Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation / Team Blog

Moegyo (1) Basic Primary School, Pan Tha Pyay Village, Shan State

2011-10-07T11:40:00.003+06:30

Here is a story of how one man changed the lives of one hundred and fifty children and those around them. The impact that he has made will be felt for generations to come and he is our hero. That man is Jimmy (aka) Moses. This is his story.

May 2010: I visited this Palaung village “Pan –Tha-Pyay” located on the mountain range about 10 miles from the village of Mongyaw where we helped built a Primary school in 2007-2009. I discovered that in this village of over 500 people, including nearly 200 children, not only nobody can read or write but also their standard of living is very primitive.

I persuaded the village elders to build a temporary school using bamboo and thatch to begin classes by June. It was easy for them to see a need to build a school after I showed them a video of a school that we built at a nearby village of Mongyaw, by using a portable dvd player I carried with me.

We hired a Kachin native who speak Shan, Burmese and a bit of Palaung as a teacher at a salary of $60 per month for 10 months, (June 2010 to March 2011). We also had to buy a motorcycle at a cost of $500 for him to commute between this village (Pan-Tha-Pyay) and his home which is in Monyaw 10 miles away. We also left $300 to purchase school supplies such as blackboard, exercise books, pencils, etc.

Look at the condition of the road leading to Pan Tha Pyay village:

October 2010: A friend who is a member of Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation introduced me to the organization. I explained the school project to the members and they realized and understood the need, and without any hesitation agreed to help the funding of the project with $5,000 (five thousand dollars). This foundation was initially formed to help the Nargis Cyclone victims in Myanmar. This non-profit humanitarian organization has continued to help other causes.

Also, friends who knew about this school project donated collectively a total of $4000 (Four thousand dollars).

November 2010: I returned to this Palaung village to begin construction of a permanent school building.

December 24: The village headman secured an empty lot for us to construct the school building. The school building measures 60 feet by 40 feet, the building will have a three separate classrooms. All the necessary building materials will have to be bought and trucked to this village.

January 27: An opening ceremony was held.

Watch the school opening ceremony here:

Subsequently on the 9th of May 2011, with further additional funding from MHF, a teacher’s living quarter complete with toilet facility, bathroom and concrete water storage tank were built and the construction was completed on the 23 of June 2011.

There are more than one hundred and fifty students and more are expected to come from nearby villages to enroll. There are five teachers: one male and four female, all of whom are ethnic Kachin. They seemed to know the psychology of these Palaung children. Their teaching found to be helping the transformation of these once ragtag purposeless children into decent happy looking filled with hope looking for a better future.

This project could not have been possible without the generous support from Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation, and please allow me to fervently say this, I am humble and at the same time I am proud to have the opportunity of calling myself one of the volunteers of this great organization and once again let me express my profound appreciation for making this project possible.

For more photos, please visit Moegyo's photo gallery.

Help from Angel

2011-06-18T00:00:00.001+06:30

As soon as we saw the photo of this boy from Pay-Chaung Youth Development Center with big cyst on his nose, we all wanted to get him help with his Meningocele condition. We all tried to get in touch with our contacts in Yangon to find a surgeon who is familiar with Meningocele repair while inquiring if the boy himself would like to do it. One day, one of the volunteers shared a forward email she received about a team of German doctors performing pro-bono reconstructive surgeries in Ngapali. We all got excited by the email and tried to confirm the legitimacy of the email and it was to our amazement that it proved to be true. It turned out that Oliver Soe Thet of Myanmar Chefs Association was responsible for bringing in a team of German doctors with Interplast in the country to perform free surgeries. To add to our thrill of knowing that the boy is so lucky to be in good hands of capable and experienced surgeons, the contact email address in the forward email was “Angel”. For more information about Maung Win Htun’s operation, please read the report from the field below:

Once Moegyo members have seen the photo of Mg Win Htun, they wanted to help with the boy’s bump on his nose. But they were quite scared that something might go wrong with the operation if not done properly. Anyhow they were still eager to help the boy. Last month I got an email from one of Moegyo members that Oliver’s MCA group has been helping that kind of patients. Once I got his email and his phone number, I tried to contact him and try to get appointment with the surgeon who could operate on the boy. Then, I informed the Pay-Chaung Parahita school that the boy was going to get his operation. They were very happy and awaiting my reply of the operation date. The boy was also very happy that he will have his bump on his nose removed.

The boy must have all the luck since I always got direct contact with Oliver and he helped the boy get the operation date so quickly. As soon as the date was confirmed, I informed the school to bring the boy to Yangon for his operation. The boy along with the school chair person arrived Yangon on 8th November. Due to some transportation problem, the time they got to Oliver’s office was quite late and the boy could not get admitted to the hospital on that day and they had to stay at the hotel and dinner was arranged for them on that day.

Next morning (9th November), he and his school chairperson, U San Maung, (who accompanied the boy during his hospitalization) went to the hospital to register the boy. He got admitted at the Yangon Neurological Hospital and then was sent to Pin-Lon Special Clinic to get CT scan and blood test. Not to get fright with the environmental change for the boy, I went there with them. Surprisingly, the boy seemed calm all the time. He was just smiling and pleased with the new environment. After the check-ups, we all got back to the Yangon Neurological Hospital at 1:30pm. U San Maung and MCA’s staff went to make registration and the staff showed U San Maung the shop that he had to buy medicine for the boy. Everything was new and so strange for the boy that he looked at everything around him in awe. Even the trains that going passed at the back of the hospital was quite amusing for him to see.

On that day, I also met with the Professor Dr. Myat Thu (the head of Neurological Department). He also encouraged the boy that everything is going to be fine that his bump is not so big and not so serious. Doctor also was very glad that we brought this boy to hospital that he has got some experience that some of the patients could not get the operation done since they can’t even afford transportation to get to Yangon. Since the doctor found out that the boy is an orphan, he tried to squeeze in his busy operation schedule and gave us an operation date as soon as possible. We got the operation date on Friday (12th November) even though he wasn’t on duty that date.

On Friday, I arrived there at 7:30 am to take the photos of the boy before the operation. Unluckily, the notice at the entrance of the hospital stopped me in my track to take photos. The boy went into the operation room at 8:30am and came out at 10:30am. The doctor said that the operation was successful. He invited me to his room and explained the case details as followed:
“His bump is only on the outer surface of the nostril so it is quite easy to take it off. He got that bump because there is a small liquid bag in his brain. One is the size of marble in the left hemisphere and another is the oval shape of 4cm long. That is not a problem for him.”

He also showed the photos of the operation and the stitches he made for the boy. He also told me that whenever I find someone with condition of the boy, please take him/her to this hospital as soon as possible. Since he has been getting the medical and accessories help from Oliver’s group, he is always ready to help them get operation.

During the stay in the hospital, MCA provided all the medical charges and meal for the boy. The things that are needed at the hospital and trip expenses are provided by MHF. Everyone in the hospital said that the boy was very lucky that everything was ready for him. After 5 days of his operation, I have got a phone call from the hospital that the boy is going to be discharged since his wound is so dry and in good condition. They went back to kyite-latt on 19th November (Friday). At first we tried to arrange to send them to visit some places in Yangon, but we could not make it happen unfortunately.

During the time in the hospital, Maung Win Htun took his bath 4 times a day as he was so happy to take a bath in the bathroom. He eats 3 plates of rice for every meal and 2 bowls of Mote-hin-gar every morning. He was also going around the hospital talking with the patients around him. He was also very happy for by other Moegyo volunteers, Ma Thi Thi and Ma Thuzar’s visit.

Last time we visited Pay-Chaung Youth Development Center, we met Maung Win Htun being happy that the bump on his nose was gone and all surgical wounds healed. I’d like to thank Oliver Soe Thet of Myanmar Chefs Association and Prof. Dr. Myat Thu of Yangon General Hospital Neurological Department for helping with Maung Win Htun operation.

Moegyo 4th Annual Burmese Food Fair

2011-05-25T15:46:00.004+06:30

Come enjoy the delicious, authentic Burmese food and help a great cause.

2011 Food Fair Menu

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

12:00 noon to 4:00 pm

PS-12

James B Colgate School

42-00 72nd Street

Woodside, NY 11377

(School entrance is on 43rd Avenue.)

By Train: 7, E, F, R, M

Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave, 74th St-Broadway Station

By Car:
The school entrance is on 43rd Ave between 69th and 72nd Street
(2 blocks North of Queens Blvd.).
Turn into 43rd Ave from 72nd Street.

Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation 3rd Anniversary

2011-05-22T11:23:00.003+06:30

On 1 May 2011, Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation commermorated its 3rd anniversary by offering breakfast to monks and performing meritorious deeds at Loka Chantha Temple in Brooklyn in the name of natural disaster victims around the world namely the fishermen lost at gulf of Martaban, earth quake victims in Shan State, Myanmar, and earth quake victims in Japan.

Since its founding in 2008 to assist victims of Cyclone Nargis, Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation has been working with the following local orphanages to provide assistance to the most vulnerable children with housing, food, clothing, health, and education:

1. Mingalar orphanage, Twentay

2. Mya Theingi orphage near Yangon

3. Kani Orphanage at Kani Village near Phyar Pon

4. Pyinnyar Waddy Orphanage at Kyite-latt. For more information, please read here and here.

5. Pay-Gyaung Parahitta" in Pay Gyaung village, Kyite-Latt township

Rebuilding Padin Community Post-Primary School in Rakhine

2011-05-22T10:39:00.001+06:30

Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation would like to commend Link Emergency Aid & Development (LEAD), a local NGO in Myanmar, for its efforts in emergency food distribution and school building and repairs projects in Cyclone Giri affected areas, and when the Moegyo team learned of an opportunity to partner with LEAD in rebuilding the Padin Community Post-Primary School, we immediately took advantage of it.

We would also like to thank our volunteer, Ma Thi Thi Thein, for coordinating with LEAD and for visits to the site and the reports. The following assessment and photos are credited to LEAD and Ma Thi Thi Thein.

Padin Community Post-Primary School

Padin is also one of the villages of Hpa-Tu-Gyi village tract and situated in the eastern bank of middle Pa-Yone-Kar Island. The village is recently enlisted in the MIMU map. Main livelihoods include fishing and orchard planting. There is no government school in Padin. A total of 78 students from kindergarten to fifth grade were studying in community self-financed Post-Primary school before it was badly damaged during the Cyclone Giri.Padin’s economic situation is not favorable for them to repair the school on their own. Besides, as in Nga-Yout-Chaung, community schools are not in the first priority list of UNICEF and Department of Education to repair or rebuild.

Padin facts & figures

Population: 450
Families: 88
Pcode: 218001
Occupation: Fishing, Orchards
Number of students: 78
Grades: Kindergarten to Fifth Grade
Activity: Repair current school
Estimated cost: 1 million Kyat (for the building only)
Esitmated duration: 1 month
Current status: Discussing details with community members
Estimated start time: January 2011
Other needs: School furniture, textbooks and stationeries

See the before and after photos of the school repair:

Damaged school:

After rebuilding:

Ma Thi Thi Thein distributing school supplies:

Please see here for more photos from this project:

The school rebuilding project is now fully completed. On behalf of the children of Padin Village, we sincerely thank LEAD and Ma Thi Thi Thein for their efforts.

Urgent help needed to provide drinking water and blankets to the victims of the earthquake in Shan State, Myanmar

2011-04-01T09:05:00.000+06:30

As you know, an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale and 10 km depth struck Shan State in Myanmar at 20:29:30 hrs Myanmar Standard Time on 24 March 2011. Since the earthquake and as of Sunday 27 March evening, a total of eight aftershocks have been reported from affected areas. The risk of landslides remains high. According to the reports, the epicentre of the earthquake was near Loimwe, located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Kengtong in Shan State, and the ten locations affected included Tarlay, Mong Lin, Mong Yawng and Tarchileik towns and Kyakuni, Wan Lon, Pa Line, Kong Sar, and An-khan villages.

The latest official number of casualties currently stands at 74 deaths and 125 injuries. However, according to witnesses this number could become higher in coming days. Over 300 houses and buildings, including a number of Government buildings were damaged. In addition, thirty-one (31) religious buildings have been damaged as well as eleven (11) schools. One 16-bed rural hospital in Tarlay was damaged. We are very sad to learn that the home of our friend's parents in Mong Lin was totally destroyed. Luckily, his family only suffered minor injuries.

The damaged Tarlay Bridge, connecting Tachileik and Tarlay, has been temporarily repaired, enabling the re-opening of the road from Tachileik to Tarlay in the evening of 26 March. However, it is observed that the Bridge may not in a condition adequate for traffic by heavy trucks. Only light trucks, motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians are advised to cross the Bridge. Access from Kengtung remains possible. The Tarlay Sub-Towhship Relief Committee, established by the Myanmar Government, has estimated the damage of the earthquake at approximately 3 billion Kyats (approximately USD 3.6 million).

Some say that this is the third largest natural disaster in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis (2008) and Cyclone Giri (2010). Hundreds of victims are still reportedly lacking access to food and aid even though relief supplies are being distributed from local and international communities everyday. Most villagers are still living in tents in front of their damaged and collapsed houses in unseasonal rains and cold weather. We are also hearing that well water is no longer drinkable with high sulphur content as a result of the earthquake.

What can we do?

Moegyo team has contacted a local volunteer who can deliver blankets, food and water directly to the victims, and to begin immediately, we have already donated $500 to purchase the goods. But we need much much more. The victims need us to step up and help in this time of needs. If you wish to donate through Moegyo, please contact us and we will make sure your donations reach the victims. We will take photos of donated goods and will share them with you. If you know volunteers in the area who can visit victims and distribute aid, please let us know.

Please see here some pictures taken by volunteers.

Mon Linn Village - earthquake (March 2011)

Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation 2010 Highlights

2011-01-01T00:00:00.007+06:30

Another year has passed and at this time of sharing and joyful season, the Moegyo Team would like to thank all the donors, contributors, supporters and volunteers for the wonderful support given to the orphans and vulnerable children in Myanmar. We would also like to acknowledge the hard work and personal sacrifices made by the Moegyo volunteers in Myanmar to deliver the needed support to difficult-to-reach places and also to make sure that aid money is spent wisely and effectively.

2010 was an eventful year for the Moegyo Team. The Moegyo Team organized three fundraising activities to help the children.

1. 3rd Annual Moegyo Food Fair in New York
2. Moegyo participated as a food vendor at 20th Dragon Boat Festival in New York
3. 1st Annual Holiday Charity Dinner in Virginia

In addition to supporting 5 orphanages with day to day needs, we are also fortunate enough to give educational support for nine out of ten students that passed the high school exam at Kani Village Youth Development and Education center to go on to university.

1. Mingalar orphanage, Twantay
2. Mya theingyi orphage near Yangon
3. Kani Orphanage at Kani Village in Phyar Pon
4. Pyinnyar Waddy Orphanage at Kyite-latt
5. Pay-Gyaung Parahitta in Pay Gyaung village, Kyite-Latt township

Moegyo also partnered with other organizations in Myanmar and abroad and made numerous donations to several locations in the country. One of the unfortunate events was cyclone GIRI that hit South Western region that affected over 200,000 people. Moegyo was able to support the cyclone GIRI victims through the Buddhist Missionary Society Inc. in New York.
http://blog.moegyo.org/2010/11/moegyo-donated-500-to-help-cyclone-giri.html

During the water-shortage crisis in the summer in Myanmar, the Moegyo team partnered with the Searchers-Myanmar team to distribute plastic buckets that can store 20 gallons of rain water.
http://blog.moegyo.org/2010/05/moegyo-activity-update.html

Moegyo was able to provide support needed for a month worth of rice distribution at Myittar Kyay Mon center, a Day-care center for people living with HIV/AIDS in Mawlamyaing township.
http://blog.moegyo.org/2010/11/myitta-kyaemon-care-center.html

Moegyo gave a special gift to children with special need at Kyaik Waing Disabled Children Care Center by providing support needed to build a water tower.
http://blog.moegyo.org/2010/11/mhfs-special-gift-to-children-with.html

All of this would not have been possible without your support. Yet there is so much more to do. Many more children need your help. Many more schools need new roofs or floors. In 2011, we would like to do more to help. Please join us in this journey. We believe that together, we can make a difference!

1st Annual Holiday Charity Dinner

2010-12-31T23:42:00.002+06:30

The Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation's (MHF) 1st Annual Charity Dinner to benefit the Moegyo College Scholarship Funds for students at Kani Village Youth Development and Education Center was held in Thai Tada restaurant in Herndon, Virginia on 4 December 2010. Moegyo volunteers from Virginia and New York invited guests, friends and families to enjoy authentic Thai and Burmese cuisines, live DJ music and to participate in silent auction.

Kani Village Youth Development and Education Center is one of five orphanages that Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation has been supporting since Cyclone Nargis devastated the Delta region of Myanmar in May 2008. There were also high school students and the Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation provided them with tuition fees during their high school year. Most likely as a result of this additional support they receive, in 2010, ten students passed the high school at the Kani orphanage. Nine of them approached Moegyo that they would like to continue higher education amidst many obstacles that face them. We are committed to continue helping them to achieve brighter futures.

On behalf of the nine young adults that will benefit from college education this year, we would like to thank you all for your support for the Charity Dinner. We are happy to share with you that Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation was able to raise $6,300 during the event and thus made it possible to support the children of Kani Village Youth Development and Education Center to be able to continue their education beyond High School. The silent auction was a successful addition for the night and with that alone, we were able to raise $1,165.00.

We would like to express our appreciation for the Myanmar Restaurant, A Taste of Burma, Market Street Bar and Grill, Personal Best, KS World Travel, Cox Communication, Noufall Hair Studio, and Liberty Tax Services for donating gift certificates for the silent auction. We'd also like to thank the Burmese community in Virginia for donating authentic Burmese food and dessert, merchandise for silent auction, and live DJ music.

MHF’s Special Gift to the Children with Special Needs

2010-11-13T09:29:00.005+06:30

Hidden behind at the back of two big buildings of Kyaik Waing child care center (orphanage) is a special place for the children with special needs. Even though it is located in Yangon, many people hardly notice about the place. Fortunately, a couple of MHF team members have frequently visited the center since 2001.

The official name of the center is “Kyaik Waing Disabled Children Care Center” and it is located at the Kyaik Waing, near the 8^th Mile Junction in Yangon. The main purpose is to provide support for the children with special needs. The main services offered at the center are: day care, health care, education, and physical therapy for the children.

There are about 24 children (10 boys and 14 girls) with special needs. That includes a few months old baby to twenty plus old young adults. The Center is run by the Government and supported by non-government organizations and individual donors. It has 11 full-time staff lead by a principal.

Our MHF team member, who has visited the Center several times, shared his experience, “I looked around the room and everything was very minimal: a desk, a few chairs, and some baskets made by children; no computer, no air-condition. While I was chit-chatting with the principal, some boys were sitting on the floor in the corridor.”

Dinning Room and For Boys

According to the principal, “Most of them are suffering from mental illness and consequently physically disabled. Some of them were born normal, but suffered from occasional high fevers during early ages. Consequently, they contracted polio and damaged their brains. Some of them had trauma while they were babies and could not recovered from the shocks. Some of the children had serious illness after birth. The sad thing was that all of them were abandoned by their parents due to various reasons. Nobody wants to adopt them either because of their conditions.” In other words, these children were not accepted by the society.

Because the children are mentally challenged, they cannot attend a normal school. Fortunately, the Center provides basic education for these children. In terms of support, these children, particularly at the age up to 2, need medical attention. Good health care services and facilities are definitely needed for the children with special needs at their earlier age.

“Compassion is important throughout the years,” says the principal. She pointed toward across the road where another (normal) orphanage is located and said, “The goal of these street kids at the orphanage is just want to get out of there because there is no enough care-givers to give them individual attention to everyone.” “Social needs (friendly social environment) at early childhood up to 5 are also very important,” she added.

For Girls

For most other children with special needs (not mentally challenged), like herself when she was young, their “goal is to get educated.” But, many of them had to “grow up in bad environment. So, there is no motivation to try further and to find opportunity.” She herself took a different path and went to workers’ college. Up until 2005, there was no such thing as “inclusive education.” She said that most schools “do not want to accept children with special needs” because they do not want extra burdens.

When asked about some other difficulties faced by the children with special needs, she said “Poor economic conditions, knowledge, and awareness.” In terms of needs, “mobility” is important for them, but of course “different people have different needs.”


