance, the U.N. says, many still in makeshift shelters. Farmers struggle to regain their livelihood.
September 12, 2008 MYANMAR: Forewarned, not forearmed
BOGALE, 12 September 2008 (IRIN) - The Myanmar government says most residents were warned about approaching cyclone Nargis, but many failed to take appropriate measures or were simply caught off-guard. “Most of the people [in the worst-hit areas] got the cyclone warning from us two or three days before,” claimed Tun Lwin, director-general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH), in Yangon, the former Burmese capital. “The problem was that they weren’t fully aware of it and had no knowledge as to how to prepare for it [the cyclone],” he said. Lack of preparedness Scores of cyclone survivors across southern Myanmar lack adequate disaster awareness in the wake of Nargis – the country’s worst natural disaster in living memory, which left almost 140,000 people dead or missing and affected another 2.4 million. “The true tragedy of this event is that it is not unique. Asia has shown time and again its vulnerability to severe cyclones,”...
September 09, 2008 Cyclone-hit village in Myanmar recovers with help from Tripartite Core Group
KUNGYANGON TOWNSHIP, Myanmar : A village on the outskirts of Yangon city is being held up as a model for Myanmar's post-disaster recovery efforts. It is hoped that the results from Seik Gyi village in Kungyangon township can be replicated in other communities devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May. The cyclone killed 67 people in the village. A bird's eye view from the UN Aid Helicopter shows how floodwaters have receded in Seik Gyi village since June. From afar, it is easy to spot the problems, but on the ground, they are harder to solve. The monsoon season brings rain, but not enough to dampen the resilience of a community coming back to life. The pace of recovery in the village has picked up over the past few weeks, thanks to a pilot rehabilitation project led by ASEAN volunteers - called the Community-Based Early Recovery Pilot Project. The goal is to help villagers help themselves, by identifying their urgent priorities. Thanapon Songput, Seik Gyi project manager, said: "(For)...
September 08, 2008 Three Cantors tuning up to help victims of the Myanmar cyclone
They may not be the Three Tenors, but the Three Cantors have been creating a musical stir of their own since 1996.The trio of Anglican priests from Ontario, in town this week for a fundraising benefit, began its concert-making ways in earnest after attracting notice while singing at services at London's St. Paul's Cathedral. Their name, the Three Cantors -- a cantor being a person who leads the singing at church -- is a light-hearted take-off on the Three Tenors that just seemed to fit.The first concert for the group was a benefit for the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, an agency created by Canadian Anglicans to help people around the globe.
The Three Tenors are made up of Bill Cliff, Peter Wall and David Pickett, along with accompanist Angus Sinclair. Wall's humble assessment of himself and his musical colleagues is that they are "three parish priests with not enough to do with our evenings." In truth, they put on a hugely popular, well-rounded show known for...
September 07, 2008 Myanmar opens up to relief efforts, unnoticed by world
BEIJING: Away from public view, Myanmar has opened up to global relief efforts to an unprecedented degree after initially thwarting foreign attempts to help victims of a devastating cyclone last spring, a US relief agency said in an issued report. The May 2-3 rampage of Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 people dead or missing. Myanmar’s military leaders turned away US and French warships offering humanitarian aid to the cyclone-wracked Irrawaddy River Delta area immediately following the cyclone, giving the impression they’d rather let victims perish than admit inability to cope with the catastrophe. But a report prepared by Refugees International, a Washington-based relief group, said the image of “a recalcitrant government that rejects aid from the generous nations of the world” is no longer accurate. The group said Myanmar has issued some 1,000 visas to international aid workers since June and offered “an unprecedented level of access” to the delta region. The...
September 06, 2008 Baptists to raise $1.89 million for Myanmar relief
Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, is seeking to raise US$1.89 million for continued relief in Myanmar.The figure is based on needs assessments undertaken after Myanmar was devastated by Cyclone Nargis in early May. The storm killed more than 150,000 people, displaced millions, and virtually wiped out the country’s staple crops.Paul Montacute, Director of BWAid, along with Bonny Resu, BWA Regional Secretary for Asia Pacific, traveled to the Southeast Asian country in August to meet with leaders of the Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) and members of Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBAid)/BWAid Rescue24.Montacute reported that the group of leaders crafted a Memorandum of Understanding between BWAid, MBC, the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, and HBAid “which we all signed, and committed ourselves to.” The bodies represented aim to further provide relief, such as food and medical supplies, and to rebuild homes for displaced persons. Montacute...