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Myanmar: Relief in Delta meets urgent needs |
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Emergencies
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Ma Than is one of hundreds of homeless people queuing for aid in front of a monastery in an Ayeyarwaddy delta town.
In her neighbourhood, Cyclone Nargis destroyed 40 out of 50 houses, including hers.
Ma Than got out just in time. Around 8pm on the night the cyclone hit, the tide began to rise swiftly.
"My house was slowly being submerged. The wind blew harder and harder and finally my house started shaking."
That was around 10pm. Ma Than took her youngest son and ran out of her house immediately. Her husband took other two children. As soon as they left, a coconut tree and a jasmine tree fell on her house and it was destroyed totally.
The whole area was dark and it was impossible to see where they were going. She says the rain on her back, together with the wind, was like a whip. But she didn’t stop, clutching her children and heading towards what she hoped would be shelter.
Finally, Ma Than and her family members reached a primary school. But the doors were closed. They tried hard to force them open but were too tired from their ordeal of walking through 5 foot-deep water.
Finally, they broke a school window, put together the desks and climbed on top. When the storm broke the roof they hoisted blackboards into the ceiling. They sheltered there for 9 hours, freezing and wet, until the rain finally stopped.
"My youngest son turned blue," says Ma Than. "I thought he was going to die."
Her house, clothes and all the belongings were dragged away by the tide.
"I've nothing left except the clothes that I'm wearing," she says wearily.
Now, she and her family are staying under a thatch roof supported by two bamboo sticks. There are no walls. Her husband and eldest son, who work as labourers, can get no work. She is worried about her son in Grade 10 and her daughter in Grade 6; nobody knows when schools will open again. Their school uniforms and books were also destroyed and they are not able to buy them again.
Ma Than holds up what she has received now that the aid has finally arrived. Fourteen kilograms of rice, a tarpaulin for temporary roofing, one bucket, two blankets, two longyis (Myanmar dress), two T-shirts, one mosquito net and 6 bottles of one liter drinking water.
World Vision is the first international organization distributing rice and water at this monastery after Nargis Cyclone. In the meantime, Ma Than and families like her have relied on the generosity of neighbours who have pooled their resources, or local groups who have given out rice, water and snacks.
"We don’t have to sleep in the cold anymore because I've got blankets here", said Ma Than, her voice shaky with happiness. "And I have wanted something for roofing because I can’t buy any thatch around this town. Now World Vision has given me this tarpaulin so at least my children can stay out of the rain." |
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