25th June – Accounts from Inside

“Slightly better, seemingly better,” was the whisper frequently repeating itself whenever I noticed blue or white tarpaulins-draped hats which were dotted along the way to Hmawbi, one of the villages in cyclone-hit Deydaye` township. Just three weeks ago, we went there and made donations to two villages alongside the Irrawaddy River. Unlike what we saw on previous trips, all major police checkpoints now disappeared into nowhere probably because there were no more individual donation cars coming down from Yangon. Saturday it was, we were the only donation group heading to the delta, brining with us dozens of notebooks, stationery, snacks and pairs of slippers. We passed two cyclone-hit townships, Kauk Hmu and Kun Chan Kone, and it took us over three hours to get to Deydaye` jetty. Despite the frequent sights of cyclone destructions along the road, occasionally coming into our view were tarpaulin roofs and hats distributed by a UN organization and an NGO just a few days ago—the only sign that led us to conclude that the situation “seems” better.

Why did we decide to go to Hmawbi village? In our last trip, once we got to Deydaye jetty, many villagers approached us and started campaigning to go to this village or that village. Having no idea of which village we should go, we were much bewildered and decided to go to two villages after a few impromptu cross-check interviews with local residents. This time around, we got into contact with a monk of the Hmawbi village and decide to go to his village. Once we got to Deydaye, we bought forty bags of rice that cost us K480, 000. We also brought with us 100 notebooks (K90, 000), water guard bottles (K77, 000). The material contributions were 100 water guard bottles, snacks stationery and slippers. Unlike in the past two trips, we could no longer receive so many types of help necessary for a trip to happen—car owners drive their car buying fuel with their own money and neighbors contributing old clothes and giving us lunch boxes for the volunteers. This time we had to spend K70, 000 for car rental. The total cost for this trip is over K800, 000 with K300, 000 receiving from NICA and the rest coming from individuals at home and abroad.

Hmawbi is a village of 317 households. Though there were not many good houses in the village, the villagers claimed that their economy was not so bad before the cyclone. The water surged up to 5 feet when the cyclone hit, leaving 21 villagers and many cattle dead. Daw Loon, a 70-year-old woman said that she used to own 12 buffaloes before the cyclone, but now she has only two with her. Although she and all the family members survived the disaster, she lost many of her belongings like her fellow villagers. The rear part of her house has still no roof and she is now living in the front part of the house under the bamboo roof. Since the cyclone, all the villagers have been living on rice that got wet in the rain— that gave them stomach problems in the first week but now they said they are used to it. Under the supervision of the abbot of the village, we donated 6 Kg of rice plus one water guard bottle for each household, 6 notebooks to every student, and other materials were distributed too. Including Kyaw Thu’s, five individual donor groups have already visited their village, giving them rice and clothes. Through the local officials, the government gave one sachet of coffee, a small packet of instant noodle and one egg for each household. Asked what they received from the government until now, villagers started murmuring with each other—some wanted to tell the truth and some did not for fear of the Big Brother. But many are eager to start their farming. The government has allotted two tractors (of 5000 donated by foreign countries) for the whole village—one being used by the village chairman and another already broken. Even if they have the tractors, they said they have no money to buy fuel, and even if someone provided them with fuel, they still could not start their work without the paddy seeds, which were destroyed in the cyclone.

While the villagers are in need of help to resume their livelihood, Yangon residents with their limited resources have tried their best to help their fellow countrymen and are already exhausted in their relief efforts. On the other hand, WFP has announced that its operations will soon stop due to lack of funding. Our group will continue to make more visits, with our donations focused on helping the victims get back to work and the educational needs of the children.

Nyi Zay Min