Water Tower

Government-funded facilities, like this, for the children with special needs are limited. There are 7 blind schools and 2 deaf schools nation-wide, according to her. For a nation of 56 million people, there is just one school for disabled children like this Center, one vocational training centre for adults, and one rehabilitation centre – all in the commercial capital, Yangon.

When a MHF team member visited the Center again in June 2010, he asked the new principal about any immediate support that the Center is needed. The principal shared the recent development at the Center. Basically, the Center is expanding and will accept about 70 additional children with special needs. In other words, the Center will soon to accommodate about 100 children with special needs, meaning more infrastructures need to be developed. In fact, there was a new construction going on in the compound. Among various needs, MHF had decided to donate funds for the construction of a 600 gallon (12 feet 9 inches high, concrete-reinforced) water tank/tower. The estimated total cost was 1,384,000 kyats.

At the time of donation to the Center in September 2010, a MHF team member donated total amount of 1,387,000 kyats to the principal for the children with special needs and said goodbye to the children. The principal expressed her sincere gratitude to the MHF and its donors and gave a certificate for the donation.

That was truly a special gift from the MHF to the children with special needs. Thank you all for your continued support and generosity. You are the true heroes for the children with special needs.

Moegyo donated $500 to help Cyclone Giri victims

2010-11-11T05:20:00.004+06:30

The Moegyo team donated $500 to help Cyclone Giri victims through the Buddhist Missionary Society Inc. in New York.

According to the statement issued by the Buddhist Missionary Society Inc., the Cyclone Giri devastated large parts of Arakan state in Burma, including Sittwe, Minbya, Myebon, Pauktaw and Kyauk Phyu, over 93 people have died and many are still missing. The loss of human life and damage caused by tragedy is expected to be higher. With their homes fade away and large tracts of land under dust, more than 175,000 survivors — mostly poor rice farmers — are living in misery, now facing disease and starvation. Immediate relief assistance is still urgently needed by thousands of victims devasted by the Cyclone Giri on October 22, 2010. Their team has launched life-saving efforts to provide relief through a strong network of monasteries and local based communities who have been in the forefront of the efforts to enhance shelters, feeding and supporting the victims of the cyclone.

The Buddhist Missionary Society Inc. aims to provide both immediate relief and long-term rehabilitation. As immediate efforts, they are now providing 10,000 kgs rice and relief materials to the most vulnerable populations in the worse areas in Arakan State.

To make a donation to help the cyclone victims in Arakan, please contact the the Buddhist Missionary Society Inc. at the following address:

Buddhist Missionary Society Inc.
35-25 90th Street, #2R
Jackson Heights, NY 11372, USA
Tel: (718)898-8274
Email: nayaka@bmsusa.org
http://www.bmsusa.org

Myitta Kyaemon Care Center

2010-11-08T10:04:00.002+06:30

Moegyo donated $500 for rice distribution at Myittar Kyay Mon center, a Day-care center for people living with HIV/AIDS ( PLHA ), located in Kyaik Khami in Mon State. It is managed by nuns from a Christian Catholic Church. The center currently needs rice to be distributed to the PLHA Families in the village as well as to feed the patients at their daycare center. The rice is needed until the end of this year as they are seeking funding from an NGO and are quite hopeful that they will get it for next year. Below is the center info.

Name of Center : Myitta Kyaemon (Mirror of Charity)
Location : Than Phyu Zayet Township, Mon State
Client population : People living in HIV/AIDS ( PLHA )
Services provided : Day Care, Health care & Rice distribution to patients
Number of patients at center : 25 ( 10 children & 15 Adults )
Number of PLHA families supported by center : 50 Families ( 178 people )
CURRENT NEED : Rice for PLHA Families and at the center
RICE NEEDED per month : 37 Bags ( 56 Tinn )
COST per month : 5 Lakhs
TOTAL COST till end of December : 20 lakhs ( Sep - Dec )

Please click on this link to see the photos.

Humanitarian community in Myanmar mobilizes support to people affected by Cyclone Giri

2010-10-27T19:30:00.001+06:30

Please see below press release issued by the Office of the Resident / Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar on Cyclone Giri.

Source: United Nations Information Centre in Yangon (http://unic.un.org/imucms/yangon/80/110/home.aspx)

UN agencies and international and national non-governmental organizations present in Myanmar are mobilizing aid and deploying assessment teams following the Category 4 Cyclonic Storm, which made landfall in Rakhine State on 22 October.

Yangon, 27 October 2010 --- The humanitarian community in Myanmar stands ready to scale up support in response to Cyclone Giri, following new estimates on the scale of damages shared at the monthly Myanmar Humanitarian Partnership Group meeting in Yangon.

The meeting, attended by the heads of diplomatic missions, aid agencies, UN agencies, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and other members of the humanitarian community in Myanmar, received an update from the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and several UN missions and INGOs on the actions being taken in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone.

The four most affected townships in Rakhine State are Kyaukpyu, Minbya, Pauktaw and Myebon. UNHCR, FAO, WFP, UNDP and UNICEF are already present in the region and are mobilizing relief efforts. Similarly, several international and local NGOs have been sending teams to the area to carry out rapid assessments and provide food and non-food items.

Preliminary reports from assessment teams on the ground indicate that the number of people affected could be higher than initially estimated. The Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) is currently collecting assessment data in seven townships in Rakhine State, seven in Magway Division and four in Sagaing Division. To date, a total of 71 villages are reported to have been affected, to various degrees, with an estimated 177,000 people affected, of which an estimated 10,000 are considered severely affected.

Although there is severe damage to infrastructure, it is reported that major loss of life has been avoided, due to early warning and an extensive evacuation of a large number of people carried out by the Government and the Red Cross in advance of the cyclone reaching the shores. The Government has also mobilized relief efforts, with a number of Ministers still on the ground in the affected areas, and has welcomed the offer of assistance from humanitarian organizations present in Myanmar.

“Good lessons have been learned from Cyclone Nargis in terms of disaster risk reduction, as evidenced by the advance deployments, evacuations from high-risk areas and distribution of relief to affected villages. The UN and its partners are ready to scale-up support, and we urge the authorities to facilitate continued access to the affected areas for both international and national staff as was done in the case of Cyclone Nargis,” said the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator, Bishow Parajuli, who also commended humanitarian partners for quickly setting up sector-specific coordination structures, both at Yangon and field level.

“The most important immediate needs are in the emergency shelter, water and sanitation, food and health sectors, while early recovery including agriculture and livelihoods should also be addressed. We encourage donors to stand ready to support activities on the ground,” said Parajuli.

For more information, please contact:

The United Nations in Myanmar

Esben Q. Harboe Special Assistant to the UN RC/HC
Tel: +95 9 5074853, esben.harboe@undp.org

Aye Win National Information Officer, UNIC
Tel: +95 9 5123952, aye.win@undp.org

19 August is the World Humanitarian Day

2010-08-20T01:11:00.004+06:30

In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly designated 19 August as the World Humanitarian Day calling the governments and international and non-geovernmental organizations around the world to commemorate the Day.

For more information about the World Humanitarian Day 2010, please visit http://www.worldhumanitarianday.info.

The website listed the Humanitarian Principles which are the foundation of humanitarian action as:

Humanity: Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found. The purpose of humanitarian action is to protect life and health and ensure respect for human beings.

Neutrality: Humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.

Impartiality: Humanitarian action must be carried out on the basis of need alone, giving priority to the most urgent cases of distress and making no distinctions on the basis of nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class or political opinion.

Operational Independence: Humanitarian action must be autonomous from the political, economic, military or other objectives that any actor may hold with regard to areas where humanitarian action is being implemented".

On this special day, the team at Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation would like to pay respect to all the humanitarian workers around the world who made personal sacrificies to assist those in need. Congratulations. This day is for you.

Moegyo participated as a food vendor in the 20th Annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York

2010-08-07T00:46:00.003+06:30

Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation participated in the 20th Annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. This is the 3rd time the Moegyo team participated in the Festival to sell authentic Burmese food and drinks. 100% proceeds from the sale will be used to help the children living in difficult conditions in Myanmar and we invite you to come and enjoy the Festival and authentic Burmese food and take part in this good deed.

Please click here to see the photos from Dragon Boat Festival.

Fore more information, including the directions, please check here:
http://www.moegyo.org/upcoming-events.php

For more information about the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York, please check here:
http://www.hkdbf-ny.org/

Visit to Pyinnyar Waddy Girls Orphanage in Kyite Latt

2010-08-01T21:56:00.015+06:30

On July 19th, 2010, one of Moegyo members visited Pyinnyar Waddy Girls Orphanage. Below is the member report from the field.

It was a very satisfying trip for me. We had a chance to go visit to Pyinnyar Waddy Orphanage at kyite-latt. Thanks for KK to go with me and thanks for my cousin Tin Htun Aung and my friend May Thwe Win for making the trip possible. We left from Yangon around 7:00am on July 19. Since it was the raining season, the road was so rough. Not bad that we arrived there around 11:30pm. As soon as we got there, all the children were expecting us. They said they were waiting since early in the morning. They came out from the school and warmly welcomed us, seemed like the children were so excited. I was so glad to see them and talk with everyone.

During our visit, we provided breakfast and dinner to the kids, since lunch was already donated by someone else. We also provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next day, July 20 as well. We also provided school supplies for the kids such as Exercise books, pens, pencils, rulers, erasers for the whole year and some snacks, silly bands, shampoo, conditioner, journals, newspaper, some clothes and so on. We donated the school uniform and slippers to the kids who do not have them. we also donated some money to the head nun and guardian. All total donation was around $400. And then we had lunch at the orphanage. After having lunch, we walked around inside the school compound and took lots of photos and checked out what they really need and how we could help them. After that we spoke with the head nun and the guardian. Then we said goodbye to the kids and left around 2:00pm. We got back to Yangon at 6:30pm.

Thanks again to KK. I really appreciated your help there.

Please click here to see the photos.

3rd Annual Moegyo Food Fair raised over fourteen thousand dollars for the orphans in Myanmar

2010-06-15T11:18:00.007+06:30

Sunday, 13th June was a good day for the orphans and disadvantaged children in Myanmar. On that day in Queens Borough in the New York City, the Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation organized 3rd Annual Burmese Food Fair and raised record funds of over fourteen thousand dollars. The Moegyo team sincerely thanks nearly one hundred volunteers and hundreds of guests for this success. It's true that together, we can make a difference.

Please view the photos from the food fair here:

We plan to use these funds to support orphanages with monthly support and provide children with food, school supplies, snacks, toys, slippers and any materials needed by the orphanages such as cleaning supplies for hygiene purposes. we also sponsor various projects needed by the orphanages such as re-construction of their residence building, bathroom, etc. When a Moegyo volunteer handed out a blank exercise book and pencils to a young girl in the cyclone affected area, the young girl said that she now felt good about her future since she has the books to learn. These children give us so much inspiration to work hard and to help them so that they continue to believe that they have a good future.

To add to this good news, please see below a recent report from the Moegyo team members in Myanmar:

The result of tenth standard was announced on 13th June, 2010. 18 students of Kani (near Phyar Pon) took part in the examination. 10 students passed the exam and one got 2 distinctions. Those children who failed the exam last year also passed. The chairperson of Kani school is very grateful and he is very thankful for the donation of Moegyo. With the help of these donated money, the children could attend extra class and study more. He also said that the school made good use of the Moegyo's donated money.

Please see below a video clip of the food fair as created by a video journalist based in the New York City, Mr. Irfan Prawira.

3rd Annual Burmese Food Fair organized by Moegyo on Sunday, 13 June 2010

2010-06-11T22:44:00.002+06:30

The Moegyo team would like to invite you to the 3rd Annual Burmese Food Fair on Sunday, 13th June, to come and enjoy special treats. The money raised at the food fair will go towards sponsoring various projects needed by the orphanages in the poorest parts of Myanmar (Burma). You can find more information about our activities at: http://www.moegyo.org. It's good food for good cause. Looking forward to seeing you there! Please spread the word to your friends.

Here are the details about the food fair.

Full Address:
PS-12 James B Colgate School
42-00 72nd Street
Woodside, NY 11377
Corner of Woodside Ave and 72nd Street in Queens, New York.

Date: Sunday, 13th June 2010

Time: 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Please find below the menu for the day. Click to enlarge the photo.

Thanks so much!
The Moegyo Team

Moegyo Activity Update

2010-05-30T11:01:00.004+06:30

During the water-shortage crisis in Myanmar, the Moegyo team donated 500,000 Ks to the Searchers-Myanmar team to distribute plastic buckets that can store 20 gallons of rain water. 14 Volunteers from the Searchers-Myanmar team visited the following three villages in the Waw area in Bago Division:
(a) Kan Myint (East and West)
(b) Shan Su
(c) Mayl Zale Kone

According to the Searchers-Myanmar team, some areas are still reporting water shortage even when the rain has started. The Moegyo team will continue to monitor the reports and will partner with volunteers and the able groups such as Searchers-Myanmar to provide assistance and funds as needed.

As you know, the Moegyo was founded during the initial days of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 where Moegyo volunteers provided support to victims delivering medicine, food and supplies and participated in the various rebuilding projects in the Nargis area. Currently, we are focusing on assisting the orphanages in Myanmar and sponsoring various projects needed by the orphanages.

Please find attached file on the projects and activities sponsored since Nargis:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgGHU3B_-454cHNZbGRabmhySHhzRTRVYlB2MGQ5QWc&hl=en

In addition, we are currently committed to following five orphanages with $100 a month donation:

1. Mingalar orphanage, Twentay
http://blog.moegyo.org/2008/09/september-18th-2008-donation-at.html

2. Mya theingyi orphage near Yangon
http://blog.moegyo.org/2010/03/moegyo-team-visited-two-orphanages.html

3. Kani Orphanage at Kani Village near Phyar Pon
http://blog.moegyo.org/2008/12/december-1st-2008-monthly-contributions.html

4. Pyinnyar Waddy Orphanage at Kyite-latt
http://blog.moegyo.org/2009/04/1-april-2009-visit-to-kyite-latt-women.html
http://blog.moegyo.org/2009/07/moegyo-raised-5k-for-kyite-latt-girl.html
http://blog.moegyo.org/2009/07/summer-lawn-concert-to-raise-funds-for.html

5. Pay-Gyaung Parahitta" in Pay Gyaung village, Kyite-Latt township
http://blog.moegyo.org/2009/12/oct-25-2009-first-visit-to-pay-chaung.html

Don't forget the victims on the 2nd anniversary of Cyclone Nargis

2010-05-03T15:26:00.003+06:30

It has been two years since the worst natural disaster in Myanmar history, Cyclone Nargis, killed 140,000 people and left millions in need of assistance in Myanmar. On this day two years ago, on 2 May 2008, the lives of many families in Myanmar delta region changed forever. Many lost their loved ones and livelihoods. Heart breaking stories of how parents losing children and how children losing parents were told by the survivors and the first responders. Images of horror caused by the deadly wind and quick-rising water, of the rescue efforts, of the people with blank expression on their faces were widely circulated on the Internet. Songs were sang. Stories were written. Pledges were made.

The world has moved on, in a way. We have since seen other natural and man-made disasters with huge magnitude of damages in other parts of the world. We should help them. All of them. However, on this 2nd anniversary, we would like to make a special appeal not to forget the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar.

Sadly, the United Nations reported that two years after the disaster, funding gap hinders recovery in Myanmar:

"the United Nations aid coordinator in Myanmar said today that just a quarter of the pledged funds have come in and the gap threatens the long-term revival of the area hit by the disaster."

"According to recent assessments, 100,000 vulnerable families still need to rebuild their homes."

"Some 180,000 people still face acute water shortage, and there is a great need for agricultural support and the creation of income – generating opportunities at the community level."

Read the full story here:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34543&Cr=nargis&Cr1=

Please find here the 3 year Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan - PONREPP, launched by the UN, Myanmar Government and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). (PDF, 4.14 MB): http://www.aseansec.org/CN-PONREPP.pdf

The task seems daunting but every bit of assistance counts. What can one do to help?
(a) Donate your time or money to any organization helping to rebuild the societies in the areas affected by the cyclone;
(b) Visit the areas yourself, if you can, and see and assess the situation for yourself;
(c) Form a group wherever you are and raise funds and awareness in the local community about the disaster and the need for assistance.

Thank you.

Together, we can make a difference!
The Moegyo Team

The Moegyo team visited two orphanages

2010-03-21T06:06:00.001+06:30

The Moegyo team started the year 2010 with two visits to two orphanages in Myanmar and donated money, food and school supplies to nearly one thousand orphans and poor children.

One of the orphanages, Mya Thein Gi Orphanage in Yangon vicinity, houses 98 orphans and provides free education to nearly 400 children from the area. On the visit, the Moegyo team provided lunch to the children, and gave snacks, pencils and pens, blank exercise books, and toys. Moegyo also donated money for their day to day operations.

The second orphanage, Mingalar Orphanage in Twentay, houses nearly 280 children with 300 children coming from the area. Mingalar Orphanage is located in Phayargyi Village in the Twentay Township which is about 1.5 hour drive from Yangon. The orphanage is located inside the Phayargyi Mingalar Monastery and is situated on a land of 12 acres. The compound has a total of 8 buildings. The Moegyo team donated money for their daily operations.

It was a very satisfying visit for us. We had a chance to witness how well the orphanage was running, watching the kids play in the compound on a lazy Sunday was priceless. We were extremely glad to see healthy and happy kids there. The orphanage seems to run very well with the help of volunteers, teachers and the head monk. We were amazed that they manage to feed 600+ kids every day with no guarantee donor every month yet they make it every month somehow.

Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation 2009 Highlights

2009-12-26T04:34:00.003+06:30

Another eventful year has passed, and at this time of sharing and joyful season, the Moegyo Team would like to thank all the donors, contributors and supporters for the wonderful support given to the orphans and vulnerable children in Myanmar. We would also like to acknowledge the hard work and personal sarcrifices made by the Moegyo volunteers in Myanmar to deliver the aid to difficult-to-reach places and to make sure that aid money is spent wisely and effectively.

2009 was a busy year for the Moegyo Team. The Moegyo Team organized 11 fundraising activities and raised over twenty thousand US dollars to help the children. Moegyo volunteers in Myanmar made numerous trips to orphanages in Yangon and Delta regions. Moegyo is now supporting five orphanages monthly with their day-to-day operations.

View photos here.

All of this would not have been possible without your support. But, there is so much more to do. Many more children need your help. Many more buildings need fixing. Many more schools need new roofs or floors. In 2010, we would like to do more to help. Please join us in this journey.

To help, please find here how to get involved.

Thank you.
The Moegyo Team

Oct 25, 2009: First Visit to Pay-Chaung Youth Development Center

2009-12-11T11:51:00.018+06:30

We heard about this orphanage in remote area of Kyite Latt township from nuns at Pyin-Nyar-Waddy girls orphanage and we decided to inquire about it. Our volunteer KK went there at the end of October and donated $100 worth of supplies for the children. We decided to support this orphanage with monthly donation after KK reported back of her findings. Below is the report from the field.

First Trip to Pay-Chaung Youth Development Center

On 25th Oct, 2009, I went to 'Pay-Gyaung Parahitta" in Pay Gyaung village, Kyite-Latt township in Ayeyarwaddy division. The only way to get to this place is by boat and sampan (a motorized row boat). It is 2 hour boat ride from Kyite-latt. We started the journey at 10:00 am and arrived there at noon. Due to hot weather and the serpent-like river way, the trip was very tiring. The scenery of the river was quite pleasant but I was afraid of the many snakes swimming in the river. As soon as the boat shored, 2 boys came out from the monastery and helped us carry the things we brought.

About Pay-Chaung Orphanage

According to the chairperson of the school, there are 25 students (15 boys are orphans & 10 boys are from nearby village). Out of 25 children, 2 are high school students and the rest are middle school and primary. The monastery became a registered school in 1958-59 and started out with 26 students. The children are taken care of by the monks and a guardian. A 21 years old U Tin Ko Oo is the guardian of the school. He has got some high school education and didn't even pass the 10th standard yet. He took over the duties of the previous guardian who passed away. He sometimes has difficulty taking care of all the children. Occasionally, the school has problem providing daily food for the children. The daily meal of the children is shared from the monks 'Soon' (donated rice & curry). The school provides 2 meals a day at 9:30 am and at 4:00 pm for the children. Everyday meal for the children is "Hin-paung" (all mixed up donated dishes). For the evening meal, the children can only have some sour vegetable soup (chin-yay-hin) and white rice. The kitchen in the school is said to be used only when there is meal donor cooking. The children consume 6 bags of rice a month. The school has got 60,000 Kyats from saving account but that amount is not enough to buy 6 bags of rice for the children every month.

