FPB distributes food to makeshift shelters in monasteries, temples, and schools
May, 7, 2008
Staff and colleagues of FPB have begun providing food aid in the form of rice and beans to cyclone refugees in the outskirts of Rangoon who are sheltered in Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples, and public schools. As of Wednesday night in Rangoon, the FPB network had been able to reach approximately 4000 people in 5 new shelters that are struggling to ensure the survival of the new arrivals.
Staff members reported that many of the suddenly homeless had not eaten in several days and were visibly disoriented. The refugees are primarily from the poverty-stricken satellite neighborhoods on the outskirts of Rangoon, where the population is greater than 4 million and makeshift housing materials were easily destroyed by the storm. Although there have been reports of some military presence in cleaning streets in central Rangoon, residents of the satellite communities denied having seen any government personnel involved in emergency response.
According to an FPB volunteer, staffers have had to work around the constraints on relief efforts imposed by the military: “Near one of the shelters a soldier informed us that we could not give supplies to the shelter, and should instead give the money and food to a local government official. We chose to his evade his orders given that we have no confidence in the government to ethically pass along this aid.” Residents of the city additionally described government radio addresses that promised the supplies, but as yet had not seen any actual distribution of aid.
