Despite its modest presence in Myanmar, the Catholic Church has mobilised an important relief effort through the local Caritas partner in response to Cyclone Nargis. Religious communities and local church communities are important partners in these efforts.
... AND THE TEARS OF THE INNOCENT WOUND US
This graphic and slightly edited report, sent on May 10, comes from a friend of Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of Catholic Religious Australia. The writer, a religious, is an experienced aid worker who is now in Myanmar who wishes to remain anonymous. His words communicate the scale and depth of the suffering ...
Today I returned from one of the most affected areas. Nearly 30,000 people met a watery grave. In Kyalatt, Phyapon and Bogala and the villages around, thousands perished.
Today Burma weeps and the tears of the innocent wound us.
I have seen the suffering of the graceful people who live in these parts. When nature compounds their agony, the heart is torn with despair.
I went far off to Phyapon, down the Irrawady River. With bodies of human beings and cattle floating alongside the boat, we reached a destroyed village.
We were the first outsiders to reach them.
Cyclone Nargis bombed them, flattened them and left their spirit shaken.
In an assault of 'shock and awe', nature attacked the hapless men and women at night from the seas, river and from the air. Howling winds at shrieking velocity tore through settlements, like fighter bombers.
It is a sad sight.
To my eyes which have seen the effects of the Tsunami, and the Kashmir earthquake, this is really overwhelming. Nature unleashed a storm of death and mayhem, wounding an already suffering people.
Yesterday, with tears in their eyes, women explained how the waves snatched their babes from their breasts. A mighty tidal wave became their grave. The mothers weep.
As our boat moved along, a body of a five old boy drifted across our path. He is the child of a mourning mother somewhere. The boy drifts in unnamed waters, waiting for burial, unwept and unnamed.
People do not have drinking water. After their settlements were crushed into pieces, the decaying debris lying in the waterlogged terrain emits a deep smell. Food there is not. Children were biting at the coconut shells as we went in. Dead animals are spread out near the debris. The people have neither the energy nor the will to bury them.
There were many refugees, living in roofless churches and monasteries. Help has not reached them.
We are doing what is possible in Burma.
During the last two days we have been reaching out to the starving people. With the price of diesel skyrocketing and fuel not available, transport is still a problem. There is still no electricity and water even in Yangon.
Burma is in deep mourning.
The count of the dead has passed 80,000 and is still rising. The majestic Irrawady was the mother to the people. It gave them food, was their waterway, winding through some of the most beautiful rice fields in the world. The delta had an alluring beauty before Irrawady yielded to the fatal charms of Nargis. The mother became a monster, the beauty a beast.
The lands and fields were raped that night.
the people will take ages to restore to normal. Apart from their material needs, they will also need great fellowship.
In a remote corner of the village, wading through slushy mud, we reached a small broken church, where famished refugees were waiting for people from the outside world. When we reached there, they welcomed us with gratitude and served a cup of Burmese tea. It was all they had.
Twenty-four million people live in the southern part of Myanmar and 5 million live in the areas directly touched by category four Cyclone Nargis which crossed through the Rangoon Division and Irrawaddy Delta areas on May 3 with winds of 190 kilometres per hour. Five states in the country have been declared disaster zones and 95 per cent of buildings in the cyclone's path have been destroyed.
A three metre tidal wave carried salt water 40 kilometres inland across low lying delta, destroying fresh water sources, and leaving many drowned in its wake.
The tidal waters are slowly receding. As access becomes possible, immense destruction and loss of life are being reported. Devastation is on a greater scale than the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.
A large scale relief action by the Catholic Church in Myanmar is now underway.
Religious congregations in Myanmar are supporting this through training, financial assistance, personnel, and communications. The local Caritas partner has set up a relief base in the grounds of the Archbishop's house in Yangon. Many religious are members of the teams that are going out to the affected people. Many religious congregations in Australia have sister communities within Myanmar and will naturally send help directly to them.
Caritas Australia, as usual, is also one of the most reliable channels to offer assistance.
The needs are long term. Stages of assistance will be spelled out over the next weeks. Here are some initial notes developed in the programme.
Immediate and medium term relief
First, of course, comes immediate relief, such as food, water, buckets to hold water, water purification tablets, clothes, shelter and cooking implements. The buying capacity of the communities is low, so money can be pumped into local communities, through cash for work, enabling temporary shelters, debris cleaning and the creation of community assets (like halls on a raised platform). Then follows livelihood regeneration through desalination of agricultural lands, provision of seeds, and help to small business.
Training of relief workers and setting up communications networks goes on at the same time.
Formal and informal psycho social interventions must also begin soon. It takes time to grieve the dead and for those who remain to re-orient their lives following their losses. Those who will participate in these compassionate roles must be trained, briefed and de-briefed as they work with the communities.
Long term relief
Long term assistance will involve community support, counselling and development activities. Safe and adequate shelter will be needed in the long run.
free call 1800 024 413
Caritas Australia's partners are jointly managing relief activities and funds for the joint response to the Cyclone Nargis disaster. Caritas Thailand has completed initial needs assessments of the affected communities on behalf of the international Caritas confederation.
Caritas Australia is supporting its partners to meet the immediate needs of affected communities through the distribution of food and water, and non food. Items such as temporary shelter materials, clothing, cooking utensils and medical assistance for 60,000 people for one month.
Caritas will also focus on the medium to long term task of rehabilitation and rebuilding communities over the next 12-18 months.
free call 1800 024 413
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