Children's Education

For the children education, there is no school in that village. The monks and some other men take care of the children’s education. There is no classroom. The temple buildings are used as classrooms both for the children at the monastery and the children from nearby village. Some of the middle and high school children go to the schools in nearby towns. There are only 2 temple buildings being used as classrooms. There is a library in the monastery donated by some donors from Yangon. Sadly, out of over 200 books, there are only a few books that are suitable for the children. Most of the books are about religion, witchcraft, curses and ghost stories. When I asked the children, they said that they only read some story books. They have never read religion and witchcraft books. Sometimes they rent books and they can read for on weekends.

Children's Living Condition

The sleeping quarter for the children is in near collapsing condition after the cyclone. The children sleep in the main building of the monastery with the head monks. Even though I saw 2 toilets, I didn’t see any bathroom for the children. The children said that their bathroom is the river. They also take bath in the river. The children also don’t have enough clothes to wear.

Conclusion

I have been to several orphanage houses on behalf of Moegyo. I find that every new place I get to is in worse condition than the one I’ve been before. When I went to Kani Village boys orphanage house, I saw how the cyclone survivals lived and ate. Then when I got to Kyite-Latt Girls Orphanage house, I saw starving poor little girls there. With the help of Moegyo’s $100 monthly donations, the children can have enough food and live happier and more properly than before. I am always glad to see that $100 donation is made good use on their food, school accessories and clothes. On the trip to this new boy-orphanage house, I found that they need help with everything. I couldn't stop thinking how I can be of any help to these children on my way back home.

************

Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to help the children in Myanmar who are in desperate need.
Together, we can make a differnce in young lives.

Please click here to see the photos of the Pay-Kyaung Youth Development Center.

World Humanitarian Day

2009-08-19T21:06:00.003+06:30

Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation commemorates the first World Humanitarian Day by saluting fellow humanitarians who lost their lives on active duties and congratulates the Moegyo members, volunteers, and donors around the world for supporting our humanitarian work. We encourage you all for continued support in further humanitarian work in years to come.

Statement by the Humanitarian Community in Myanmar reaffirming their commitment to bringing positive changes to the lives of the people in Myanmar.

Moegyo Fundraising at Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York City

2009-08-11T08:54:00.007+06:30

On 8th and 9th August 2009, we had fundraising event at Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing,New York.

Objectives:
- To rebuild sleeping quarter for Girls Orphanage located in Kyite Latt (Irrawady Delta Region, Myanmar (Burma)). The sleeping quarter was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. (Estimated cost to rebuild: US$10,000)

At the event, MHF and its volunteers sold Burmese-style coconut rice with chicken curry, "shwe-taung-kyout-swel" noodle salad chicken coconut cream, coconut jelly, soft drinks cans and water bottles.

We had over 15 volunteers joined the effort from planning, organizing, advertising, preparing and cooking delicious dishes, setting up the tent, and transportation of food and supplies.

The success of this event is credited to the team work of all volunteers participated in the efforts towards a common i.e. to support orphans and orphanages in Myanmar (Burma). Together, we were able to raised $4838.

Many thanks to volunteers for joining the effort! Together, we can make a difference!

Please see the photos of the event.

Moegyo raised over $5K for Kyite Latt Girl Orphanage at Virginia Lawn Concert on 11 July 2009

2009-07-17T08:30:00.006+06:30

We are excited to share with you that we raised over $5,000 of our goal of $10,000 at the Lawn Concert fund raising event on Saturday evening in Virginia. On behalf of Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation family & the girls at Kyite Latt Orphanage, we would like to thank all the donors, sponsors, guests & volunteers for making this event a success.

The funds will go toward building a sleeping quarter for the girls at the Kyite Latt Girl Development Center located in Myanmar (Burma). There prior sleeping quarters was destroyed over a year ago by the cyclone Nargis. Since then the girls have been sharing sleeping quarters with the nuns that run the center. We appreciate everyone coming together to support the cause despite the short fall of rain. We would like to also thank you for bringing your friends, bosses, co-workers & family members etc., We were honored to have all of you at the event and hope to continue the friendship through many years to come.

We are very pleased to announced that the event was made possible by many sponsors so that 100% of the proceeds of the event including ticket sales and your donations can be used for the project.

It is heartwarming to see a community of people over 8300 miles away and unknown to the orphans have such a positive and profound impact on those in such need.

On behalf of Girls Orphanage located in Kyite Latt (Irrawady Delta Region, Myanmar (Burma)), Thank You!!

Please click here for the photos of the event.

A Summer Lawn Concert to raise funds for girls orphanage

2009-07-11T21:24:00.009+06:30

A Summer Lawn Concert raising funds to rebuild sleeping quarter for Girls Orphanage located in Kyite Latt (Irrawady Delta Region, Myanmar (Burma)). The sleeping quarter was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

Music: Doug and Melanie: Friends without Benefits (starts at 5PM)
Food: Various Burmese Cuisine
Drinks: Sodas/Alcoholic Beverages
Cost: $20.00/per ticket (kids under 12 free)

How we are going to use the funds raised from this event
We plan to rebuild the girls’ sleeping quarter in the orphanage in Kyite Latt as it is in unlivable condition. It is a two-storey wooden structure that was damaged during the cyclone Nargis last year. Moegyo was able to bring an engineer crew on second visit to school to make assessment and to do estimate on rebuilding cost. It was estimated that rebuilding would cost around $10,000 using brick and concrete foundation to and wooden structure at the top. We are now raising money for rebuilding the girls’ sleeping quarter.

Video from the Food Fair, 13 June 2009

2009-06-18T11:15:00.007+06:30

Please watch the video of Burmese Food Fair held to help the children in Myanmar (Burma), organized by Moegyo. Reported by Irfan Prawira, a Video Journalist in New York.

Burmese Food Fair on Saturday raised $8,700 for orphans in Myanmar

2009-06-15T17:39:00.018+06:30

Thank you for your generosity, help and support!

The Burmese Food Fair on Saturday, June 13 was a huge success. We had a good turn out and the food was great. We are proud of our chefs! We raised a total of $8,700 at the event thanks to all of you, volunteers, donors and guests.

Every dollar counts - $1 donation can feed a child for a day in an orphanage in Myanmar. This means we will be able to help even more orphans this year.

Watch this blog for more information.

Photos from the Food Fair: http://picasaweb.google.com/moegyo2008/MoegyoFoodFair2009

Donors/Volunteers list: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=r31j4PwkNorb51kC25hCG-g

On behalf of children in Myanmar, thank you!

Come and enjoy authentic Burmese Food (all for a good cause!)

2009-06-06T08:40:00.015+06:30

Come and enjoy the best authentic Burmese food in Tri-State area

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

12 PM to 5 PM

PS-150

40-01 43rd Avenue

Sunnyside, NY 11104

And, it's for a good cause!

Direction and menu

May 2: MHF commemoration of one year anniversary of the Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

2009-05-02T05:16:00.010+06:30

1 May 2009. It was cold and breezy May evening in New York. At 9pm, we started loading our cars for a trip to Maryland. We were all silence during the trip. Our thoughts were with the families who lost their loved ones and their sufferings in the worst natural disaster in the history of Myanmar (Burma) one year ago. When Cyclone Nargis landed on 2 May 2008, more than 100,000 people lost their lives and thousands of children became orphans. To this day, tens of thousand of people are still displaced. Their lives and livelihoods have not returned to normal if it ever could.

Friends and volunteers of Moegyo from New York and Virginia organized a commemoration of one year anniversary of the Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar at Aung Yadana Monastery (Maryland, USA) on 3 May 2009. We offered traditional Burmese food, Mont-Hin-Gar (rice noodle with fish soup), Burmese Sweet Tea, Grass Jelly with lime drinks and Banana Cake to the monks and to the guests at the monastery. Many donors brought various dishes including dan-pauk (Chicken Bariani) and pan friend noodles to share with others.

The event was held outside underneath the tents in the monastery compound. It rained all day and we were all wet, cold and muddy but we told ourselves that this was nothing compared to what had happened in 2 May 2008. We were well prepared for the rain: we had our rain coats, a tent already set, and hot tea and hot food being served. It was a solemn reminder of what it would be like living under the rain, in the worst living condition, without a roof or a cover and no food. As we made sure our children were properly dressed for the rain, we thought of those parents who had experienced a parent’s worst nightmare of not being able to help their own children and the children who were left alone to survive with no one to care for them. It reminded us that we have to work harder to make a difference for the victims.

It has been a year since Cyclone Nargis but many are still in desperate need and many homes, schools, and orphanages were still waiting to be fixed. We realized we need to be strong and united. Everyone will need to step up and do what it can to contribute. Moegyo is now focusing its work on helping the orphans. With the support of our donors, friends and families, we have committed $1,100 a month donation to 4 orphanage programs in Myanar:

We were inspired by many friends and volunteers for their continued support and commitment. We received a total of $3,000 US dollars to support the orphanages in Myanmar from the guests at the commemorating event in Maryland.

Thank you for the generosity! Together, we can make a difference.

Please click here to see the photos of the event.

April 1st 2009: Visit to Kyite Latt (Women Developing School)

2009-04-01T12:00:00.038+06:30

We have heard about the girls’ orphanage in Kyite Latt run by nuns. We were saddened to learn about the poor conditions of the children in the orphanage/school and a few months ago, our volunteer KK was able to visit the school during her trip to Ka-Ni village orphanage to donate MHF monthly contribution. Thank you, KK and the team for making this possible!
Below is our volunteer KK’s report from the field.

1. Another trip to Kani Orphanage for monthly contributions

Our five people team set off from Yangon to Phyar-Pon at 7:00 pm by boat. We brought along loads of things to donate to the children just like our previous trips. We arrived in Phyar-Pon at 7:00 am. We all loaded our things in “Sampan”, a small boat powered by single outboard motor, to go to Kani village. Our “Sampan” set off at 8:00 am and arrived at Kani village at 10:00 am. We donated the monthly donation from MHF satisfying the total cost of the 10^th grade students’ education for the rest of this school year. We also gathered some donations among ourselves and provided 10^th grade old exam books to the orphanage. After that we surveyed the school buildings for reconstruction cost estimate. Then we had lunch at the orphanage.

Please see our previous report for details on Ka-ni Orphanage. Please click here for Ka-ni Orphanage photos

2. First trip to Kyite Latt (Women Developing School)

We then set off to Kyite Latt to visit the girls’ orphanage, which we heard, was in desperate need. We ride on the back of Honda Super Cab motorbikes as the road condition didn’t permit us to go by car. We left Kani village at 12:00 pm. After two hours of back breaking motorbike ride on rough roads, we arrived at the “Pyin-Nyar-Wadi Amyo Tha Mee Bawa Myint Tin Yay Kyaung”.

The school was established in 1973. Eighty two years old head nun who suffered from stroke twice is currently managing the orphanage. There’s also a house guardian who teaches at a primary school and brings all the children to school everyday.

There are 27 girls of various ages who came to this nunnery for many reasons. Some lost their parents, some came here after their parents divorced or remarried and some came as their families or relatives could no longer support them.

Children go to Middle School of Kyite-Latt for their primary and secondary education and a total of 20 girls are in school age:

3 - Kindergarten students,

2 - 1^st grade students

2 – 2^nd grade students,
4 – 3^rd grade students,
1 – 4^th grade students,
1 - 5^th grade students,2 – 6^th grade students,
3 – 9^th grade students, and
2 – 10^th grade students

There are also 4 orphans who are now nuns, 2 grown-up orphans who teach sewing to children and 1 university student at PaThein University who teaches the children at primary school. Altogether, there are 27 orphan girls in that school. I had the pleasure of meeting all of them.

Basic Needs

The school receives about 45,750 kyats (~US $45) for food and 150,000 kyats (10 rice bags) a year from the Ministry of Human Affair for 27 children in the orphanage. The finance of the school is maintained by a 16 people committee (including members of local authority) and the money is granted upon request. The school faces difficulties with daily expenses. The children live in poor living conditions and the school desperately needs help.

Most of the girls dressed in worn out and mended clothes. When we acquired if they have enough clothes, we were asked to bring even the torn clothes as they learned to fix them to wear. My heart sank when they said that to us.

Their daily food consists of mostly vegetables and beans. Like any orphanage, their food depends on the donated money. They used to get regular donations before cyclone Nargis. Now the school faces problem providing even their most basic need, food. They said that it is getting very difficult to get 100,000 kyats (~ US $100) donation a month to feed the children. Now the children nutrition relies on the vegetables grown in their yard.

The orphanage consists of four structures, a one storey brick building (main building) where the nuns live, a collapsing 1 story wooden building, and a collapsing two storey wooden building with attached small kitchen and dining/study room downstairs. The children used to live upstairs of that two storey building but now they live in a small room in main brick building along with the nuns as the two storey building was damaged by the cyclone and now collapsing and in unlivable condition. I felt very sorry to see all of

them living in a small room. I promised myself that I would find potential donors to help reconstruct their building.

3. Second Trip to Kyite Latt

This is my fifth trip to Delta Area. Before the trip, I managed to gather as many things as I could for 27 girls at the school. I also encouraged my students to donate for them. Surprisingly, I got many more things than I except before my trip. I collected 12 dozens exercise books, 5 dozens pencils, 50 pens, 20 rulers, sharpeners, erasers, 32 dozens shampoo packs, 18 bars soap, sweets, snacks, 3 sets of 10^th grade question books, 2 bags of clothes, and 495,000 kyats from MHF altogether.

I reached the nunnery at 10am. As I phoned them before hand, all the children were expecting us since early morning. They all came out from the school and welcomed us when we got there.

Donation

First of all, I gave the donated money from Moegyo (MHF) to the school. The school guardian accepted the money and gave us receipt signed on behalf of the school. She said that this donated money would be used not only for the children’s food but also for the candles for them to study at nights.

After that, I went to their dinning room to distribute the presents

to the children. The children were anxious to see the gifts as this was the very first time receiving gifts. We gave old question books to 10^th graders and distributed the gifts to all. The girls were very happy to receive the shampoo and bathing soap as well. They usually washed their hair with traditional shampoo since the school couldn’t afford to buy shampoo for them. The children were so excited that they said they wouldn’t be able to sleep that night.

And then, I took photographs of the children having lunch while they had their very best clothes for the photo. The monastery next door to the nunnery had lunch donors that day and the children could eat with fish since monks share meal with children whenever there is a donor. Otherwise, their meal merely consists of vegetable grown in their own little plantation. The monastery is the main supporter of the school. The monks share the things like rice, onion, oil, potato and etc. with the children.

After our lunch, we went around the compound and took more photographs. Then, we said goodbye and went back home. On my way back, I couldn’t stop thinking of the happy faces of the children while they were receiving the presents. Whenever I came back from my good deed trip, I thank to MHF for inspiration and my family for helping me pack and prepare for my trip.

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Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to help the children in Myanmar who are in great need. Together, we can make a difference in many young lives.

Please click here to see the photos of the school.

December 1st 2008: Monthly contributions at Ka-ni Village Orphanage

2008-12-02T22:38:00.004+06:30

In September, we reported about the Ka-ni village orphanage and our first donations at the orphanage. Ka-ni orphanage hosts 93 children and provides primary and secondary education to children right at the orphanage. High school, however, is an hour walk from the orphanage. We have learnt about the orphanage, and we are touched by the orphanage’s great interest and care for their children education. We would like to help the orphanage at least ease some of their financial burden for their great cause.

Fortunately, with your support, we were able to start our $100 monthly donation at Kani orphanage last month and we are happy to share with you that our monthly contribution was just in time for 5 months educational support (Nov 2008 – Mar 2009) for 10th graders. Below is the report from our volunteer, KK from the field.

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Trip to Ka-ni village

Working together with Moegyo (MHF) for Kani Village donation trip, I have been on the adventurous journey to delta area that I’ve never dreamt of before. I’ve done good deeds and learnt the lives of people after Nargis. Being witnessed the disaster victims, I found out how difficult their lives were. I also admire their strength during and after disaster. Along our visit to Kani village, I saw many Nargis survival children. Kani village orphanage gives them accommodation, food and education as they arrived there. Even though I can’t help them with all aspects of their livelihood, I want to help them get good education as I believe that education is their best foundation to acquire knowledge and get ahead in life.

On my last trip to Kani Village orphanage, one of the things I found out from the orphanage that they wanted to hire teachers and guides for 10th graders for this school year. I told them not to worry about the 10th standard students. I would help them out as much as I could. After that I was thinking about my words and worried that if I could keep my promise if what they need is so much more than I alone can afford.

Monthly contributions

Soon afterwards, I was delighted to find out that MHF was planning on sending more contributions to the orphanage. As soon as I heard that news, I phoned to Kani and informed them that we’re now going to help the 10th grade students. When they heard that news, they were very happy as their burden was relieved. They said again and again that they are very thankful for our help.

Three teachers were assigned, Math, Physic and chemistry teachers cost 30,000 each per month (~$30) and the study-guide costs 60,000 per month (~$60) who helps and guides them with all subjects. All the tuition fees are covered by MHF. When I asked them what is still needed for the students, they were hesitated to tell me. At last, they said they could use 10th grade old question books. That part came to me and I donated those and some exam outline books. Now the 10th grade students in Kani are studying with teachers and practicing their lessons for this school year until March 2009 when the final exams come.

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There are many children who need our support and care. We want to thank those who are in the field helping and shaping the lives of those children for the better. We want to thank our donors for the continued support and opportunity for us to take part in this great cause. Together, we can make a difference in many young lives.

Please click here for Ka-ni Orphanage photos.

November 1st, 2008: Popa Moegyo Orphanage Report

2008-11-01T00:01:00.003+06:30

Introduction

One of the objectives of Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation has been to help the needy children of Myanmar, and Moegyo has worked with some orphanages towards that goal. A core member of Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation also serves as a patron of a forest monastery near Mt Popa in upper Myanmar. The abbot of the monastery is active and enthusiastic about helping children. He’s also knowledgeable about computers, and uses technologies whenever possible. More information about the forest monastery can be found at Buddha Sasana Net.

The monastery was established in 2005, but due to shortages in funding, the abbot was only able to move in to the monastery in 2007. In a prime location at the foot of the popular travel destination – Mt Popa, original plans called for a meditation center and an orphanage in the monastery compound.

When Cyclone Nargis struck the southern coastal areas of Myanmar in May 2008, the abbot decided to ease the suffering of some Nargis orphans by offering a place for them to stay. Accordingly, he approached the Patron and member of Moegyo for funding to open an orphanage.

In July 2008, Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation decided on an initial funding amount of approximately $5,000 to construct a building necessary for an orphanage. In October 2008, Moegyo members in Yangon visited the area for assessing the needs of the orphans. This report is the result of that visit.

No Orphans from the Nargis Area

Immediately after Cyclone Nargis, many orphans were taken to temporary shelters or orphanages by individuals, aid groups or religious organizations (i.e. monasteries or groups led by Buddhist monks, such as Sitagu Sayadaw, as well as Christian groups). Then, the authorities stepped in with an official policy for rescuing, rehabilitating and resettling Nargis orphans. Plans for a large orphanage were made public. Large scale private efforts were deemed no longer necessary. It was in this situation that the Mt Popa monastery’s Abbot and Patron decided to no longer pursue Nargis orphans for the orphanage. Instead, the monastery decided to continue with the orphanage plans, albeit with orphans from other areas, mainly the Chin area. This decision was based on the fact that the Abbot’s mentor is already established in Chin State with orphanages.

Current Situation

Currently, there are 20 Chin children who are defined as a) having no parents; b) having a single parent; c) extremely poor. Some of them were already Samanays before joining Popa Orphanage. Others weren’t. But now, under the circumstances, the Abbott has decided to turn all of them into Samanays, for various reasons, which will not be delved into here. All of them will be converted out of Samanay-hood when conditions permit (budget-wise).

