Myanmar Disaster Relief 2008

Myanmar Disaster Relief

6-9-08  Read Myanmar Testimonies Here...

6-6-08  Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - 20 Percent

"I been following the statistics from the other NGOS and UN here in Myanmar. Our little church has been able to send 20% of the total amount of delivered help compared to all the agencies put together!!

This is a miracle and a testimony of the power in the church of God."

Marco

5-31-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - Latest report
FTH's partner church in Yangon is blessed to have as part of it's congregation a former UN Development Program Manager who is working full time as a logistics and program manager throughout this disaster.

 

A short summary until yesterday what the church has distributed:

 

• 150 tons of rice to almost 40,000 individual families (each family consists on average of 4,5 people),
• On top of the rice many other kinds of foods have also been distributed
• Every second day 1800 litres of pond-water are filtered through the water purifying systems and given out
• A medical team (6 doctors, 8 nurses, 6 pharmacists) treats between 200 and 300 patients every day
• 89 temporary shelters are under construction of which 31 were completed until yesterday.
• Because of the noticeable work our church is doing, the UN is funneling increased food and resources through the church.

5-31-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update

"Hi Stefan!

No, we haven´t any funds set a side for the church members homes more than the money for 8 homes that was a sent by a church in Australia and the money you already sent us.

All the money we receive goes to the everyday cost of food and other costs. The report that I got yesterday was that 89 homes was under construction and 31 of them was already finished (58 i still being built).

A team of professional engineers are on the payroll so that the homes are being built properly and to speed up the process.

If FTH wants to help us build the other 170 of these homes we would be more than happy!

We are amazed by there heart for Myanmar. Thank You Stefan for doing such a wonderful work, you are a key person in what is happening in Myanmar. Thank You!!"

Marco

5-28-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - Souls Saved!

"I received an email from our Pastor in Yangon last week.

He joyfully told me that the previous Sunday service was packed with newcomers best of all 125 of them gave their hearts to Christ!

Yesterday I received word from him again that “the church was more full than I’ve ever seen it” and another 150 people became Christians.

Praise God that the physical help distributed by the church has opened hearts for the Gospel."

Stefan Radelich

FTH International Director

5-22-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update – Thank you

Dear Friends and Partners,

Thank you once again for your support, your prayers and your concern. It is greatly appreciated and is a real encouragement to us here.

Here is the latest news of our continued aid distribution. We have been privileged to work with the organisation Feed The hungry. They have donated four water purifiers for use in areas where dirty water is still being used for drinking, washing and cooking.

The Feed The Hungry team accompanied us to some of these areas and trained some of our church staff to use the machines. The local people living in these areas, and ourselves, were amazed as the brown, dirty pond water was transformed into clean, pure drinking water. Even the taste and smell was good! The need for clean water has been a very urgent need and now, we are able to use these filters to purify the water, cases of water bourne diseases are sure to lessen.

Through UNHCR we received dried noodles, ovaltine, bags of rice and fish. We were able to distribute these to those in most urgent need and, again, our help was keenly accepted. We have also been given 500 cooking pots so now some people, who weren't able, are now able to cook in their homes again.

We have also been able to begin building temporary houses for those whose homes were completely destroyed. This will provide much needed shelter from the storms that seem to come most nights. Once people have these temporary houses rebuilt they will be able to get their lives back to some semblance of normality. It is exciting to see houses going up where just hours before there was a pile of bamboo sticks. As the people move in, these houses will soon become homes again. Later our desire is to help build better, more permanent homes for these people.

Despite all the great things we have been able to do some people are still living in conditions that are very bad with little shelter from the weather. They are still struggling for the basic essentials such as food, but we are committed to continue helping these victims of cyclone Nargis. We trust that our God will continue to lead us so we will be able to help in the most effective possible.

Thank you for all your help
Keep praying for us here
God Bless

Senior Pastor,

Yangon Church, Myanmar

5-21-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update – Distribution
"We continue to distribute food and some materials for emergency shelters in camps today. We shared the gospel and gave Gospel tracts in three camps today.

We have discovered 200 families that need temporary residences. They had been staying in public schools, but the Government is telling the schools to reopen for education, and the families need to leave."

