Myanmar : Emergency Assistance for the Flood Victims Begins

In Myanmar, continuous heavy rain from July caused at least 103 deaths, and a total of 27 million families were forced to take refuge. The heavy rain has affected a massive number of　128 million people (Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement of Myanmar). AAR Japan, holding offices in Yangon and Karen State, has begun providing emergency assistance to those affected, in cooperation with a local Disabled Person’s Organization (DPO), Myanmar Independent Living Initiative (MILI).

AAR Japan and MILI have decided to distribute food, daily essentials, and assistive devices such as crutches to 1,200 families, especially severely damaged households and persons with disabilities (PWDs) and their families, in ten areas such as Yangon, Magway, and Bago Regions, as well as Rakhine State. MILI has offices in all these ten areas, and has a handle on the situation of the local PWDs. Currently they are beginning distribution in some areas, while proceeding with needs assessment and commodity procurement. They plan to launch the full-scale distribution of goods early next week.

Myint Shwe is a local man who supported his five family members by selling fish. He lost all his household possessions and work tools in the flood. The flood rose to just under the roof of his stilt house, which has made it impossible to live in. (Ayeyarwady Region, August 11th, 2015, photo provided by MILI)

Pictured here are residents heading to a shelter, walking through the knee-level water. Wells and ponds have been polluted by the muddy water, which raises concerns of water sanitation. (Yangon, August 10th, 2015, Photo provided by MILI)

A house destroyed by strong winds and flood. More than 15,000 houses across the country were damaged by the flood, landslide, and violent wind. (Rakhine State, August 1st, 2015, Photo provided by MILI)

Yoshio NAKAGAWA (right) from AAR Japan Yangon Office, having a meeting with the MILI representative, Nay Lin Soe, Founder and Program Director. (Yangon, August 13th, 2015, photo provided by MILI)

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Yoshio NAKAGAWA, AAR Japan Yangon Office After graduating from university, he worked at the Japan Red Cross Society for five years. Later, he sought to work on-site at an international cooperation project and entered AAR Japan. He was dispatched to Tajikistan from March 2011 to September 2013 before working in Myanmar. He worked as a representative of the Hpa-An Office until October 2013, and moved to Yangon Office in January 2015. He is from Kanagawa Prefecture. (Profile as of the date of the article)

Japanese-English translation by Ms. Erika Ikeya

English editing by Mr. Cameron Lombardo

This article has been translated by volunteers as part of the AAR Japan's Volunteer Programme. Their generous contributions allow us to spread our activities and ideas globally, through an ever-growing selection of our reports from the field.