Funds

Monthly funds (to feed the orphans) are most important. Toilets are necessary for health reasons. Right now, they are going into the forests. The monastery and the orphanage need the following things:

1. Monthly Expenditure
a. Monthly fund 600,000 Kyats

2. Immediate needs 2,473,550 Kyats3. Near-term needs 1,740,000 Kyats
a. Water tank (10’ x 10’) 1,500,000 Kyats
b. PVC 1” Pipeline 90,000 Kyats
c. Electrical wiring 150,000 Kyats

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Thank you all for giving us the opportunity to help the children in Myanmar who are in great need. Together, we can make a difference in many young lives.

Please click here to see the photos of the orphanage development.

October 22nd 2008: Report from RPDG Group - First Phase of Project 2

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Recovery Project for Persons with Disabilities and their family

With your donations, we were able to support RPDG group with nargis recovery project.

RPDG group was able to accomplish the first phase of the following recovery projects for persons with disabilities (PWD) and their families within Yangon Division. The total cost for the first phase of the project was $5685.

- Reconstruction of 15 houses in Dhala Township, Shwe-Pyi-Tha Township, Hlaing-Tha-Yar Township, North-East Dagon Township, South Dagon Township, Hlaing-Tha-Yar Township, and Insein Township.

- Repairing of 15 shops in Shwe-Pyi-Tha Township, North-East Dagon Township, South Dagon Township, Hlaing-Tha-Yar Township and Thin-Gan-Gyune Township

- Providing Capital Funds of 50000kyats each for a total of 7 shops in the community

- Providing additional fund of 20000kyats each to ran the shops for a total for 20 shops in the community.

Outcomes of Beneficiaries:
- 15 damaged houses have been reconstructed. As a result, the PWD families are recovering from living difficulty.

- 15 damaged shops have been rebuilt. As a result, PWD families will be able to operate their business smoothly whereas the others have owned stable place for their earning.

- For those who received supported fund (27 small businesses) are able to operate their business and generate regular income continuously to support for their families.

- Our main conceptual goal, the independent living of disabled people will be completed by supporting upon our peers’ jobs.

Other outcome
- Promoted the public awareness on disabled people in the community through our group effort as well as our achievements by means of this implementation.

- By implementing our rehabilitation activity we also discovered the more disabled people in the community so that we get realistic information about our disabled peers. These will be useful for coming disability survey and networking movements.

- Those persons with disabilities will able to get more opportunities for their various movements, trainings and rehabilitation.

Challenges
- Our RPDG camera was out of function on 19.8.08 when it dropped to the flooded street because of heavy rain. Although we tried to repair it immediately by taking extra strength and time on 20.8.08, its function could not become into its original stages. It is so critical for us to take pictures for our record and also for the report.

- During our implementing process, we faced some complex situation, i.e., we had to take adjustment with regional authority in order for us to accomplish our tasks at Dhala and South Dagon Township.

- Our trained volunteers were not able to take part in the whole project. However we were able to accomplish with other volunteers with their best input to complete the project.

- We had a great support from skilled carpenters volunteering with our project to build four houses and eight shops.

Thank you for your continued support.

Please click here for more photos.

September 29th 2008: Donation at Ka-ni Village Orphanage

2008-09-24T09:54:00.017+06:30

Ka-Ni village orphanage is located near Phyar Pone which was one of the areas affected by the Cyclone Nargis. As it is quite a far reached area, orphanage and village received very limitted donation. Last month, with the help of volunteers, we were able to donate $600 to the orphanage and clothings for children. We want to thank our volunteers, KK team for going out there personally and JL for his inspiration. Below is the report from the field.

Trip to Ka-Ni Village

This trip took more travel time and was more exhausting than the last trip when we found this orphanage while we were going around delta making donations soon after the cyclone hit the region. We could go by car to Phyar Pon last time with short driving time but now to avoid tiredness from lunar surface like road and to bring the donated items, we had to take a ship from Yangon to Phyar Pon. We left Yangon port at 7:00 pm in Saturday evening. The ship cruised all night and docked "Phyar Pon" port at 4:30 am in Sunday morning. We got to have breakfast at 5:00 am in Phyar Pon and boarded a small motorized boat (sampan) at 6:00 am to go to the orphanage. The boat goes out to the sea for about two hours and then turned back into a creek to get to the orphanage. This boat ride going out to the sea was the scariest part for me as I cannot swim. I was sitting stiffed the whole time in the boat wearing a life jacket. It was worst when we were near the sea where the tides were high. On the way there, we saw a boat still ashore on land. The captain of our boat explained the scene of the disaster. He explained to us how their lives had changed overnight and how people, properties and the trees were swept by tidal waves. I came to realize of our Buddha words that things are always changing. The things we always see can disappear in a minute. Nothing is stable. That place was a good example for me.

Donation

We finally arrived to Ka-Ni village at 8:30 am. We went straight to the monastery to donate money as soon as we arrived at Ka-Ni village. The chairman of the orphanage accepted the money donation. We then donated robes to the monks and the monks asked us to take Sabbath and practice Buddhist Eight Precepts since we arrived there on the day of waxing moon.

On Moegyo's behalf, we donated $600 (700,000 kyats for children' general use and 40,000 kyats to add a meat dish for one whole day for the children since they only get to eat beans and vegetables when there's no donor). Total money donated was 12,000,000 kyats for general use and 160,000 kyats for 4 days of adding a meat dish for the children. We were delighted to learn that they will be having meat dish every Sunday for the next 4 weeks.

School

We then went on to see their schools. The orphanage operates primary and secondary schools for the children. All the children in Ka-Ni village go to those schools. After the cyclone, the orphanage began accepting 10th grade students. Those 10th graders walk about an hour through paddy fields to the high school in "Tha Main Htaw" town. During the rainy season, there is no motor way as the roads are too muddy for the small cars to travel and their walking duration extends to 2 hours. Then, they take a bus half way to school that costs 500 kyats. By taking bus half way, round trip to school gets reduced by an hour. They always have to set out to school 90 minutes ahead of the school time. They get back to the orphanage at 1:30 pm since the school finishes at 12:00 pm. The orphanage provides them travel cost and lunch boxes as they can’t have breakfast at the monastery to arrive school in time.

Children quarters

Then, we went to the children quarters and distributed 3 big bags of children clothes (including one bag from MHF Thailand), exercise books with lovely cartoon character, pens, pencils, 10th grade text books, snack packs, sweets and jelly. The children were so happy to receive the goods. We then followed the children to their dining room to see them have lunch and took photos. After lunch, we followed the children to their play room. Their play room is one of the child friendly places that "Save the Children" donated. The room contains donated toys, books, comics, and board games. We listened to children reading and participated in their board games. The children sang "Thank You" song to us and we sang other lullabies and nursery rhymes with them.

Then, we went around the village to take a look around the damages and repairs. We found that major repairs were not done due to little donations from just a few organizations arrived here as it's quite a far reached area. We also observed that most people in the area are struggling to survive on day to day basic after the cyclone and still can't make extra to donate to the orphanage. That is one of the reasons we came back here to help out this place. Another reason is that we admire the objectives and practices of the orphanage. The orphanage takes in the children and trains them with three aims, to be well-educated, to have good moral skills and to have better living.

The orphanage was established on 28th July, 1958 with 59 orphans. It became a registered school on 21st March, 1960. The orphanage only accepted the children of 5-14 yrs old at first. After the cyclone, the house also accepted high school students. There are now 11 high school students.

Children daily program

5:00 am – 6:00 am: Get up, wash and clean and then pay homage
6:00 am – 7:00 am: Assemble, salute national flag and do exercise
7:00 am – 8:00 am: Study their lessons
8:00 am – 9:00 am: Prepare to go to school
9:00 am - 9:30 am: Have breakfast
9:30 am - 4:00 pm: School time
4:00 pm - 4:30 pm: Clean their beds and rooms
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm: Have dinner
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Do homework
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Pay homage and check students
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm: Study time (orphanage runs diesel generator when there is no electricity)
9:00 pm – 5:00 am: Bed time
Every Saturday night, the children can watch a movie before bedtime.

Current list of children

25 children with no parents
32 children with no mothers
10 children with no fathers
26 children whose relatives are too poor to support them and can’t afford for their education

93 total children consisting:

6 - 10th graders
5 - 9th graders
5 - 8th graders
6 - 7th graders
9 - 6th graders
9 - 5th graders
8 - 4th graders
9 - 3rd graders
7 - 2nd graders
9 - 1st graders
20 - Primary school students

Orphanage monthly operating cost

3 lakhs – (~$300): meals with beans and vegetables
0.5 lakhs – (~$50): school supplies
1.5 lakhs - (~$150): diesel for generators
0.5 lakhs (~$50): coal or burning wood
1.65 lakhs – (~$165): transportation for high school students (500 kyats x 11 students) x 30 days

Now the orphanage plans to hire a study guide for 10th grade students to pass exam with high marks. The orphanage is also considering how they could help them stand on their own feet after they passed their exam. The orphanage promotes and supports the students to acquire good education, have decent career and earn respectable living. We were delighted that part of our donation money could be used for the good purpose for them. We were also glad to see the children happy to receive the goods we donated. We hope to support them more in near future and see them grow up to be good citizens.

On the way back from the monastery, I have learnt how life is for the children there and how they have to struggle for survival and advancement in life. As I have never seen such kind of situation, I got shocked when I heard how they survived from the storm. When I heard their stories, my eyes filled with tears and felt sympathy and dismay. It was amazing to see how they had strength to overcome the disaster at their young age. I really admire their courage. At the same time, I thank Moegyo and its donors for sending donation to the orphanage and my friend, JL for giving me an idea to go on such adventurous trip to help the children. Without his idea and sympathetic words for the children, I wouldn’t be on such exhausting and dangerous trip to do this good deed.

Please click here for more photos.

September 18th 2008: Donation at Mingalar Orphanage

2008-09-19T10:58:00.027+06:30

Mingalar Orphanage was one of the orphanages that were damaged during the Cyclone Nargis which need a lot of help to repair the buildings and support the children. We have heard about Mingalar Orphanage from a couple of sources and last month, our volunteers were able to visit the Orphanage personally.

Mingalar Orphanage is located in Phayargyi Village, Twuntay Township, Yangon Southern about 1.5 hours drive from Yangon. The road is quite terrible, one of the cars had one of its tires punctured, requiring eight stitches. The orphanage is located inside the Phayargyi Mingalar Monastery and is situated on a land of 12 acres. The compound has a total of 8 buildings.

Training School

The Mingalar Orphanage Training School is both a legally registered orphanage, and an officially recognized primary basic education school. Established in 1998, it now houses monks, a school, staff (teachers) and children of various races. It has now 280 children of mixed gender, with ages ranging from 2 to 20, and with various ethnic background representing 43% Pa-Oe, 35% Myanmar, 19% Karen, 2% Shan and 1% Mon, Rakhine and Palaung. During the cyclone, 3 boys perished, 4 boys hospitalized and 15 boys injured and ten or so children were taken in after the Cycone.

The school has a list of damage assessments sustained during Cyclone Nargis and is requesting donors to help repair partially damaged buildings or new construction of collapsed buildings. Library, restrooms and two sleeping quarters were completely damaged.

Meals

The orphanage feeds the children 3 mid-size bags of rice, 6 vissas (10 kg) of oil, vegetables at a daily cost of 70,000 Kyats ($70). A month’s total cost is 2,100,000 Kyats ($2,100) on mostly vegetarian diet for the children. For the students attending the school in the city, they also have to prepare 140 lunch boxes, which cost more.
Scholarships

The children’s education levels range from nursery to university. The head abbot was able to properly license the primary school a few years ago, so the children are able to stay inside compound and study. But he could not get the license for middle school so those children have to attend school in the city, and need transportation arrangement and lunch boxes.

The school is accepting donations in the form of scholarships for the students, for learning-related expenses.

University student: $150 per year, per student
Grade 11: $100 per year, per student
Grade 10: $100 per year, per student
Middle school students: $50 per year, per student
Primary school students: $25 per year, per student

The school and the children have a minimal required amount of exercise books, stationery, etc., thanks to the generosity of many donors. However, scholarships are being requested.

We were pleased to see that children are polite, disciplined, well-behaved and seem to care about education and care about each other. We were touched when we saw a 9-year old boy being kind to and caring for an unrelated 2-year old boy. It was heartening to see such young and under-privileged children living such harsh lives, yet still managing to smile.

Our trip and donation

When donors visit them during weekends and holidays, the children are fed meat. During our visit, we made a donation of $140 (50 cents per child), so the children were able to feast on pork and soup. We were able to buy 30 vissas (50 kg) of pork.

During our visit, we
- Donated one meal (lunch) for 280 kids and offered alms (lunch) to 10 monks.
- Assessed damage during Cyclone Nargis and future requirements of the orphanage.
- Gathered information on best practices and success factors for running a successful orphanage.

In coming month, we will be donating $500 again at the Orphanage to help repair the buildings.

Time has passed. It has been more than five months since Cyclone Nargis. For some of us, those days may seem like just the dark memories, but for many others, the struggle, pain and sufferings still remain. Let’s continue to give them a hand to ease their pain and struggle, even if it is a bit from each of us, with all of our efforts together, we can make a difference in many lives.

On behalf of people of Myanmar, thank you.

Please check the photos of our visit here.

Our actions for the month of July 2008

2008-08-16T20:38:00.002+06:30

Total donations received as of 31 July 2008: $85,587 (United States: $71,089 Thailand: $9,298 Australia: $5,200)

Purchased and Distribution: Please click here for detailed distribution and areas reached for the month of July 2008.

We have also launched our website http://www.moegyo.org/ on July 31st. Some of the highlights of the web site include:

- donors list;
- project summary;
- our upcoming and past fund raising events.

It has been 3 months since Cyclone hit. There are still many areas which desperately need help. Some of the projects that we are looking into are providing support to orphans – their daily meals, education and basic needs. They require continued effort and commitment from all of us. We are also seeking for monthly donors to support the children on monthly basis. If you wish to contribute monthly, please email us at info@moegyo.org.

Thank you all very much for your generosity and support.

August 9th 2008: Moegyo Fundraising at 5th Asian Festival in Reston, VA

2008-08-12T11:00:00.005+06:30

On 9 and 10 August 2008, we had fundraising event 5th Asian Festival in Reston, VA.

Objectives:
- To promote MHF and its programs and activities.
- To raise fund and to support our 2nd project with "Raise up Persons with disability's Development Group (RPDG)" in rebuilding 30 homes and repairing 30 shops of disabled families (estimated budget is $13,400)

At the event, MHF and its volunteer from VA, MD and NY sold T-shirts, Tote bags, wristbands, Asian Furniture, Myanmar Art crafts and decorations (donated by friends from MD and VA).

We participated in cultural showcase competition, displaying Myanmar cultures and in cultural dances at Asia Festival, mainly See-Mee-Khwat dance and Thingyan Yain Dance, performed by ZZ from VA. We had about 20 volunteers joined the effort from planning, organizing, advertising, setting up the tent, and transportation of food and supplies.

The success of this event is credited to the team work of all volunteers participated in the efforts towards a common goal i.e. to help fellow Myanmar people back home. Together, we raised $3336.

Many thanks to volunteers for joining the effort! Together, we can make a difference!

Please see our photo here from the event.

August 2nd 2008: Moegyo Fundraising at Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York City

2008-08-08T22:24:00.016+06:30

On 2nd and 3rd August 2008, we had fundraising event at Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York City.

Objectives:
- To promote MHF and its programs
- To raise fund and to support our 2nd project with "Raise up Persons with disability's Development Group (RPDG)" in rebuilding 30 homes and repairing 30 shops of disabled families (estimated budget is $13,400)

At the event, MHF and its volunteers sold coconut rice with chicken curry (ohn-hta-min and kyet-thar-hinn), rice noodle with ground chicken in flavored tomato sauce (Shan kwaut swe), banana cake (nga-pyaw-thee paund), coconut jelly (ohn-htee-kyaut-kyaww), soft drinks cans, water bottles and T-shirts. We had over 10 volunteers joined the effort from planning, organizing, advertising, preparing and cooking delicious dishes, setting up the tent, and transportation of food and supplies.

The success of this event is credited to the team work of all volunteers participated in the efforts towards a common goal i.e. to help fellow Myanmar people back home. Together, we raised $4558 and we had connected with each other for a common purpose.

Many thanks to volunteers for joining the effort! Together, we can make a difference!

Please see our photos here from the event.

Upcoming Fundraising event:

We will be participating at the 5th Asian Festival at Reston VA, selling T-shirts, Tote bags, wristbands, Asian Furnitures, Myanmar Art crafts and decorations.

Location: Lake Newport Square ,11452 Baron Cameron Avenue , Reston , VA 20194

Date/Time: Auguest 9 - 10 ( Saturday & Sunday ) 10am - 9pm

July 22nd 2008: Report from the field - RPDG group

2008-07-22T14:15:00.072+06:30

Rehabilitation Project for Persons with Disabilities and their family

There are many challenges that persons with disabilities (PWDs) and their families face in their daily lives due to lack of awareness, insufficient support and opportunities in the community. These challenges have been multiplied with extreme suffering after the Cyclone Nargis – losing loved ones, housing, mobility aids (wheel-chairs, crutches), and shops, etc. On top of such losses, with limited physical mobility and access to resources, many had fallen into depression.

There are many needs but right now, we are focusing initially on their housing need which was assessed as “living under extreme condition”. During this month, we have supported RPDG group in their effort to rebuild 11 houses for 11 PWD families in Yangon Division (Dhala, Hlaing Tha Yar, Insein, Mayangone, Shwe Pyi Tha Townships). With five small teams, construction was completed with follow up action and final assessment on 17 July. The total cost was $2,300. The project was a success despite many challenges that the teams faced such as heavy rain during construction and relocation of PWDs on muddy roads.

Outcome

Attached photos showed before and after rebuilding of the huts. Please check our photo gallery for more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/moegyo2008/RPDG

The project has helped a great deal to eleven PWDs families.

- Improved their living condition with a proper housing during rainy season
- Helped reduced their worries and stress for their housing for at least 2 years

In addition to above obvious positive outcomes, many benefits have also been realized:
- Raised public awareness on disabled people in the community through the group effort and accomplishment of this project;

- Discovered more disabled people in the community so that they can be referred to the respective organizations for their rehabilitation and vocational training;
- Found out more on the needs of disabled people for future projects.

Appreciation

The PWDs and their families were very happy and thankful for their new homes. We would like to share their happiness with all of you. We sincerely thank our local group RPDG and our donors for the opportunity to help.

Thank you for your continued support!

In Yangon area alone, there are at least 250 disabled people (out of 550 PWDs in Yangon area-RPDG’s data) living under extreme conditions.

July 9th 2008: Filling in the Blank, Part 2 Group1 - MSNA

2008-07-09T23:24:00.009+06:30

With regards to our 3 July 2008 post, we now have an assessment from the field on the distribution of school supplies based on the visit to 12 villages in Daydaye Township.

Though more text books have arrived, not all students can hold their own text books yet. Following is a student list from 12 villages with the suggested number of text books to donate. According to the number of students, we need 8-10 sets per village.

School Books:
Grade 1 (used to be Kg): 387 students - 100 sets
Grade 2 (used to be pa-hta-ma tan): 281 students - 100 sets
Grade 3: 267 students - 100 sets
Grade 4: 251 students - 100 sets
Grade 5: 586 students - 100 sets
Grade 6: 168 students - 50 sets
Grade 7: 148 students - 50 sets
Grade 8: 148 students - 50 sets
Grade 9: 164 students - 50 sets
Grade 10: 97 students - 40 sets
Grade 11: 85 students
Total text books: 2,599 students - total 740 sets (this would cost between USD 850- 900)
3 exercise books per student: $850
Total: $1,750

Supplies for orphans
We also have a list of orphans (students) from Kyun Pin village, Daydaye Township. They all live together with their relatives. Attached two photos show the orphans with their teachers.

Grade 1: 5 students (5 boys; 4 without parents, one without father)
Grade 2: 8 students (5 boys, 3 girls; 3 without parents, 3 without father, 2 without mother)
Grade 3: 3 students (2 boys, 1 girl; 2 without parents, 1 without father)
Grade 7: 2 students (2 boys; 1 without mother, 1 without parents)

Some of the orphans report that they do not have uniforms, umbrellas, slippers, text books (complete set or partially). Most of the orphans' current guardians are daily miscellaneous workers. Can we look into providing what these orphans need? One set of uniform is around 2,500 Ks; one umbrella about 3,000 Ks; one pair of rubber slipper is around 1,500 Ks, text book is around 1,300 Ks. We can provide them some toys, coloring books for the grade 1 students and other necessary items that these kids can have on their own. The total cost to provide such items per kid will be about 10,000 Ks. We can spend around US$200 to provide what these kids need and to provide a few things that will ease their suffering a little bit.

