Photos by Reuters:GMI/Handout
Myanmar (MNN) ― Nearly two months after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, the struggle to get aid to the rural areas continues.
Many foreign relief groups were barred from the country by the country's ruling junta. The government has also kicked medical teams out, citing no need for them any longer.
However, the needs are still overwhelming. The resiliency of the people in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region has been showing.
At first blush, things in Yangon seem under control. Clean-up in major cities is well underway. However, the further away from the main cities you get, the more deteriorated the situation.
Using a borrowed cell phone, Vision Beyond Borders' Patrick Klein spoke with us from Myanmar. He says their team drove three hours south of Yangon, and then took a boat three hours further south into the depths of the country.
The team expected to be helping roughly 300 Karen families who were still struggling to put their lives into a semblance of order. When they arrived, though, they found five villages that had come together, numbering roughly 880 households in the region severely affected by Nargis.
Cyclone Nargis hit May 2nd and demolished whole villages, polluted water supplies and drowned crops. There has been no shelter, food or clean water since then. Klein says, "We're the first ones to bring aid into that area. We have brought in rice and blankets; we brought in some water purification supplies and some other foodstuffs. And the people were very, very grateful for the help. We have some local Burmese teams that are going into the area."
The Myanmar government has promised to take care of the surviving orphans, banning adoptions by any individual and organization.
The task is huge. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, of the 2.4 million people affected by Nargis, 40-percent were estimated to be children. Because of the number of orphans created by the storm, Klein says they'll be building four children's homes that will be run by local believers.
The team is working on buying land and getting plans drawn up for the construction of the new dormitories. They need help with funds--not only for the immediate aid but also for the materials to build homes. Vision Beyond Borders wants to provide a safe place for the children to grow up, because of the child sex trafficking problems in neighboring Thailand. There are also reports of child slavers who kidnap young cyclone survivors and sell them in other countries for menial labor.
All of these efforts are to support local ministries and help them form opportunities for reaching out with the hope of Christ. Klein urges prayer because: "We have been working through Christian organizations here--local Burmese people, helping them. That's been a tremendous opportunity for them to share the Gospel, as they're giving out aid. They're going right into the areas that are very much affected by the storm, helping people rebuild, giving them rice (and) cooking oil."