 

5-21-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update – Distribution

As of today, our partner church in Yangon has distributed food and relief items to 60,000 people. New avenues of distribution continue to open up allowing us to make deliveries of emergency rations to survivors in the Boogale region in the Delta.

5-20-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update – Distribution

"Our Pastor estimates that 250 church family members houses needs to be rebuilt. Besides that, pastors from small churches are now calling every day asking for help. They have no outside contacts and their church member's homes are destroyed and even some churches are completely flattened. We want to be a help these Christians who have no were else to turn.

Thank You for all support! What you do for the lest you have done for Jesus."

5-16-08 – Distribution Update

All is going well despite continued restrictions of the movement of foreigners like myself. I tried to travel to Dala this morning to visit 11 resettlement camps but were not able to travel. I found out later there was a cholera breakout and it contributed to the reasoning.

Locals from the church continue to be allowed access to these sort of areas, so the team was able to go without me. They took water purifiers with them to assist survivors with the Cholera breakout.

The senior pastor, a graduate from Dr. Sumrall's bible college, just returned yesterday from that area in Dala. The Pastor was visiting one his church plants, and he came back with a report of two particular camps that were in great need without any visible outside support.

These camps are actually public schools converted into camps, but both schools had their roofs blown off as well... imagine putting displaced storm victims in a one story building with no roof!!!

I traveled with the church team to two other locations as well yesterday to continue their on-the-job training with the water purifying systems. The church has already distributed food, and other relief supplies here, and now we can finally add clean water.

While we were there purifying water for the 450 plus people staying at the school, it began to rain. The school has a drop ceiling (foam tiles) but no roof, so after about 10 minutes the water drops started dropping all over inside the building. Crazy.

LOTS of kids at the camps including young adults as well as the elderly. All are there because they lost their homes, possessions, and livelihood.

Food, water, and clothing are the main needs.

One lady I met, Tha Thing (pronounced Ta- Ting) is 93... about 3 feet 6 inches tall and weighs just 50 pounds. Even though she was soaking wet and all alone there with no family. She had a great attitude though and loved to dance.

FTH funds are continuing to purchasing rice, cooking oil, dried fish, salt, mosquito nets, and other relief items. We are working with local church partners in 17 sectors of Yangon Division (same as a province); distributing aid to 8,382 registered families (41,028 registered people) at this point.

 

Thanks & blessings,

Stefan Radelich
FTH International Director

 

5-13-08 Stefan's Field Report Part II

Stefan Radelich was able to contact the FTH Australia office and give an update on current relief efforts.

Arriving early Tuesday he was able to make good connections immediately. He was really impressed with the quality of people involved on the ground at one of the largest independent churches in Myanmar. They had established 32 church plants before the disaster, but unfortunately Ps. Mung has only been able to contact with 12 of them in the days after the disaster. Stefan was not confident how many had tragically been killed in the disaster and how many were simply missing.

The church has already conducted three distributions among the 17 provinces of Yangon. Each distribution would give 2000 families enough rice for 3 days. These food distributions were purchased with funds from the churches own funds. These funds have long since been exhausted.

Yangon the largest city affected by the cyclone has reportedly returned to a functioning state of normalcy with shops reopening for business. He does note that military check points prevent access to roads to the heavily affected Delta region.

The Delta region is flooded with storm water, but it actually has contaminated all fresh water with salt. They are struggling for the kind of clean water that Stefan can help provide through the purifying pumps he brought in. They will be of immediate use if he can get them into the affected areas. He is hoping he can train local FGA team members in their correct usage and begin operations among the survivors, and bring more through the next shipment.

Rice and other food items seem to be readily available at reasonable prices in Yangon. Stefan is recommending for the next few days that food should continue to bought in country rather than pay for the shipping from Thailand. However basic building materials and items helpful for emergency shelter have skyrocketed. In some cases they are five times more expensive than pre-cyclone prices. FTH will look at helping to relieve these supply problems.

 

Stefan mentioned reports of people migrating away from the disaster areas and heading to remote villages in the hope of finding food and shelter. They are creating of their own accord what the United Nations calls an IDP or Internally Displaced People camps. This could actually create additional pressure on the villages because they themselves have no resources to help - but are compelled by compassion.