Bridge
There is also a need to repair a small bridge between two villages (Shan Kan village where the high school is and Taw Paung Sein Village). Many students pass by this unsafe bridge everyday (the photo is coming soon). The previous estimated quotation for rebuilding the bridge is between 2,000,000 Ks - 2,500,000 Ks. No donor has come up for this project yet. UKMG has thought of ways to cut down some costs, and thinks the bridge can be repaired if he could bring 2 or 3 donors like us together as a joint effort. We can decide on this when we see the photo of the bridge.

July 8th: Report from the field - Helping Hands 4 New Generation Group (Bogalay Township)

2008-07-08T04:51:00.024+06:30

As part of our rebuilding program, we are working with Helping Hands 4 New Generation for rebuilding communities. We are building 450 huts for 1900 people in two villages in Bogalay Township, both reachable by 1 and half hour boat ride from Bogalay in delta region. While the death toll in these two villages are little, the houses and all possesions were lost during the cyclone.

We are helping the residents of the villages as follows:
1. Donating rain shelter sheets (450 sheets) and helping them build the huts together with the villagers' efforts.
2. Donating necessary house building tools such as nails, pliers, hammers, copper cables.

3. Providing household items that are useful in any home: mat, blanket, pots for all 450 households
4. Providing food items: rice, gram beans for all 450 households

Challenges that villagers face:

Mosquito:
Some concerned parents share their worries with us about the mosquito situation in the villages. A tropical country like Myanmar is no stranger to mosquitoes and their stinging bites. But after the cyclone, amount of mosquitoes present in the villages are high due to rotten trees and mud holes around the villages and in the river banks. While the mobile medical teams and some NGOs have arrived to these villages and sprayed some insecticides, the mosquitoes have returned back and parents are worried about their children. When we were in the villages, there were no reports about dengue fever yet. To protect the children, we need mosquito nets that are treated with repellent liquids, and other insecticides.

Transportation:
Another difficulty the villagers are facing, in addition to other major challenges such as making their livelihoods, is lack of boats. Delta region has numerous rivers, creeks, and streams. In pre-Nargis days, a well to do family would own a motorized boat, a normal family would own a rowing boat, it is normal that most families had boats. Without a boat in delta region, their communication with a nearby town is quite difficult. This lack of boats was the reason why some people in the remote area had to suffer without any proper food for longer period than other people. A boat can cost from US$ 75 (normal rowing boat), US$ 150 to US$ 1,300 depending on their size, engine power, and type of wood used. We will not be able to provide the boats for the families now, but let's just keep this in our mind that there is such challenge exists that we have to tackle when the time is right.

More detail report will follow again when the huts are completed.

July 6th 2008: Summary of our actions as of 30 June 2008

2008-07-06T11:52:00.017+06:30

Total amount of raised as of 30 June 2008: $78, 532
(United States: $64,924, Thailand: $9,298, Australia: $4,310)
Purchased and Distribution: Please click here for detailed distribution and areas reached.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pbhsxuBa5dCmM_f0Bfux1bQ&hl=en

Please also find the summary of our three programs below from 8 May to end of June 2008:

Program 1: Distributing Emergency Aid

What we have been distributing since 8 May during the first week of Cyclone:

Water: Water purification tablets
Food: Rice, onions, beans, potatoes, salt, eggs, canned fish, fish paste, dry tea leaf, milk powders, ovaltine
Medicine: Burmese medicine, Tylenol, Imodium, Clotrimazole Cream and Foot powder (for Skin)ORS- Electrolyte, Royal D, Ranidine, ORS Amoxy, Paracetamol, Urinox, Pabron, Hiscolgen, Gynegyl, Bromhexine
Others: Men, women and children clothing, rain coats, rain boots, life jacketsTowels, blankets, mosquito nets, torch lights with batteries, rain cover sheets, plastic sheets
House building tools to the families, pots and pans, glasses and cups, detergent, candles

Areas reached: more than thouand one families
Yangon Division: Hlaing Thar Yar, Dala, TharKayTha, South and North Dagon, Shwe Pyi Thar,Than Lwin Town, Kyauk Tan City Payarkone village; Shwe Pauk Kan, Insein, Dagon Myo Thit
Pegu Division: Thone kwa village and near by villages
Irrawady Division: Delta area : Bogalay, Twantay, Laputta, Pathein, Dedaye, Phar Pone
Some of the areas visited in Twante: Mya Kan Thar Village (306 families), Aung Zedi Village (76 families) and near by villages
Some of the areas visited in Bogalay:
-Villages near Bogalay township - 250 families;
-6 hours boat ride from Bogalay: Kyein Chaung Gyi village and near by villages
-3-4 hours boat ride from Bogalay: 408 families:
-- Bote Chaung Village – 104 families

-- Ma Aye Kyi Village – 71 families

-- Kone Tan Pauk Village – 47 families

-- Byu Ya-gone Village – 32 families

-- Tha-pyay Nyo Tan Village – 53 families

-- La Waing Kyun Village – 101 families

Program 2: Rebuilding communities

(a) Budget Hut Buidling Group (NLS group)
- Completed 25 budget huts for 88 people: Shwe Kyun Thar Kyaung Su Village in Kokko Kyae-Ywa Su in Lat-put-ta Township
(b) Helping Hands
Current project: Package aid for 450 huts for 1900 people in villages nearby Bogalay
Package: - Roof (villagers have already started with their base, only provide roof sheets which will be reused for water tanks.), mat, blanket, dan-oh (pot), rice, kalah beans

Total per hut = around $35

Program 3: Helping families and children

Distribute school supplies, books, pencils, erasers, rulers, clothing and snacks

Thank you very much for your generosity and support. Together, we can make a difference.

July 3rd 2008: Filling in the Blanks - Group1 MSNA

2008-07-04T03:15:00.007+06:30

There are rehabilitation programs being carried out by various parties including some heavy-weight companies in all parts of delta region. The farmers are being helped with buffaloes or plowing machines, seeds and manpower. Yet, there are always some pocketed areas where help could not reach as fast as it should. All of us can try filling in these blanks and help others do this as well.

That said, it was reported that in 10 villages visited in Day-da-ye area, there are 6 primary school (Grade 1 to 5), 3 extended primary schools (Grade 1 to 8), and 1 high school (Grade 1 to 11). Total number of students in all these schools is around 2,000. Some are still coming in to register in the schools at a later date, so the number still fluctuates.

All these school buildings had collapsed during the cyclone except the buildings from the high school. All the students studying in primary schools are in the shelter of monasteries in the villages. As schools have started, some text books have arrived to the high school, but most of these text books got wet and were destroyed. Other primary schools have not received any text books yet. You will see in the pictures: the teacher uses a game board as a blackboard; some students are in a shelter house (za-yat) without any walls; and some are studying on the concrete floors.
(Photos credited to UKMG.)

We will have an assessment report on the number of students in each grade by next week. One set of text book costs between 1,000 Ks per set to 1,500 Ks depending on the grade. Let's try filling in the blanks.

June 28th 2008: Moegyo Fundraising Food Bazaar in New York City

2008-06-30T08:12:00.029+06:30

Last weekend, we held a fundraising food bazaar in New York
City.

Objectives of this event were:

- to promote the work of Moegyo
- to promote team work, strengthen the relationship among volunteers and join the efforts of all working towards a common goal i.e to help fellow Myanmar people back home
- to raise fund and support the current project - working with Helping Hands Group - on providing roofs and package of goods (rice, kalah beans, mat, blanket, dan-oh/pot) to 450 households/huts (1900 people) in villages near Bogalay. Each package is estimated at $40.

There were more than 30 Burmese home-made dishes and desserts donated by individual donors and chefs. Over 70 volunteers had joined this effort from planning, organizing, advertising, preparing delicious dishes, setting up the halls and exhibitions, helping at the booths to finally cleaning up.

The success of this event is credited to the team work of all volunteers, donors and supporters (visitors). Together, we raised $8,100 and we had connected with each other for a common purpose.

Many thanks to volunteers, donors and supporters (visitors) for joining the effort! Together, we can make a difference!

Links:
- Please see our menu, donors and volunteers list here. Please forgive us and let us know if we miss any names in the list.
- One of the guests wrote about the Food Bazaar at his blog. He also posted photos there.

UN OCHA/IRIN News: MYANMAR: “Lightning” strike brings help to cyclone survivors

2008-06-27T19:14:00.003+06:30

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), a leading provider of multimedia humanitarian news and analysis, wrote an article on Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation.

BANGKOK, 26 June 2008 (IRIN) - “Moegyo stands for thunder and lightning. Our humanitarian foundation responded to Cyclone Nargis with the speed of lightning,” said Maung Thant (not his real name), a Burmese national living and working in Bangkok, who does not want to be identified. He is one of 20 Burmese members of the Moegyo Humanitarian Foundation, most based in New York City, with three in Bangkok.

Moegyo is a kind of fast-reaction assistance force, although small of scale. At the time of the December 2004 tsunami, it helped Burmese refugees injured in Phuket in southern Thailand.

Read the whole article here.

June 25th 2008: Report from the field - Group1 MSNA (Bogalay trip)

2008-06-25T19:40:00.009+06:30

No more sad stories! I told myself this, as I sat down to start my field trip report on Monday. Every time we go on field trips, we hear personal stories that are heart breaking. I thought, this time, I will not write about them because sharing sad stories are not the same as sharing happy stories. Besides, people must have heard these stories a thousand times already.

What has happened to me since I came back was I could not shake some of these people out of my head; their dark sunburn faces, their words, and their sad stories followed me everywhere. I don't want to forget about them, but I needed something to get me out of this sorrow. I have to get on with my daily life in Yangon, I have to focus and collect more information so I can again organize another trip to Bogalay in the coming days. I just needed something to make me to move on.

Last night, I was still thinking about them when I suddenly realized that writing about these people is exactly what I needed to do if I need to move on. The interesting thing is this answer came from the survivors I had talked to. I understand now that they were, too, trying to move on when they told me about their beloved families who lost their lives during the cyclone, their pain and suffering, and the present challenges they face alone without their families.

As for me, writing about these survivors will mean understanding their pain, acknowledging their loss, and showing them we care. I hope I had helped them in their healing process even if in small ways.

On the evening of May 2, when the water level was coming up so fast and so high in the village, Mr. H.A and his wife decided that the wife and their 3 daughters will seek the shelter in the long-tail boat along with other villagers. H.A. watched them leave, and stayed back. He later climbed up to the highest part in their compound where they build the rice storage container and held on tight to the wooden beam. The wind and the 15 feet waves pouring in later on that night, sweeping everything that he was holding onto. He then spent another seemingly eternity time floating in the dark, holding on a tree and shivering from cold. He remembered thinking at least his family will be safe. Unfortunately, he was wrong. He later had to accept that the boat might have broken out and let loose all of its passengers, mainly small children and women, into the water, in the pitch dark. He did not recover any of his family members.

H.A. is now residing back in his village which is about 2 hour boat ride away from Bogalay. He lives with two nephews. His family, his sister, his brother and their extended families are all gone. These three men are trying to start over. They want to work. They have worked hard all their lives anyway. H.A. owns about 20 acres of rice plantation. He is not a poor person at all. But after the cyclone Nargis, everybody in delta is starting from bottom line again. H.A. said sometimes he finds little motivation to work; previously, he has worked hard with some greed to earn a lot of money; to let his daughters to attend school; and to buy his wife some new accessories here and there. Now, he has to find a reason to work other than paying back for the loan that he made to borrow a pair of buffaloes. If he hurries, he will make it in time to produce enough seeds for next season and pay back for the buffaloes.

Mr. N.T. lived about 3 hour boat ride from Bogalay. On that fateful night, when the rising water level reached above their knees, it was already difficult enough to walk or to stand still as the current was very strong. When the water level reached their waist, the whole family of seven scattered into the night. He could hold onto the youngest son, 6 years old, throughout the night. From time to time, in the wind, he called out to his son to make sure that the kid knows he was there. The last word he heard from the boy were that he was afraid. Sometime in the night, N.T. realized that his son has died. But he did not have the heart to let him go, so, he hold onto him and held on an empty plastic fuel container and float in the water. In the daylight the next morning, he buried his son on an island that he ended up on. He was there for 2 days, eating coconut flesh and drinking coconut juice.

He lived in this delta area all of his life, but nothing he saw on the sight was recognizable. He could only guess he must be very close to the sea. Upon his return back to town on a rescue boat, he reunited with his 14 year old daughter and later on with another son. The rest of the family was never discovered.

N.T. now resides in Bogalay with his children. He does not see any reason to go back to the village since his family and all he owned is gone. He has spent his life working in rice plantation. But in town, he may have to change his profession. He is tempting his hobby at building to turn it into a job. He will work at it. During the trip, we stopped by at his village, donated the goods. As we departed the village, our volunteer group, who have listened to his personal story, were silent. We somehow felt what it must have been like. N.T. just stared into the distant and did not say a word.

During this trip, we went to the villages that are around 3-4 hour boat ride away from Bogalay. We have visited 6 villages and reached 408 families. We have provided rice, salt, fish paste, canned fish, children's snacks, dry tea leaf and Burmese medicines to all families; and torch lights with batteries, towels, clothing, mosquito nets, blankets, school materials, rain cover sheets and house building tools to the families that needed them.

The villages we visited include:
1. Bote Chaung Village – 104 families
2. Ma Aye Kyi Village – 71 families
3. Kone Tan Pauk Village – 47 families
4. Byu Ya-gone Village – 32 families
5. Tha-pyay Nyo Tan Village – 53 families
6. La Waing Kyun Village – 101 families

We had intended to distribute the school materials and planned to set aside time for the children on this trip. We were a little bit surprised to see that there were not so many kids in the villages that we visited (compare to other parts of the country). We found out that some children passed away, some relocated, some sent to town for studying and etc. The local volunteer group has collected the numbers that approximate 400 students in two primary schools in Bogalay were in need of text books, school materials and uniforms. Some of those students came from the villages as the schools in the villages were not ready. We gave all the school materials to the volunteers as we have no time to do this ourselves in Bogalay. We will report back to you with the photos of these school children in Bogalay. To the village kids, we continued distributing stuff toys, jigsaw puzzles, and story books.

Due to long distant, tides, and upstream travel on both ways, we could spend only 30-45 minutes in each village. The rest of the total 13 hour boat ride was spent on the boat. The long distant also meant that we have reached to the small villages that needed some assistant. We were so glad to see one mobile medical team on the boat traveling to different villages.

Bogalay and delta region were the main producers of high quality rice for the whole country before. We are sure this fertile land will get back to its original productive state again in the future. And the farmers will be well-off again when that happens. However, before we reach that stage, the farmers and the families working on farms will need our help in many ways. While some are weak and dependent on aids, most of them are strong, and independent. And these survivors WILL find ways to survive with or without our help. But when the magnitude of loss and sufferings is this high, let's not watch them struggle, let's offer our hands to help them get back on their feet; let's offer our ears to listen to what they have to say to us; let's open our hearts to them.

Together, we will all be able to move on…

June 20th 2008: Suggestions - rehabilitation on farming

2008-06-21T05:22:00.004+06:30

We had a chance to speak to a chief monk who is residing in Yangon. His assistant monk was born in one of the villages near Bogalay. This monastery has been collecting donation and kinds from their contacts and have made frequent trips to the villages around Bogalay and Haing-Gyi-Kyun area. They have been donating/distributing rice bags, and other food items, clothings and school materials. And from time to time, they would chant prayers (pa-reik) and offer some soothing words in the villages.

The monk's birth place village has luckily gone through the cyclone without a single death. But most villagers' possession and huts/houses were swept away during the event. The villagers now have a roof above their head, so their priority is to get back to work as soon as possible. The monk has made a right remark saying that when the villagers are given the opportunity to work in the field, it is for the long term. It will offer a stability to their income and their livelihood.

There are a few ways one can involve in making this happen: by arranging for them to buy seeds (for growing rice), by buying them plowing machines (partially mechanical, each one cost about 1,600,000 Ks.) and by buying them necessary fuel for the plowing machines. While this is an important part about the rehabilitation phase, one has to be sure we buy the correct species of the seeds, the correct type of machines, etc. One will also have to show the villagers how the plowing machine works. This program involves a lot of technical expertise and time to do this, but the benefits make such a good impact on the families.

Hope all of us can share and look into the possibilities.

June 17th 2008: Report from the field - Group1 MSNA (Bogalay)

2008-06-19T17:35:00.006+06:30

Report from Group 1B: Operation Nargis

The group arrived back in Yangon around 2 in the early this morning.

The trip to Bogalay was one of the best trips we have ever made these days, I would say it was pretty risky but it was worth the effort. We have made to Kyein Chaung Gyi village tract, a comparable distance to Main-ma-hla Kyun, 6-hours drive by boat from Bogalay, despite severe weather condition (i.e. 45-50 mph wind condition with heavy rain - weather forecasted by Myanma Weather Station) and we have covered several villages in the area.

Thanks for all the concern. The trip was a successful one!

June 16th 2008: Report from the field - Group1 MSNA

2008-06-18T14:11:00.005+06:30

Group 1A:
They have carried 25 mosquito nets from us. Have distributed them in a village near Bogalay and one village near Kun-chan-gone Township. Other stuff they donated from other donors include 3 plowing machines, cash donation for fuel, saw, hammers, Burmese medicines (villagers find them more useful as they are not too familiar with foreign medicines) and some school materials. Their next trip is planned to Lat-put-ta and nearby villages, traveling starts on 22 June.

Group 1B: Operation Nargis
Group is on a trip to Bogalay and nearby villages. They are carrying mosquito nets, blankets and fish cans for 250 families in the area. For all of yesterday and today, my mind is with this group and I have been saying prayers for them. There is a storm passing through the same area that they are going. The forecast says that the wind is about 50 miles/hour. And Yangon has been raining too most of the days without a drop of any sunshine. Our group is aware of the coming storm and high tides. They will be wearing life jackets, so I am sure they are safe and have taken any necessary precautions to travel through these rivers and in between the villages. But I will be able to rest when I check in with them again tomorrow morning. Will keep you updated on this.

June 13th 2008: Report from the field - Budget Hut Building Group

2008-06-14T02:15:00.009+06:30

It has been some tough weeks for our Budget Hut Building Group (NLS group). This volunteer group is emotionally strong and committed. They have the will to go on as long as there is funding available to them. But let's face it, these guys have been staying in Latputta for weeks. They have not eaten proper meal for days. And one attack they are facing is from mosquitoes. They are a bit tired, and they need some medicines to take care of the mosquito bites on their legs and arms. They have tried using mosquito repellent, but nothing works so far. We have to do something to take care of our volunteers working in the front lines.

We have chosen a site for building budget huts under MHF funding. The village is under the administration of Latputta Township. It can take about 7-8 hours to reach Latputta. From Laputta, you can continue the trip by boat. Each way takes about 2 and a half hours.

This village has about 200 people left after the cyclone. We have taken the available family listings and calculated that about 25 huts are needed to house the people without any place to live. These 25 huts will be safe accommodation for some 88 people when all the huts are completed. Among 25 huts, some will be occupied by whole families, some are to be occupied by survivors from different families.

With funding from MHF, we have bought nails, ropes, wooden planks, saw, staple gun, hummer, and tarpaulin sheets for roofing. And the villagers build the huts together. The targeted 25 huts are about to be finished. But June and July are the busy periods for people who live around here. Their routine livelihood is still important to carry on under these circumstances.
So, the villagers have been both working in the field and building the huts for themselves and the neighbors around them.

We will try to update with the recent photos as soon as we have them taken.

Challenges ahead:

- The cost will go up because the supply of wood is getting scarce in the village. In Latputta, normal hard woods are not available anymore. Either you buy better quality hard wood or import from another town with high transportation cost.

- We need to find ways to support the villagers and volunteers with their daily routine and living while they work on the huts.

- Mosquitoes have serious impact on health. It is going to be a long term battle to get to the root causes. Meanwhile, we will try sending different brands of mosquito repellent sprays. Any suggestions are welcomed.

- There are plenty of migrations going on among the villages and there are many requests by the villagers to NLS group to help them build a home. NLS group has the will to carry on as long as there is funding. They need continue support from all of us.

