IRIN
MYANMAR: Cyclone survivors wish for return of private donors
3 September 2008


BOGALE, 3 September 2008 (IRIN) - From her makeshift hut along the 
highway between Pyanpon and Bogale townships in the Ayeyarwady Delta, 
Yee Yee looks to the motorway. "Whenever I hear the sound of a car, I 
think it might be someone coming to help," the 56-year-old said.

But four months since Cyclone Nargis pummelled the area, leaving nearly 
140,000 people dead or missing, with another 2.4 million people badly 
affected, that sound has largely disappeared.

"I simply don't understand it," Yee Yee, who lost her husband in the 
cyclone, said. "But I wish they [the private donors] would come back."

Many cyclone survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives and worry 
whether promises of further assistance from the government and 
international organisations will materialise.

News of the storm's impact on the delta resulted in an outpouring of 
generosity from the country's 50 million-plus population, with scores of 
private donors travelling to the delta from all over the country with 
supplies.

In the first days after the cyclone, the two main motorways to the delta 
- the Yangon-Pathein highway and the 
Yangon-Hlaingtharyar-Twuntay-Kunchangone-Daedayal-Pyapon-Bogale highway 
- were bumper to bumper with private donors struggling to reach 
survivors.

"Every weekend those motorways were full of donor convoys," recalled one 
resident, distributing rice, clothes, medicine, potable water and 
kitchen utensils.

Civil society role praised

Praising their contribution, John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary-General 
for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, cited the 
role of civil society in the relief operation during his second visit to 
Myanmar in late July.

"The worst affected are being helped by those less affected. That's been 
a very important factor in the speed of recovery efforts," Holmes told 
IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.

At the end of July, the New Light of Myanmar, a government weekly, 
reported that more than half the rice distributed between the first week 
of May and 14 July came from private donors.

At the same time, private donors donated 1,057 power tillers, while the 
international community donated 316, it added.

The farmers also received 6,473 power tillers from the government, to be 
paid back in installments.

However, there is a limit to how much private donors can provide and 
many are themselves struggling to cover their basic needs. In addition, 
checkpoints and widespread deployment of security forces served as a 
deterrent, sources said.

"Private donors have done as much as they possibly can [in the period of 
emergency]," said one local resident.

"They cannot be expected to help in terms of development. It's the job 
of the government and international community," he said.


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Myanmar: Cyclone Nargis           www.cidi.org/incident/myanmar-08e