Stefan is continuing to coordinate with other NGO's and the UN representatives that are in country to find the best ways to bring in more aid supplies, and to make sure it gets to the people who need it the most.

Since our inception in 1987, FTH has always operated as a CHURCH to CHURCH humanitarian organization. FTH endeavours to raise funding in the western or first world and distribute among churches in the third world or in this case the disaster areas.

This not only helps ensure that food is correctly distributed, but also helps build the local church in the community, and therefore gives the local Christians an opportunity to share the Gospel through their acts of kindness.

FTH is continuing to seek emergency donations from Christians and Churches who have plenty to spare and therefore can share. Please contact us to send your best donation to help bring Christ into this situation and end this terrible catastrophe.

Please click here to make a donation.



5-13-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update
Stefan's Field Report Part 1

I arrived in Yangon on schedule; miracle after miracle to get in here with the gear carried. I’m aware of a reportedly a little progress on the macro scale (UN, large NGO's) day by day, but we can do much on the ground through the indigenous church here. First day has been very productive in gathering information and assessments from various sectors.

Our partner church on the ground, one of the largest independent churches in Myanmar, has deployed about 50 staff pastors to 17 sectors in Yangon Province. They have a decent distribution network in place to villages in a 2 hour radius of Yangon. They've bought rice & water to this point. Their funding has run out but they will be getting funds from various outside sources as other NGO’s recognize them as a practical distribution point.

Potable, safe water is a big issue... dysentery is starting to break out in several areas. Tomorrow we're going out to two areas with the water purifiers to do some on the job training with a few Full Gospel guys who will be responsible for training others on how to set up a village water filling station, and how to operate and maintain the machines.

FTH will buy two more units so that the church in Myanmar has 4 which can then be used by water brigade teams to service several sites every couple days. I really like how the church is responding and the excellent quality of people committed to the relief work.

Malaria is the number one killer in Myanmar followed by diarrhoea under 'normal' conditions -- not relating to the cyclone. So with the unbelievable amount of standing water covering this whole area, malaria outbreaks are also now occurring.

The Vortex water units is a key to addressing the diarrhoea issue, and will buy 1,000 family-sized mosquito nets which we can have treated in pyrethrum for .06 cents each... these family sized nets are quite large and are meant to cover several people as they customarily sleep close together on bamboo mats.

The Convoy of Hope NGO have been working on the overland transport of supplies from Thailand to Myanmar and will attempt to send a truck this week. If that goes well FTH will be able to piggy-back on their inroads to move bulk disaster relief supplies across the border as part of the extended project recovery.

Rice is still affordable here in Yangon, so it wouldn't pay to transport rice, but building materials like zinc sheeting and roofing nails are ridiculously expensive, they’ve increased almost five times since the storm hit.

I continue to meet with other NGO’s in country and with UN reps to see how we can be more effective with the narrow avenue of opportunity here in Yangon. It is very important to act now with as generous a gift as possible because it'll be put to work right away.

5-13-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update

Stefan Radelich on the ground

FTH are pleased to confirm that International Director, Stefan Radelich arrived in Yangon early yesterday morning. Stefan has been able to meet up with one of the largest independent churches in Myanmar which is acting as a relief centre for survivors of the catastrophe.

The church had made three large distributions of food to about 2000 families with the scant resources of the church before the disaster. Clean drinking water, food and shelter remain the most important priorities.

When asked whether there is still a need for emergency funding - Stefan's reply was adamant,

"Absolutely. No question."

We are firming up supply routes for emergency cash, cross border bulk shipments. The greatest problem Ps. Mung is facing now - is an empty bank account. There are local supply points where supplies can be purchased at a reasonable about - but nobody accepts an IOU in Myanmar

Please send your best gift via an online donation today.

5-12-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - Enroute

The latest OCHA reports state the official death toll now is 22,997, with 42,119 missing and 1,430 injured, although unofficial figures are considerably higher.

 

Based on the original Government estimate of 975,858 persons affected three days after the disaster in the eight most seriously hit townships, the UN now estimates that at least 1,500,000 people are severely affected.