June 11th 2008: Report from the field - rebuilding aid (Kyank Tan Area)

2008-06-12T10:00:00.029+06:30

Based on our previous reports, we went back to Nyaung Waing village in Kyank Tan Area and donated US$100 each to four families identified as the poorest in the village. The families were struggling to survive and unable to rebuild their homes after the Cyclone.

Brief descriptions of four families:

Family 1
Old widow with one son: Bamboo and woods were still piling on the ground as they could not afford to rebuild the home.

Family 2
A family with 6 young children: They depend on ad-hoc jobs for their living. Their home, a small bamboo hut lost the back wall and back roof during the Cyclone. As they could not afford to rebuild their home, they replaced the wall and roof temporarily with some blankets.

Family 3
A widow with two young sons: She lost her husband during the Cyclone. They make their living by delivering water. They live in a very small bamboo hut that is temporally mended by bamboo sticks and strings. The widow cried with joy when she received our donations.

Family 4
A family also with 6 very young children: Their youngest child is about a year old. They were living in a temporarily built 7x7 feet bamboo hut that seemed to be falling apart. They depend on ad-hoc jobs for their living.

They were crying as they explained their dilemma and expressed their sincere appreciation to all of us and said that they will always be praying for all of us and all the donors.

There are still about 46 families struggling to survive in the area who need support in rebuilding their lives.

June 10th 2008: Fund raising at Maryland

2008-06-10T21:48:00.003+06:30

Last weekend, there was a fundraising at a monastery in Maryland for Myanmar relief. MOEGYO volunteers in the DC Metro area had participated in this fare and helped promote the work of MOEGYO and raise fund with T-shirts, wrist bands, tote bags and burmese snacks. Some of us from NY also joined the effort. We sincerely appreciated our local group for their commitment and hard work especially under that heat wave. Thank you very much Ko TT, Zu Zu, Ma Pann and her mom, Richard, Ko Bo, Phowa, Ma Joe Phyu, Ko Thu Rein and everyone helping at the booth!

There will also be another fare at Aung Yadana Monastery in Maryland this Sunday. Our local group plan to be there as well.

Thank you all donors and supporters for joining the relief effort. Together we can make a difference!

June 4th 2008: Report form the field - Assessment from Thanlyin-Kyaut Tan area

2008-06-04T05:02:00.013+06:30

May 31st trip

- After checking emails, headed toward Thanlyin-Kyaut Tan for a quick tour

-Left Yangon quite late and had to catch the flight in the evening.

- So, decided to drive through the main road, where saw some cars from Save the Children went into off-main road.

- At one monastery (badly damaged), saw some people/crowd and decided to stop-over and check.

-There were about 150 Nyaung Wine villagers (Kyaut Tan township) and some donors distributing food and clothes.

-Asked villagers of their needs and as usual they replied that they are quite OK in terms of food, clothes and shelter(I doubt though), but they want someone to assist rebuilding of their neighbors' houses (about 4 of them). That truly shows the selfless nature of our people.

- Each house will cost about 100,000 kyats.

- Kyaut Tan-Ye Le Pagoda area was pretty quiet with only a few visitors. Some people there said the monasteries need donations.

- Due to time-pressure, had to head back to Yangon. Wish had more time to visit the villages.

June 4th 2008: Report from the field - ODG-Group3

2008-06-04T04:56:00.016+06:30

Our group, 45 of us woke up at 3am on 1.6.08 and started the trip to Ayeyarwadi division.

We went to 4 villages in Phar Pone Township.

We divided ourselves into 2 groups and each group visited 2 villages.

We gave out the following things to the villagers:

1) Male longy - 50 pcs

2) Female clothing- 127 pcs
3) Clothes Bag - 3 bags

4) Clothes Box - 4 boxs

5) Medicine bag - 2 bags
6) Coffee Mix - 2 pcs

We came back to Yangon at 1:30am the next day 2.6.08.

June 3rd 2008: How can we help children cope with the trauma?

2008-06-03T11:01:00.003+06:30

We would like to focus mainly on providing with school materials for the kids. There is still time because school starting dates are postponed for the effected areas. The adults are going to adjust to the recent changes in their lives. The kids are also going to. But without the right channel and care, their adjustment can be harsh and painful for their minds. So, in addition to helping them with obvious material needs such as school materials, building schools and huts/houses etc, there must be some further care we can offer to them. Are there any illustrated educational books to console them from what they are going through in real life? These children have to live in very bad health environment and most them were traumatized by the situation.

Can we produce posters, booklets that the kids rely on, that they can learn from? Anything? UNICEF produces very informative posters for the schools here (info on washing hands, eating hot foods, using proper toilets etc). Please send us any suggestion.

June 3rd 2008: Report from the field - Group1-MSNA

2008-06-03T08:58:00.022+06:30

MSNA group went to Twante area on 31 May 2008. The villages we went to are called Mya Kan Thar Village (306 families) and Aung Zedi Village (76 families). And in Dala Township, the village we visited is called Da-note village. We had rice, onions, eggs, fish cans, salt as food items and books, pencils, rulers, erasers, rain coats and clothings from Moegyo. Other donors also donated for uniforms, and shoulder bags for school children.

Twante itself did not have much damages. Like in delta area, the small villages surrounding the town are hardest hit when the storm surge swept the villages. The death toll is relatively low in this area and many houses still standing. But aftermath of cyclone Nargis here is as dreadful as everywhere else.

The villagers' lives evolve around farming (people are either farmers or helpers to the farmers), and fishing cottage industry. Because the rice farming season is halted, jobs are scarce in the villages. Some villagers made attempt at being day laborers in the construction sites in nearby towns, but only a few are continuing their construction projects.

When we get to the village, the villagers, mostly women, quickly lined up near a little shelter where we placed our rice bags and other donated items. No one wants to be late for lining up. Getting a portion of rice and other food items mean a meal for the family while the men go out there to look for jobs. Among the pushing, rice rationing, the heat and all other bouts of such event, we were thankful to be there to help them. When you know you have helped a family, or many families, there is a chilling happiness that ran through you? We had that. And we like to share this feeling and many heartful thanks that we have received all throughout the day to all parties involved in Moegyo and many donors behind them.

(I like to take this opportunity to thank Ei-sa-tha-ya Shop for their good hearts in donating their boats for any volunteer groups coming to Twante area. For any volunteer group going into these villages, they can contact Ei-sa-tha-ya who will arrange the boat, who could also come with you to help contact the villages. They were a big help and made our trip successful.)

Schools started today in Myanmar, June 2nd. On my way back to office this afternoon in Yangon, I passed through one high school. Since today is a first day in school, parents were there to drop off the children in their cars; school children with nice school dresses were smiling and glad to be with friends and to be back in school again. Seeing school children in white and green school uniforms is always a pretty scene to me. But today, I could not enjoy the pretty scene because my mind was racing back to the villages. I was thinking about those little kids I have just met in the weekend.

Back in Mya Kan Thar village, I had talked to some kids in the village, about 5 - 6 years old. They knew that they were going back to school on Monday and were happy about that. One kid told me he was in first grade. He already had a text book and an excercise book for the school. He seemed confident. Another girl next to him, eventhough her mommy had not bought her any excercise book yet, she was also looking forward to the school days. She wanted to practice her writing. That afternoon, we handed the children a white and green school dress uniform, an excercise book, a ruler, an eraser and a shoulder bag. All schools in the villages we went on that day collapsed during the cyclone. And as always, monasteries are there to give shelter to the children, and ready for becoming a temporary school for the coming months. So, today on June 2nd, the kids from the villages will be attending school in a make-shift classrooms in the monasteries; they will be practicing their writing with the books that MHF has arranged for them. That is a happy thought for the day!

One month ago today in the afternoon, we learned about a cyclone approaching towards Yangon and delta region. On that day, none of my family members or friends knew how terrifying Nargis would become. We only knew there would be a storm and one has to be in the shelter to be 'safe'. We all had plans to carry on with our routine on the next day: to be back in the office (we work half day on Saturdays here), may be do some shopping, or get together with friends and just hang out. We didn't know that one evening will change our lives, and the following days after that...

During the past 4 weeks, we have heard many heart-breaking stories, seen many devastation, and shared the sorrow with the victims. What touches me the most is to see the victims' strength and courage to overcome this difficult moments, and the strong will to move onto the next phase - to continue building their lives and communities around them.

With the help from you, from everyone of us, we can help them do just that...

Donated:
1. Mya Kan Thar village, Twante (306 families):
- 12 rice bags, 1 onion bag, small bags of salt, 500 eggs, fish cans
- to the school children - books, pencils, erasers, rulers, (school uniforms and shoulder bags are from account of another donor)
- clothes for children - from NLO (from Brazilian family)

2. Aung Zedi Village, Twante (76 families). We were running out of time, so we donated things through village leader in front of all villagers.
- 2 rice bags, 1 onion bag, 1 potato bag, 500 eggs, salt

3. Da-note village, Dala (over 2,000 people). The families were living under the monastery until a few days ago. Now they all went back to their homes, the chief monk tried to organize building and putting roof over the huts for 80 something poor families. He is obviously relieved and happy to see that we have brought books, and etc for the school children. There will be about 350 kids who will come under his monastery roof for schooling. We got here late, so we offered the donated items to him, he took note of everything and will distribute them equally.
- 1 rice bag, 1 onion bag, 2 potato bag, 500 eggs, fish cans
- books, pencils, erasers, rulers, rain coats
- some clothing
- some pots and pans, some glasses and cups for the families
- milk powders
- medical creams and foot powder
- 1 box of tylenol

May 31st 2008: Our actions for the month of May

2008-06-01T05:55:00.007+06:30

Total donations received as of 31 May 2008: $50,194
(United States: $36,946 Thailand: $9,298 Australia: $3,950)

Purchased and Distribution:
Please click here for detailed distribution and areas reached for the month of May 2008.

Thank you all very much for your generosity and support. Together, we can make a difference.

May 31st 2008: Report from the field

2008-05-31T13:55:00.015+06:30

It has been a roller coaster week with a lot of mix emotions, but I hope you would all agree that we have done our best to provide emergency food aid to Myanmar cyclone victims in the past four desperate weeks. In addition to (1) distributing emergency aid, in the coming weeks we will be expanding our operations into (2) rebuilding (building budget huts) and (3) restoring lives (helping families and children)

1. Distributing aid

We are continuing with our emergency aid operation, and we still need all the help we can get. We will continue to collect food, clothes and medicine and ship all the collected supplies to Myanmar. We collected a lot of clothes, shoes and medicine from Bangkok donors (SVC Asia Co., Ltd, UNESCAP families, Bangkok Brazilian Community) and made two shipments to Yangon last week.

2. Rebuilding (building budget huts)

After talking to numerous victims by our volunteers, most of the victims want to rebuild their lives. But houses being wiped out, crop and boats destroyed, equipments lost, it is hard to get back to their lives. We URGENTLY need to rebuild the houses in order for them to return to their farms. For the current and following year, they must start the harvesting cycle now.

We decided to first focus on a village, which had lost about 400 people and now left with about 100 survivors. This village is only accessible by boat, and one of the worst hit areas about 5 hours by boat from Latt Putta. There are about 30-40 women and some children who have been displaced and staying in Lattbutta area while the men will get back to the village to rebuild their houses. The houses will be built using Bamboo for the frame and Da-Neet or Tarpaulin for the roof. All the men agreed to stay at the village until they are comfortable to bring their families home.

Each hut is about 20 x 15 feet with attached kitchen and good for 12 people. Cost of each hut is about US $170. We allocated US $ 4000 yesterday for Group 4 (hut building group) to rebuild the huts. At the moment Group 4 is arranging supplies from near by towns. Getting there alone is quite an adventure and takes about one day because they have to watch the tide condition.

3. Restoring lives (helping the families and children)

The cyclone destroyed a lot of roads, bridges and houses but most of all - families. A lot of children are left orphans and their fates uncertain. We will need to help these families especially those with young children. Sometimes, for some families the situation is life and death and for some is to get back to their status quo. In any case we will try and help them restore their lives.

For the children that lost their parents, we’ve learned that it is best for the children to be cared by their relatives other than the orphanage. With this in mind, we will try to help the families and vulnerable children buy providing with their day to day essential needs.

From various sources, we have learned that there are about 3000-5000 orphans left behind by this cyclone. We can’t confirm this large numbers but we know a few places where there are about 200-300 kids. Not every one has a relative or village to go back to so they must be placed under good care. We must support the orphanages or build one to protect our vulnerable children.

Every dollar, every minutes count and together we can make a difference. We hope you would all agree and support any one of our plans. All suggestions and comments are most welcome. Please also see our action at "Donation and Distribution Report".

May 30th 2008: Report from the field - Budget Hut Building Group

2008-05-30T13:00:00.009+06:30

Hut Building Group has gone to Labutta, and they have just called in and informed us that they have started the building process at a small village, only reachable by boat, near Labutta. They are the first aid group to arrive in the area. Naturally, the villagers are so happy to see aid relief finally arriving. They said, no one has been there before. The group has already started rebuilding this village.

The villagers there have already begun building huts with whatever supplies and materials they had. The unfinished huts are small, for single families. So, the cost of these small huts are not the same as in the original plan - which called for large multi-family huts. And for this village, since the huts are half-finished, the group only needed to supply them with materials that the villagers could not get on their own. Approximately $1600 will be needed to procure those materials. This will cover 32 small huts for 100 people. MOEGYO has funded this with your donations.

May 27th 2008: Report from the Field on current situation in Myanmar (Burma)

2008-05-27T13:28:00.006+06:30

Some cars were stopped yesterday evening and they were eventually let go after their wheel tags were registered. Recently, there have been some cars distributing some flyers to the by-standers on the road. I don't know how effective passing out those flyers were, but now donations are being frowned upon, again... So, some people who plan to go out today cancelled their trip. Everyone is waiting to see what is the real situation.

May 27th 2008: Budget Huts Plan

2008-05-27T13:21:00.012+06:30

"The following is the translation of the latest blog entry from Nyi Lynn Seck titled "Budget Huts Plan". NLS has agreed to post it on MOEGYO blog. It's a good recount of an aid worker's experience and his on-ground thinking. The original blog entry is at http://nyilynnseck.blogspot.com/2008/05/budjet-hut-plan.html. MOEGYO is contributing funds for this plan. "

Budget Huts Plan:

From now on, we plan to build affordable huts for survivors of the cyclone, rather than giving them food and clothes. When we ask them what they need most, they tell us that they most urgently need housing and want to return to their farms.Out of a population of 500, one village has only 100 survivors left. About 30-40 are women. Most of the female survivors we met, don't want to return to the disaster areas yet, the place of their grief. Most of the men want to return even if authorities forbid them.

There are 2 kinds of cyclone victims - those who have reached the city and others who have not bothered to make it to the city. Everyone you meet in the cities aren't victims and every victim is not yet in the cities.We meet the real suffering victims upon travelling to the villages. Some villages have received aid from planes but it is not enough. Some villages are still not accessible due to the road conditions. These victims grew up and made their living on the rivers and lakes, therefore they don't seem overly worried about food. So long as there are rivers, finding fish and shrimps are not difficult. They are mostly worried about not being able to return to farming. They have to remove the salt water from the farmlands which were overswept by the rising tides. They then have to plow the soil. To do all that work, they first need a place to stay with a roof over their heads.

Obstacles
Building a house had its own obstacles.

- One was transportation. Some seaside villages require about five hours to get to by normal boats. Since many boats drowned during the cyclone, there are not enough boats to go around. It would be costly to permanently rent a boat. The first village that we built huts for - had a boat fortunately, and we only had to pay for fuel.

- Second obstacle was getting bamboo. The cyclone devastated many bamboo forests. Therefore, bamboo was hard to find. The distance of bamboo (from the village) would bring up the cost. The reason for choosing bamboo over wood will be explained later.

- Third obstacle was general use items. These are now very expensive in affected areas, so we are having to transport them from Yangon.

Group housing

The huts we built are not for single family use. Our discussions with the survivors tell us that they do not want to move whole families back to the village. Their plan is for the men to return first, a village's men will form and work together on a community farmland of 10-15 acres (they used to work on hundreds of acres on their own before), and they will continue to expand and grown on this year's crop. I look at them and I get goosebumps. Even in such disaster, they are forming long-term plans, why can't we plan long-term too? So, we discussed with them and they told us that they want to live together in group-houses, not one-family-one-house yet.
They won't live in these group-houses forever. But about 3 years for sure. After that, they will try to build separate houses. We therefore agreed upon building affordable huts for 2-3 year living.

Our budget huts are 20 x 15 feet. A kitchen of about 6x6 feet is attached. Hut will be built using bamboo. Tarpaulin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarpaulin> will be used for roofs and covers.

Why da-neet?
Some are asking why "da-neet" is not used.
- The reason is simple, many houses in these areas had their roofs redone with new batches of da-neet for the upcoming monsoon season - just before the cyclone hit. Thus, da-neet leaves that are growing now are fresh and still not hard enough to use for housing.

- Second reason is lots of women who used to make living as da-neet weavers have perished in the disaster, thus there's nobody to weave da-neet. So, tarpaulin - a bit more more expensive, but faster, easier and workable - was substituted.

Reason for using bamboo instead of wood is that wood is more expensive and hard to transport. Even if wood was donated from Yangon, it'd be difficult to first transport wood to Laputta, then to villages that need it. These victims don't have any money. Any matter that would unnecessarily complicate their minds should be avoided.

Budget
We call such huts 3x2 and 1-attached. Meaning there're six small rooms in a hut (with an attachment). One room is big enough to comfortably house 2 persons. A hut can house 12 people. Building five huts cost about 1,000,000 kyats ($850). A hut costs 200,000 kyats ($170) and one person's cost will be about 20,000 kyats ($17). These are actually really affordable housing.

These are more necessary now than big permanent houses (taking months to build) for them. The villagers can build the huts themselves. We provide the meals while they are building. By having them take part in building these huts, they also get a sense of contribution and understand that not everything can be given to them as gifts. After such huts are built, we will work together with other related NGOs to arrange sanitation and water.

Let's help

The cyclone took many lives. However much they are controlling their emotions, they have suffered much emotionally. Parents, siblings, spouses perished right in front of their eyes. We cannot feel we have done our jobs just by returning their lives to normal. We have to work and help them achieve something extra out of their losses. If their sanitation was not proper before, and it remains unchanged now - that'd mean surviving this ordeal didn't make any change in their lives. Nothing improved. We need to help them improve their state of mind, living standards and education. That's the only way their surviving of the cyclone would make any sense.

In other countries, there exist groups which console and help the victims. Why don't we have such groups? I'm saddened by this fact.There're about 100,000 displaced refugees. If we built such "budget huts" for every one of them, the bill will amount to 2 billion kyats. Our funds are minute compared to that huge number. But we will build as many huts as we can afford. If you wish to donate huts, you can calculate based on the information above, and donate for x number of villages, x number of huts, and so on. You don't have to send it though us either. Anyone can go down to these villages and analyze the on-ground requirements, and make useful contributions to help the victims.

May 25th 2008: Activities in Australia

2008-05-27T09:01:00.003+06:30

Hi All,

It has been a busy two weeks in the AU front.

Fund Raising:
With a lot of different Burmese (Myanmar) groups already putting efforts within the Burmese (Myanmar) community, I went outside the community for fund raising. It was a great opportunity for most of my friends who were wanting to help, but could not find a way to help directly or quickly. On 12th May one of them said "I sent a $500 donation to your account tonight for assistance in Burma. All the best with it and thank you for helping organise a means of contributing when it is so difficult to do it via other channels."

A total of $3950 was collected over the two weeks period. Of the $3950:-
1. $2323 was sent to Moegyo team member in Burma.
2. $997 was spent purchasing -
100 x 75g Savlon Antiseptic Cream, and
50 x 1L Hydralyte drink bottles.
3. The balance is held by myself.

I am looking to organise fund raising dinners and events. Watch this space for further updates on these.

Collection of Supplies:
I approached Fuji Xerox Australia - the organisation I work for to do clothing and supplies collection within Fuji Xerox sites. Management agreed - as long as I can organise for someone to manage each site. At the moment we have 2 sites (out of 7 in Sydney) - managed by myself and a Burmese colleague for the collection. I am working on recruiting some colleagues to manage two other sites. The company has also donated cardboard boxes to use for packaging / shipping. (The total weight of the boxes came to approx. 800kg).

