FPB expands scale of relief efforts in Rangoon, begins reaching households in Irrawaddy Delta, commissions boat to deliver supplies
May 9, 2008
Foundation for the People of Burma continues to intensify relief efforts to survivors of the cyclone. As of Friday night in Rangoon, Burmese FPB staff and volunteers had begun supplying an additional two shelters on the poverty-stricken outskirts of Rangoon, reached 400 households in the heavily affected Irrawaddy Delta, and had supported the mobilization of a boat that will attempt to reach areas inaccessible by road.
A group of FPB volunteers from Rangoon that is already providing daily supplies to over 4000 refugees in the city's satellite communities, is now delivering rice to 2 more shelters located in Buddhist monasteries and conducting needs assessments for how to best serve those locations going forward. According to one relief worker, "we are struggling to provide drinking water treatment, people have begun suffering from diarrhea while we run out of oral rehydration solution, and we have to figure out large-scale sanitation solutions." A second group of FPB project partners is now providing plastic sheeting to a community of day-laborers who have lost the roofing of their homes and will be unable to make repairs as there are no jobs in the paralyzed city.
Burmese FPB employees traveled yesterday 3 hours southwest of Rangoon to an Irrawaddy Delta community of 400 destroyed households. "We found families attempting to live in the rubble of their homes. Today we were able to provide rice, beans, oral rehydration solution, and chlorine tablets, but they badly need buckets and construction materials before the coming rainy season." The relief workers also visited a destroyed building now sheltering refugees. "On a small island in the river villagers have gathered in a monastery that has lost its roof. We had food, oil, salt, and some fuel with us, but need to make a roofing plan quickly."
FPB project partners have rented a boat to make a dangerous 12-hour trip from Rangoon to assist the most inaccessible victims of the storm. The boat is carrying volunteers, food, construction materials, water, and sanitation kits.
Foundation for the People of Burma is attempting to maximize its available resources in providing aid while the Myanmar government continues to create barriers in accepting relief from the large international NGOs.