 

In the midst of this confusion and instability, FTH Director Stefan Radelich is enroute to Myanmar.

5-12-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - Stefan Radelich

"The reports from our contacts on the ground describing the devastation are reminiscent the Tsunami in 2005 -- the scope and depth of the destruction is beyond what words or pictures can convey.

Millions are now homeless, there is no power, no running water and people are looting stores to survive. Two of the churches we know have generators to provide power, and were willing to be set up as relief centers, but they had no supplies to help the overwhelming number of survivors. Feed The Hungry is purchasing food, blankets, plastic sheeting, and other first-response supplies in Yangon to meet the need.

Buying food, blankets, tarps and other relief items in Yangon will be costly but it must be done. At times like this, cost is not an option. We have to do whatever it takes to help save lives and that means buying supplies in country for the time being.

Our plan is to transport relief supplies from Thailand to the FTH relief centers as soon as possible which will give us more buying power and insulate us from opportunistic suppliers in the affected area."

Stefan Radelich

FTH International Director

5-12-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief update - Not enough!

According to the news reports, the Burmese State Television stations have revised upward the official death toll to 28,458, while 33,416 were still missing after the cyclone.

The article leads with the headline that quantity of aid reaching Burmese survivors is 'nowhere near enough".

5-8-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - Anything to Check-in?

Water!

FTH representative Stefan Radelich is booked to fly to Myanmar despite a lack of confirmation about the visa issue. Stefan will physically bring two water purification machines to assist.

The self-contained electro-mechanical water filtration and purification system which can produce over 225 liters gallons of pure drinking water per hour that is 99.999% free of bacterial, viral, or chemical pathogens. The system has been designed to remove sediment, bacteria and viruses from untreated water sources such as rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, springs, reservoirs, and wells.

5-8-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief Update - Travel Visas

Myanmar Government continues to delay the granting of temporary entry visas for all relief workers - greatly hindering the rescue efforts. FTH Logistics director Bob Boucek continues to lobby the Myanmar Embassy from Washington DC.

 

This is a continued, and urgent prayer request for a breakthrough in areas of travel visas, and customs to allow relief aid into Myanmar without military interference.

 

5-7-08 Myanmar Disaster Relief update

FTH has been able to contact on our church partners in Yangon (Rangoon) in Myanmar (Burma). Their 3000 member congregation and strong network of churches throughout the country places them as one it's leading churches groups.

Their facility is in good shape without power but with access to a generator. They have the manpower, they have the facility and capabilities but they have no supplies... yet.

5-6-08 Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis

FTH is working on securing distribution through to our three church partners in Yangoon. FTH will begin bringing disaster relief that will help survivors of the deadliest disaster to strike South East Asia since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, and ensuring that it will not be subverted by government or military agencies.

Current estimates show over 10,000 people have lost their life and over 3,000 people are still missing.

More details will be posted here as they come to hand.

Official U.N. statements

OCHA Situation Report No. 7 - 10th May 2008

(United Nations Office Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs)

The official death toll is now 22,997

42,119 missing

1,430 injured.

The UN now estimates that at least 1,500,000 people are severely affected.

People are deserting central cities to the countryside in desperate search for food, water and shelter.

Heavy rainfall is forecast over the next seven days.

International flights carrying relief items increase, but access for international workers remains unresolved.

Partial restoration of piped water supply has been restored in Yangon city

High level consultation continues to undertake the clearance of travel visas for humanitarian personnel.

63 teams from a range of different countries have offered their support and are on standby in different parts of the world.

Concerns about security of trucks delivering supplies are reported to have eased.

You can help!

We urgently need your best gift to help his nation recover from this devastating disaster.

 

How you can help immediately:

--> Please pray for the survivors of this deadly cyclone in Myanmar. Pray that relief organizations can quickly acquire the resources needed to provide emergency aid to desperate children and families.  Pray for favor with government authorities for quick and unrestricted access to affected areas.

--> Donate now to help provide relief for survivors of the cyclone. Your contribution will help Feed The Hungry provide emergency aid to children and families devastated by this disaster.

--> Stay informed... and let your family, friends, church, office, school, etc. know how they can help.  DAILY NEWS