I also reached out to church going friends to help with collecting clothes and supplies. To date 2 churches (a Chinese Church and an Indonesian Church) have donated clothing and supplies which made up 1/2 of what we have collected so far.

Kensington ABC Childcare (a branch of the largest Childcare Centre chain in AU) where my wife works also helped out with collecting clothes and supplies. 1/4 of clothing collected to date came from this childcare centre. Last week, I sent several fliers printed in colour with photos taken from MOEGYO site to the director of this childcare centre - and now five ABC Childcare Centres within Sydney have those fliers posted and are helping out with the collection!

Also, I approached my daughters' primary school and one other primary school. Both Principals kindly agreed to do collection for us at their schools this coming week. I will approach another one this week.

My younger brother is also helping out with fund raising as well as clothing, food and medical supplies collection within his circle of friends.

As the result, we were busy over this weekend collecting various donations around Sydney. By Sunday afternoon, estimated 10 cubic metre of clothing, food and medical supplies were collected (as well as some buckets of nails weighing around 30kg). To put in perceptive, 10 cubic metre is a little over 1/7 of the 12 metre long shipping container with inside capacity of 67 cubic metre. The supplies collected were donated on behalf of MOEGYO to Burmese Community in Sydney.

I am expecting another round of collection next Friday. With the growing donation base, I am asking people to bring their donation to designated collection points to save us having to run around. Even with that, the area we need to cover will be quite large. I have recruited my brother and some of our friends to help out with the collection and sorting of the articles.

That's it for now. I will try to do weekly updates from now on.

Rgds,

WN

May 24th 2008: Suggestion on orphanages

2008-05-27T08:53:00.005+06:30

One of our fellow groups shared the information with us:

I hope you don't mind me responding again, from my child protection experience. In Myanmar it is so difficult to avoid putting children in institutions because infrastructure is so weak. I used to work with street children (in Myanmar) and we struggled with this issue all the time.

However, again, please encourage people - whoever is going to the affected areas or delivering aid.

They should encourage families to keep their children with them, even though it is hard to feed them and they (the families) think that orphanages (or other people who offer to take care of their babies) may be able to help. Families are the best people to take care of children. Orphanages all round the world, and including in Myanmar, often have children who are not true or 'double orphans' but have a family member living. Due to the pressure to educate and feed their children parents and families put their children in institutions.
I believe that the monastic system, and also the many other religious groups - like the Christian groups, do an amazing job to take care of the poor, and especially children. There are a number of agencies, international and local, who work on this issues and for any long term support any institution should contact them. If people are providing funding, remind them that it is difficult to sustain support over the long term (you have to take care of those children for the next 18 years!)

So some messages (given in encouragement):
Encourage families to keep their children with them. Encourage people who are giving aid to prioritise and take into account those families who are taking care of extra children (including orphans).
Encourage people to be careful of allowing children in their community to go with individuals they don't know (I know from colleagues in Myanmar that traffickers are operating).
Encourage those wishing to start up institutions to try and reunite children with their families, in the short or long term. I know that the International Red Cross, Save the Children and World Vision are all working to support tracing activities to help children find their families.

I hope that these messages are understood. I've worked in other countries after emergencies and many people want to help, but sometimes that help can be less helpful than they realise. I honestly believe that orphanages and institutions should be the places of last resort. I know that Myanmar families and communities do an amazing job of keeping their children in their communities, and I also know (from personal experience) what a fantastic and unique support the religious institutions provide. I had many positive experiences of working with the monasteries...

Warm regards,

May 23rd 2008: Report from the field - Group3-ODG

2008-05-24T12:01:00.009+06:30

PaThein:
We were in Pathein yesterday (May 22 2008). We estimated that there were about 3955 displaced people (750 families), who had come from Latputtar & NgaPuTaw areas. Situation is improving. Food, clothes and shelters are available. Becoz, donor from Pathein, is providing food to the people everyday. But around May 25, they would like to return to their home villages. They are now living at the State schools. And the State school will reopen in coming June. They will need money to go back to school. They have blankets but they need cooking aluminum pans, plates, mosquito nets & Tarpaulin (water proof).

MyaungMya:
Currently, we are trying to contact MyanngMya by calling the local organizers and we have not been able to reach anybody yet. However, a friend of us who had returned from MyaungMya last Monday told us that food and shelters are available, but health care is needed. The displaced people will have to go back to their home/villages and they will need cooking pot and pans, plates, mosquito nets and Tarpaulin (water proof).

DayDaYal:
Some villages around DayDaYal that are accessible by car are frequently visited by the donors and they have no major problems at this point. But there are families from Taw Kykaung and Tike Kyaung areas that have been displaced and sheltering at DayDaYal area. They will like to go back to their home/villages. But there are still a lot of problems and it is very difficult to go back to Tike Kyaung. We estimated that there are 45 families. Officials gave them one 52' length tarpaulin but they needed more. They need blanket, aluminum pans, plates, mosquito nets and tarpaulin and these are the best to donate at Tike Kyaung. In addition, we estimated that there are about 86 families from Kyone Bote area sheltering in DayDaYal area. They are also facing the same problems like others.

Orphanages School:
Yesterday (May 22), in Pathein we heard that there were 21 orphans at one of the refuge camp. We heard that the officials are taking care of the orphans and planning to establish a permanent place for the orphans. We will go to LatPutTar and report to you in details on this development. One of our organizers lives in LatputTar and we plan to give you the details soon.

May 23th 2008: Our actions during the third week of Cyclone in Myanmar

2008-05-23T23:28:00.009+06:30

Total donations received as of 23 May 2008: $40,308 (Grand total as of today)

Purchased and Distribution:
Please click here for detailed distribution and areas reached for this week ending 23 May 2008.

Thank you all very much for your generosity and support. Together, we can make a difference.

Part 2 of 2 – Report from the Field (May 15 – 18 2008)

2008-05-22T09:42:00.005+06:30

I am back ! Sorry I could not report to you all sooner. I was really down and had to recharge. The trip to MM was quite short but we were able to accomplish most of our missions.

Day One - May 17 2008:

- Arrived Yangon around 11 a.m. with 160kgs (330.7lbs) of goods. The custom officials were quite OK with our boxes. As soon as they see that it is for cyclone victims, they let us go.
Yangon, once it is known as Garden city is now Garbage city. Most of the big trees are all gone and whatever left is on pavement waiting to be collected.

- Went to Q and had a short meeting with one of his staff. Her group went to delta regions last weekend (May 11th -12th) and she was sharing their experience. They are able and willing to go to these villages where it can only be reached by small boats. If the funding was provided they can go to these areas. According to her ppl, going to these remote villages must take rubber boots as the mud can reach knee high. We gave them 1,000,000 kyats to buy rice bags and some rubber slippers. She will report the detail status of their trip this week.

- Met with medical students and made arrangements for May 18 trip. We planned to go with the medical students group accompanied by their teachers and some other volunteers. Bought some medicine and some supplies recommended/requested by the doctors.

Day Two - May 18 2008

- 4:30 am went to meeting point and loaded a truck with Rice bags, Dry Beans, Clothes, some dry food, milk power bags, Ovaltine, Milo and some medicine. We also took some plastic sheets donated from BKK. This group of about 40 volunteers also boarded the same truck.

- As soon as we left Yangon, around Hlaing Thar Yar, we started seeing trucks full of supplies heading to the delta regions. It was an amazing scene where a lot of local citizens (who has very little) chipping in and helping the cyclone victims. The cars were driving bumper to bumper with the speed of 20 KM per hour.

- We did not see any check-points along the way.

- Our rice truck was able to go without anyone asking questions. We also saw several trucks with rice bags along the way.

- We started seeing people (villagers/victims) lining along the road right after Twan Te Township. There were cars stopping and distributing various supplies such as rice, beans, biscuits and also shampoo packages.

- Monks and some local patrol were helping the crowd to stay in line and also helping the flow of traffic.

- We saw some ppl dropping things from their cars. It was a narrow two way road and it is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!! for the kids as they run after the goods. So anyone who is going to these regions, PLEASE DO NOT DROP THE GOODS FROM THE CAR.

- As I went on this trip, I have some doubts about Water Purification Tablets (WPT). We were not able to hand them to the villagers because it can be harmful to them if they don't use them properly. According to some villagers they have no problems with water as it rains everyday and this is what they been using all their life. The monasteries and local shelters are also using the rain water and as it constantly rains, they are not worry about water supply. I think WPT are only useful at hospitals and some large organized camp sites. Definitely, should not give them to the villagers.

- Myanmar rainy season is really a rainy season: rain all day. The only difference is pouring rain to drizzling rain. It is really hard to function on this constant rain. You can only imagine ppl living in these 4 feets high huts with very little cover on them surrounded by muddy floor. A lot of villagers asked for clothes and plastic sheets.

- The scene of rows and rows of people sitting along the road was heartbreaking. As most of the people (volunteers) were not being able (or too dangerous) to go to the remote villages, these villagers came out from these remote regions and waited for the supplies along the road. Of course, the young children and elderly were left at the villages.

- Our car became a mobile medical facility for the doctors and medical students. They treated the patients while we distributed the goods. I took some plastic lunch boxes from BKK and I put small towels for elderly and milk power for mothers with ORS, Tylenol and Ovaltine in every single box. Most people wanted the box more than the content. :(

- A lot of heartbreaking stories: parents lost their children and children lost their parents. I don't know which one is worse. I can only hope that their void will be fulfilled somehow. The orphans can be targeted by human traffickers and we must do something for them. At the moment, most of the monasteries have been looking after them.

- Around 5 p.m. we started distributing Plastic sheets we got from BKK's donor. We were able to help 5 families, a roof to sleep in and they were extremely pleased with our sheets. The Da-Neet they've used for roofing is out of supply and they were reusing the leftover from cyclone.

- Gave 4 heavy duty sheets to one family of seven people. They installed the sheets right in front of us. Gave 2 sheets to a woman (widow) with two kids, living in half-finished roof as she can't afford to finish the rest of the roof. The Da-Neet cost Kyat 15,000 for 100 and it is not even available to buy.

- Gave 1 Big sheet to the old Man living in the monastery. We saw this bamboo framed small house, but no one was there. We asked the neighbor and said this house belongs to Old Man who treats kids for free with traditional medicine. The whole neighborhood was happy for the old man even the monks came out and said we made the right choice.

A few comments (quotable quotes) from the villagers:

" Guys, our goal is to get rice"

" Are there any people left in Yangon?"

" I can't take the smell of gas anymore" (They were sitting 1 ft away from the car)

" Do you have any clothes/sweaters for us? "

" How come it is always women clothes?"

That's it for now, I will give you the details of things we distributed along with the receipts tomorrow morning. Regards to all,

PT

Part 1 of 2 : Report from the Field (May 15 – 17 2008)

2008-05-22T09:27:00.004+06:30

Hi All,

Just want to share a quick summary of the trip.15 May: I was able to take about 150kgs (330.7lbs). No overweight charges, thanks to Myanmar Airways International. Flight delay and arrived late evening in YGN.

16 May:

Channels

We managed to meet with different groups (volunteers groups, business groups and local groups) to find different channels to distribute our food/supplies.

All of them, obviously, have different ways/channels of distributing supplies. Since they are all big, we may need to go along with them within the region to reach our food/supplies to reach to the hands of people who need help/assistance. We can go along with them on their trips and donate directly to the people. For example, one PSO gave me information on when and where they are going and we can go along with them and donate to the people. (He called me from a boat and said they would wait us somewhere in Twante if we want to go with them.) All we need to do is to give them one day in advance of the information about how much/what we are donating and to where we are going donate/distribute our donations (food/supplies).

Just to give you an idea and it applies to other two channels as well, I assume. So, let's have your views on this.

Supplies

SNA’s group picked-up the supplies for the next day.

17 May:

PT and HHA arrived YGN. Customs randomly checked boxes and asked for the contents.

- Met with UKK (Local Soccer Club) MOEGYO supported 500,000 kyats to buy rice. They will go to: Oh Bo Village, DeDaye.

- Met with Myanmar-Burma Emergency Aid Network through friends from Manila (who donated apprx. $2,500 to MOEGYO). Relatively large group. MOEGYO supported 1,000,000 kyats to buy blankets to some villages in DeDaye. Details will be provided later.

Let me stop here for now.

NL

May 20th 2008: Report from the field: Personal Experience - Group1-MSNA

2008-05-21T07:51:00.013+06:30

Hi all,

This is embarassing to admit. Previously, I had envisioned myself to go all out and do the necessary humanitarian works to save all those poor Nagis victims. But after the day return trip on Saturday (17 May), I was emotionally and physically exhausted. (and we just went to Twantee area and Kun Chan Gone, not to the delta region. I can't imagine how I would be in those areas.) I was consumed with so many different thoughts and emotions that I could speak about the day's experience at home in the next day only.

Nevertheless here is what I like to share with you all.

Starting from Yangon, we already see many cars, trucks leaving Yangon. At a check point out of Hlaing Tharyar, somebody took a glance in our car, but said nothing. It was ok. No questions asked. We were very glad that the blockage were not conducted anymore. We heard everybody is going out ok.

Phayar-ngote-to Village (northern and southern part):

We had planned to go to Phayar-ngote-to village on the Twantee area in early last week. There are some damage in the village, but it is not so bad. Their primary school needs to be rebuilt because the foundation is tilted now. The villagers were extremely happy and told us that only when donors come to them directly, they are able to receive the goods. In this north side village, we donated (1kg of rice, 5-7 pcs of potatoes, 5-7 pcs of onions, salt, 2 eggs) per family, also donated were clothing, snacks, some baby milk powders from MOEGYO. We offered mosquito net, and a blanket to Sayadaw. The population is 110 families in this village. In the south village, we donated 3 bags of rice, 1 bag of onions, a half bag of potatoes, 250 eggs, baby milk powder to the monastery. We didn't distribute to each family because we didn't have enough time.

Thone-Khwa Village, Kun Chan Gone (KCG) (about 600 families):

We continued our trip to Kun Chan Gone. As soon as we go into KCG area, the devastation is apparent, little has been repaired. The smell was also very bad from some rotten bamboos, and trees. We started seeing lines of people standing by the road to grab any thing that donor's cars may drop onto them. (I don't mean they are dangerous and will attack you but they just stand by at the road side and waiting to get any food or supplies). At one place, a car in front of us dropped some stuff into the children crowd, the children running around trying to grab anything they find on the street. It was a chaos and was very dangerous both for the kids and for the cars driving behind.

Once we get into the dirt road leading to the village, we were immediately welcomed by the nasty smell. We found some dead buffaloes and cows in the creek next to the village and the paddy fields. I didn't go see it myself but I was told there were also some human corpses lying around in the creek in the back of the village. This is after 2 weeks of cyclone. When we asked why they never cleared these dead bodies, the villagers said, they had cleared some bodies (about 200 something died in this village) in the beginning. But these new bodies are drifted from somewhere else, there were no one to claim them, and the villagers are not willing to clean them. They said it sure smells bad, but we are now used to it, and we are not going to go near them. So, you can see and feel how bad it is. At the end, someone has to lead the way and clean these as water and air around them are so polluted.

We donated Food/Supplies from MOEGYO in this village plus the clothing and snacks that we brought along. We donated the items to the families taking refuge in the monastery. There were about 80 families in the monastery and some more from the village. We labeled the foot powder and the medicated creams in Burmese and we explained them what they were.

In summary, we like to do following things for our next trip:

For immediate relief efforts, we like to bring
- Rice, onions, potatoes, salt, eggs, instant noodles, pots, plates, cups etc
- mosquito nets, blankets, clothings, towels
- water purification tablets

We think that the population within day-return trips from Yangon area cannot die of hunger with the way the current donations are going on. In Thone kwa village, during the 2 hour that we were there, there were other 4 donors doing the same thing like us. And there are donors everyday, the villagers told us. We were wondering if there is anything we can do for the second phase of relief: community redevelopment program.

For second phase, community redevelopment program:

- Schools are opening soon. Some schools are damaged and collapsed to the ground, some are still occupied by the victims, some are still under repair. If the parents have a hard time going thru day to day they are not going to send their children to schools on the extra cost. We should be able to look after these kids, providing books, pens, pencils, text books, school furniture etc.

- The houses need to be re-built really quickly. Monsoon is hitting already, they have to be under a safe roof before things get worse.

- The farming season has to be started in a few days time. Now, these farmers do not know how to start the season, they lost their cows/buffaloes, any trucks (how do you call lae-htun-set?) they have, they also lost their rice-seeds. The situation for the next coming months is very doom. Please keep these options in your mind to help them out.

- Can we get some items from you for our next trip? Or some funds to buy rice, onions, potatoes, eggs etc for food items and books, pens, pencils, text books, shoulder bags, rain coats etc for school children?

Thank you so much for all the contribution you have provided to us.I will send the photos later on. Will also fill out the forms NL/PT gave us. I still have tylenol, some baby milk powder, milo and candles left with us. We will bring them with us on next trip or we will donate further to the groups that we know who are doing several trips in a week.Some groups are starting to talk about coordinated efforts between us. There will be a meeting on 22 May with our group.

Thanks and regards,
MSNA

May 20th: Suggestions on supplies - update from Myanmar

2008-05-20T13:43:00.012+06:30

Local vs. Overseas if items are also available in local markets:
Some items are more expensive overseas. In Myanmar, there're locally made substitutes or "made-for-Myanmar" products that are less expensive. Transportation costs and time can also be saved. Plus, buying in local markets will also support the local business.

What they don't need:
Chocolates, biscuits, beauty products, luxury items.

What they need urgently:
· Food (some areas are getting enough from donors, remote areas are not). Main diet consists of rice, vegetables, meat, nga-peet. Anything along that line would be good.
· More urgently - "da-neet" and bamboo for building huts.
· Clothes (new or old).
· Boats. It's the same everywhere. People in easily accessible areas are getting aid. But those in the remotest regions are barely surviving, because they are hard to get to. Only boats and helicopters can reach these areas.

What they would also like to have:
· Instant coffee (lots of Myanmar rural people drink instant coffee mix everyday! this gives them energy, and some are even addicted to the caffeine)
· Instant noodles (not really necessary if they got their main diet)
· School uniforms, and money for school enrollment, and stationery (schools open in 2 weeks)
· Milk powder (for babies who lost their moms), most rural Myanmar's don't drink milk, Ovaltine, etc.
* Educate recipients to use boiled/bottled water for milk preparation for babies
· Plastic cups for bathing, washing, receiving rice rations, etc.
· Plastic plates and bowls for eating
· Bowls, pans for cooking meals

Some local prices for consideration: (just to get a general idea)
· There's an advertisement in the newspapers for 600-kyats tee-shirts, special pricing for donors.
· Toothbrush - 100-150kyats
· Instant noodles - 150-180 kyats
· Toothpaste - 350-400 ks
· Soap - 200 ks per bar
· Coffee - 130 ks per satchel retail price (whole economy bags bought in bulk are less expensive)
· Blankets – 3,500 ks
· Towels – 3,500 ks
· Mosquito net (single) – 6,500 ks
· 100 "Da-neet" cost about 15,000 kyats

A recent exchange rate was 1140 kyats to a US dollar.

Return to their farms:
The survivors are anxious to get back to their farms. The monsoon is starting now, and they need to plow and sow their farms. Women and children can stay in these refugee camps until alternative housing and/or relief can be made available, but the men have decided to return to the farms to start work. Only then will their livelihoods be back to normal. They need to build big huts housing about 20 men each near their farms. They can build the huts themselves, but they need "da-neet" and other materials. Such materials used to be abundant, but Nargis wiped out whole areas so things are scarce. Da-neet can only be bought from other regions (i.e. Mawlamyine) and transported by ship. But there's no such logistics system yet.

Saving the children:
Many, many children have been made orphans overnight. I'll spare you the heart-wrenching details. Orphanages need to be established to handle the extra load and really help these poor little souls continue their life journey on an even-footing.

Near Mount Popa, there is a monk who has pledged to provide space and sheter for 300 orphans. He will manage it, hire local staff, send the kids to government school which is nearby. He has enough space. But he needs help and donations to build housing and especially procure 6 month to 1 year ration of food. After that, he can take care of the orphanage himself, because enough donations should be rolling in on a regular basis by then (according to the monk).

MOEGYO Humanitarian Foundation (MHF)

2008-05-19T01:34:00.006+06:30

Dear all,

To date, we have received $24,539 in donations, and all our expenses and activities have been documented to make us transparent. To help the victims more effectively and to make us more accountable to our donors, the MOEGYO team has been registered as a not-for-profit organization called "MOEGYO Humanitarian Foundation" in the New York state as of 15th May 2008.

The MOEGYO Humanitarian Foundation pledges to provide relief and assistance to the victims of the disaster in the most effective and efficient way. We are a donor-supported humanitarian organization, and your donations will help us rebuild and improve lives of the people in Myanmar and bring hope to many people whose lives have been shattered.

To donate to MOEGYO, please make check payable to:

MOEGYO Humanitarian Foundation

Address:
85-22 60th Road
Middle Village, NY 11379
USA

Email:
moegyo2008@gmail.com

We would like to thank our donors, volunteers and advisers around the world because we would not have been able to provide this much needed assistance to the victims in Myanmar without your help. We are touched by the support and kindness which made us stronger to help those who lost their loved ones, homes and livelihood because of the Cyclone Nargis.

Thank you.

The MOEGYO team

May 18th: Our actions during the second week of Cyclone in Myanmar

2008-05-19T01:33:00.007+06:30

Total donations received as of 18 May 2008: $24,539 (Grand total as of today)

Purchased and distributed:
Rice - 100 bags
Milk Powder 700 gr. - 23 bags
Milk powder 1200 gr. - 14 bags
Ovatine, milo (960 individual pak of 3 in 1) - 48 bags

Medicine:
Clotrimazole Cream (for Skin) - 400 pcs
Foot powder (for Skin) - 300 pcs
Imodium - 1 box
Tylenol - 2000 tablets
ORS- Electrolyte, Royal D - 380 packs

Others:
Detergent - 84 packs
Candles

Cash donation
Bagalay Phone Phone

Areas reached with the help of our fellow friends/teams in Myanmar: Than Lwin Town, Kyauk Tan City Payarkone village; Shwe Pauk Kan, Insein, Dagon Myo Thit

Thank you all very much for your generosity and support. Together, we can make a difference.

Supplies with price list

2008-05-17T18:46:00.015+06:30

We are collecting

Rice 50kgs/bag - $ 17.00
Lunch Bag - $ 0.80
Milk Powder 700 grams/ bag - $ 5.00
Milk Powder 1200 grams/bag - $ 10.00
Candles 51/pack - $ 3.00
First Aid Kit - $ 5.00
Hardware - Nail 18 kgs - $ 55.00
Plastic Sheets - $ 15.00

Boat rental is about US$100 per day including gas

Used children and adult clothing - collecting in Bangkok and Sydney. Please check with our contacts in those countries for donation.

We are also collecting rubber boots.

Price list from local markets in Myanmar

Toothbrush - 100-150kyats·
Instant noodles - 150-180 kyats·
Toothpaste - 350-400 ks·
Soap - 200 ks per bar·
Coffee - 130 ks per satchel retail price (whole economy bags bought in bulk are less expensive)· Blankets – 3,500 ks·
Towels – 3,500 ks·
Mosquito net (single) – 6,500 ks·
100 "Da-neet" cost about 15,000 kyats

Ruber Slippers
Horse Star (multi sizes and colors, made in Thailand)- 1600ks

Ruber long boots
Horse Black color only - 2300 ks

Buckets (Black color with plastic handle)Made in Thailand
size 15 - 12000ks (one dozen) 1000ks per each
size 16 - 14000 ks ( one dorzen) 1167 ks per each
size 18 - 17000 ks (one dorzen)1417 ks

A recent exchange rate was 1140 kyats to a US dollar.

May 16th: Suggestions on supplies

2008-05-17T18:31:00.003+06:30

Suggestions from one of the contributors:

The items you mention like milk powder, ovaltine, milo, detergent and old clothes should be relatively easy to collect from parents. It sounds like it would be better if you had cash to buy medicines. Have you thought of taking hand soap as a cholera prevention measure? What about simple sulfa drugs, eg. sulphadimidine, sulphanilamide, to treat tropical ulcers? They should be cheaper than more modern antibiotics.

May 15th: Report on Myanmar

2008-05-16T02:58:00.005+06:30

Information shared by one of the fellow groups:

Just to share the current situation from the group from our side.

From the visit to Kun Kyan Gone and after talking with some of the survivals, the following facts are learnt:

1. Rice trucks are banned on Yangon-Pathein Road at this moment.
2. Aids reach to Kun Kyan Gone township but not around the villages where transportation are difficult (half an hour on boat), where badly cyclone hitted areas.
3. The group goes today with car loaded with foods and water bottle for two target villages around Kun Kyan Gone Township. (5 L equivalent in kind stuffs).
4. Stuffs for distribution are instant noodles, Custom/Super Kwekar, water putirification bottles and candles. At the moment, instant noodle cost in Yangon is 200 kyats per pack, 800 kays for a pack of candle and 3200 kyats for one big pack of kweykar-out (30 small packs included). Prices can be changed subject to the situation and commodities prices.
5. Continues to tighten access to Ayeyarwady Division and other regions impacted by the cyclone.
6. Local authorities pay much more attention to distribuition whith crowd people and ask some queries which could leads to limit our access to those areas.
7. Distribution with large amount of food tons cannot make at one time. That means donor/group has to go there several times with minimum level of food tons.
8. What the group plan to do currently is one the village elders will wait them in Kun Kyan Gone and take them to those villages.
9. They will put the stuffs one of the house or monastery and call young lead people/senior sayardaw who has power from the village and let them to contribute the stuffs and the group will monitor and manage behind it. That leads to direct distribution and quiet.
10. Facts –one of the bridges near Bogalay is very badly damaged. The load of the truck or cars is very limited.

Let's wait and see what the group will tell when they come back.

May 15th: Medicine Information

2008-05-16T02:50:00.004+06:30

Shared by medical doctor friends:

METRONIDAZOLE 500 mg x 3 for 10 days
· Long-term gut infection causing diarrhea (chronic amoebic dysentery)
· sudden severe diarrhea due to infection caused by the amoeba Entamoeba histolytica (acute amoebic dysentry)
And then Furamide (Diloxanide) to eradicate the intestinal cysts

May 15th: Report on Myanmar

2008-05-15T23:29:00.004+06:30

- The latest news from Yangon is that a group (not ours) went to Kon Chan Kone area on May 13th to donate some rice bags. Right before they run out of supplies the angry crowd started to fight. They had to leave (run) from the area. This is the first we hear this kind of story. Usually all the crowd line up and they were very orderly.

- So far I do not have any information from our distributors in Delta area. The doctors group should be back soon. Hopefully by the end of this week, I will have alot of news.

- My cousin is going to delta area this weekend with his classmates from Medical shcool. They are willing to help in anyway they can. I told them that we will support them if they need any medical supplies. He will let me know.

May 15th: Supplies bought

2008-05-15T23:17:00.004+06:30

-Shipment of supplies went out today. The airline took all our goods (150+ kgs) without charging any excess fees. Poor airline is loosing so much money but helping others.

The list of supplies for today's shipment
-Tylenol 2000 tablets
-ORS 380 paks
-Imodium 1 box
-Milk powder 14 bags 1200 gr.
-Milk Powder 23 bags 700 gr.
-Ovatine, milo 48 bags (960 individual pak of 3 in 1)
-Detergent 84 paks

Yesterday's detailed list:
- Clotrimazole skin cream 400 pcs
- Foot Powder 300 pcs
- Most likely we are going to put them in individual bags and donate to each one. This way is alot easier when you are surrounded by hundreds of ppl.

PT

May 14th: Supplies bought

2008-05-14T23:49:00.003+06:30

Hi all,

- We bought alot of supplies today. I will email you the list tomorrow.

- I am thinking of doing an individual pack to donate, it is alot easier to give esp when you are surrounded my hundreds of ppl.

- Shipment of skin cream and foot powder went out today. I think I already sent you the receipt.

Let me go and arrange the supplies for photo shoot. I will ask NL post it today.

Pt

May 13th 2008: Our distribution today in Myanmar

2008-05-14T07:54:00.007+06:30

- 30 bags of rice to Than Lyin Town, Kyauk Tan City Payarkone village
There are about 9 villages population between 500-1000
According to some sources 75% of these villagers are homeless

- 30 Bags of rice (50 kgs each) to Show Pauk Kan
The local monestry is giving away water and we also donate fuel/gas to run the generator

- 30 Bags of rice to Insein- Shwe Pyi Thar
Monestry helps us distribute the rice bags to each individual.
At the moment Sayardaw is sheltering about 500 survivors. Everyday he is feeding them rice with beans.

- 10 Bags of rice to Yarzagyo Monestry in Dagon Seikan area.
There are about 200 people under the care of Sayardaw. We also serve Milk with rice to children.

- Bokalay monestary is also sheltering about 700 survivors and they are able to buy rice from near by town of Pathein. Since the transport to that areas is quite a chanllenge we donate $600 and they will manage to buy from their own source.
Donation is given to DAM who goes there with his own team.

- I am still gathering the supplies, I will give you the detail list of next shipment very soon.

Pt

May 13th: Information on high energy biscuits

2008-05-14T01:33:00.006+06:30

Just to share information on high energy biscuits:

Our friends said they couldn't find high energy biscuits in Bangkok, but these biscuits are available in Dubai. One of the suppliers in Dubai said there are 140 metric tons of BP-5 in stock. The unit price is EURO 1.81 Ex Stock. (Each unit= 500g).
info@compact.no http://www.compact.no/

SS

May 13th: Price list

2008-05-14T00:56:00.003+06:30

PT,
Please create a post entry for price lists. We will tag and create another link for that.
SS

May 13th: Supplies bought

2008-05-14T00:47:00.001+06:30

Got the skin cream and also powder for rash. I've attached 3 receipts. One from Medicine company and the others are from Save the Children Funds. I made a list of things ppl can donate with price. Should we put it in our Immediate needs or create a another page?

Shwe Paut Kan: Photos posted

2008-05-13T12:14:00.002+06:30

Sixteen Photos taken in Shwe Paut Kan have been posted.

NL

May 12th 2008 Situation Report

2008-05-12T22:36:00.003+06:30

- Just came back from the meeting with one of our field person. Her group is targeting affected areas around the outskirt of Yangon. They went to Shwe Puak Kan and donated rice, water and soap. It is quite difficult to give directly to victims as most of the official are afraid of crowd gathering. She did managed to give directly after some convincing. Photo of their action will be posted soon.

PT

May 12th: Report on Myanmar

2008-05-12T21:04:00.004+06:30

1. No foreigners allowed in any of the disaster areas.
2. No cameras allowed in disaster areas.
3. Donation / charity groups are springing up all over the country and the world. Many are raising cash. Many are collecting items (clothing, etc). Some items are being delivered to disaster areas.
4. Some areas are still off-limits, as survivors are over-eager to get their share of the distribution that sometimes it can lead to looting. People have reported being stopped at knife-point and asked to give more food / items, in some areas.
5. Once you get in the field, a lot of people come back literally with only the shirt on their backs. I.e. you go there with a jacket and a teeshirt, you only come back with your tee.
6. Bodies are still visibly floating in the water. Will take a few more days for them to sink or decompose.
7.There are 100,000 survivors. For example, $2Million will come to about a dollar per survivor for 20 days. As food prices have soared and no one can grow their own food anymore, a dollar a day is not enough to sustain life. So if we up the burn-rate to 2 dollars per day, the number of days comes down to 10 days. This is just for food. It doesn't include shelter, clothing, funds for business to re-start.
8. We need a few billions of US$ in total. How to get that? That's the big question.
9. Also with loss of human lives, so many many many cows and bulls have perished. These people cannot recover without their tools of trade along with farmlands.

May 12th 2008: Supplies: What should we get?

2008-05-12T10:43:00.007+06:30

PT,

As per our talk, and recent emails discussions, our focus for coming rounds is
- medicine (skin medicine, antibiotics, etc.)
- water purification tablets
- milk powder
- packaging of supplies for individual use with the help of volunteers in BKK
- instant noodles
- dry food

We get some report from our volunteer researcher that high energy biscuits are available in BKK. This may be a good idea for those areas that NL mentioned rice is too heavy to carry.

Please send as much as you can for next tues batch. We pledge $5000 for that.

Thank you.
SS

May 12th 2008: Supplies: What should we get?

2008-05-12T10:40:00.003+06:30

SS,
I've tried contacting noodle factory owner but his phone is not working. According to our mutual friend he can help and if I remember it correcctly it is about K200 US 0.18. Mama noodle alone cannot fill you up or makes you thirsty but most burmese put rice in their noodle to fill their stomach. I think noodle is great. Let me know.Our target to ship this Tue as much as we can. We are targeting to send skin medicine and some dry food.

PT

May 11th 2008 Situation report from BKK

2008-05-12T07:57:00.003+06:30

- Alot of people are having salt burn from the sea water and the exposure to sun so we would like to send some skin soothing creams. One doctor suggested anti-histamine or strong one anti-pluritic. We are also considering some other medicine for disesase prevention/control medicines. We will contact our local dealer to give us in large quantity. Will let you know soon.

Shelters
The temporary sherters are availalble in monestries and some camp sites but most people would like to rebuild their houses. As you know, moonsoon/rainy season is already on the way and if they keep on living in these tents the spread diseases are bound to happen. Also I dont think these temp shelters can support for long period. I think we should consider their appeal for Nails and some hardwares.

-We've got some pictures from the field already and we are working to upload into our picture gallery very soon. I know alot of donors would like to see the pictures of our action and I can definately understand that given the news from Myanmar. But with limited accessibility to camera , telephone, computer and internet access it is proof to be difficult for our volenteer to send back the info right away.This is our primary concern as well and we will try our best to get the pictures and reports. In the meantime, please know that every item is recorded and not one item will be wasted and every person we gave to send their Metta.

- I will be buying more Milk Powder today as young and old can eat that with rice.
Our arranged monestreis will be cooking rice with Milk powder, they called it "Milky Rice" and they enjoyed it very much. Should we include Mama noodles too? I can arrange to buy it in Myanmar.

- Our next shipment target is this Tuesday or Wenesday.

- The latest news from Yangon is most of the phones (line phone) are working now.

Regards,

Pt

May 11th 2008: Our action during the first week of Cyclone in Myanmar

2008-05-11T20:08:00.011+06:30

Total donations received as of 11 May 2008: $13,798 (grand total from all countries)

Purchased:
Water:
12,000 Water purification tablets - 1 Litre per tablet (distributed)
3000 Tablets - 30 Litre per tablet (on the way) Shipped today May 11th with Doctors group.

Rice:
244 Rice bags (154 bags distributed) The remaining 90 rice bags will be distributed to various monestries in Shwe Pyi Thar, Hlaing Thar yar, South and North Dagon, Dala, Kyauk Tan

Other supplies:
20,000 tablets of Tylenol (distributed)
600 packets ORS powder (distributed)
300 3 in 1 packets of Oat Meal (distributed)
150 3 in 1 packets of Milo (distributed)
390 3 in 1 packets of Ovatine (distributed)
100 bags Milk powder (on the way) Shipped today May 11th 2008 with doctors group

Areas reached with the help of our fellow friends/teams in Myanmar:
Yangon Division: Hlaing Thar Yar, Dala, TharKayTha, South and North Dagon, Shwe Pyi Thar
Irrawady Division: Delta area : Bogalay, Twantay, Laputta

Thank you all very much for your generosity and support!!! Together, we can make a difference.

SS

May 11th: New links on the blog

2008-05-11T18:16:00.005+06:30

We created 2 links under Important Information for "Immediate Needs" and "Dos and Don'ts". We will add more items under these links as we go along.

SS

Distribution Update

2008-05-11T10:34:00.003+06:30

-A gourp of Myanmar doctors leaving tonight from BKK to Yangon and they will take all our WTB and Milk Power bags.

- A same doctors group will leave to Bogalay tomorrow at 5 a.m. and they will take our supplies and distribute for us. I will give them WPT and Milk Power bags. Detail of distribution items with destination to be followed.

-KTHZ group going to Bogalay and Pyar Bon areas and they will also distribute WPT and milk powder bags. Detail of distribution items to be followed.

- We will have lunch bags prepared in local monestries and distribute in ShwePyiThar, Kyaik Tan, Dala, Hlaing Thar Yar, South and North Dagon.
Detail of cost and with quantity to be followed.

- The survivors would like to rebuild their houses, they desperately need nails.
12 Pate Tha (18 kgs?? )of Nails is $55

- Would it be possible to create a box with header "Immediate Needs" ?

Regards to all.

Pt

Quick Updates (10 May 2008)

2008-05-11T03:55:00.008+06:30

10 May 2008 (Saturday)
(check photos from the trip in the photo gallery)

07:30 hr - Filled up Diesel (10 gallons at 7,500 Kyat/gallon)
07:55 hr - Left Yangon (through Hlaing Thar Yar)
08:45 hr - Reached Ayeyarwaddy Division
09:05 hr - Reached junction (left: MaUBin, PhyarBon, Bogalay and right: to Pathein area) - decided to go to Bogalay, upto that point, fair road condition)
10:20 hr - Passed through MaUBin (from junction to MaUBin - bad road condition) - fair destruction along the road
10:40 hr - Passed through KyaitLatt (MuB - KyL: fair road condition) - severe (buildings/trees) destruction along the road and in KyaitLatt town
11:30 hr - Reached Phyar Bon (KyL - PhB: fair road and poor bridge condition) - severe destruction in Phyar Bon (some relief camps there - don't know the number)

12:30 hr - Arrived Bogalay Township - Flat tire, helped by locals, who shared their experience: received warning in the morning at around 7 on ward by speakers (they know only for the Bogalay town, but not sure about the villages around/across the river, near sea), no evacuation plan, many people didn't pay much attention as they didn't expect much danger based on the past Tsunami experience in Delta (little damage), they started noticing of heavy winds around 6 p.m. and became stronger, the sky were totally red, wind blew from different direction, then many people in town took shelter in neighbors' houses (with brick-wall/strong roofs), debris everywhere, one person said it could have been worse (more casualties) in town if happened during the day time as many people were on the road (20 deaths in Bogalay town - figure not confirmed), water went up to about 3 feet in town and reached up to 20 feet in surrounding villages, where thousands died. Those who helped us said that they will never forget the experience and they lost their houses (saw in person), but they seemed to have high-spirit waiting for help to rebuild their houses (now they got help from their neighbors for shelter and rice from relief camps). But, under the condition, they shouldn't wait any minutes. Distributed a few bags of milo, ovaltine, some food etc. to them and gave a tent-sheet (bought from BKK) to an elderly who still lived under a house with no roof (experienced some rain). The conditions in surrounded areas of Bogalay are very bad as the authority had to issue Martial Law in some areas (some looting and killing for food). Those who survived (7-8 only in some villages) left their villages.
13:30 hr - Went to the central relief camp (to coordinate/receive donations) and spoke to the authorities (noted their names and phone number). Donated: 8 boxes of Tylenol, 4 Ovaltine bags, 3 Gold Roast, 5 NesVistat, 1 pack (60 WPTablets), 1 ORS box. Asked about the urgent needs. According to them: Nails (all sized), salt, water purifier (available locally: 1 bottle for 220 gallons - need to know the price), lease vehicles, eggs, dry food (Mhote Chaut), dry fish, artificial meat.

14:00 hr - Went to the river bank (similar to Tsumani affected area to some extent - based on what we saw in Phuket area). Talked to some locals: situation is still very chaotic, they saw 4-5 bodies in the river, we saw one, nobody seemed to care about that even we saw some people around and they were trying to save an engine from the river). Saw some victim family/refugees in a monastery, but couldn't talk to them due to time constraint. One thing that surprised me was that we didn't hear anyone crying for help or asking desperately for food/shelter. I'm sure that will be a very different story in a severely affected areas that can be reached by boats. Some aid workers and volunteers have already arranged with some boats to reach there to deliver supplies.

15:00 hr - Left Bogalay (after fixing the spare-tire. Note: everyone must take a spare-tire as the roads were full of debris in some areas)
15:40 hr - Reached Phyar Bon and took a different route (shorter) to YGN
16:10 hr - Passed through Day Deye (PhB - DdY: fair road condition) - saw one car from MSF and another from an Embassy distribution food. Many villages spread their paddy on the road to dry them up and it was hard to drive/dangerous as many children were playing along the road
16:45 hr - Passed through Kawt Mhuu (fair road, bad destruction along the road) - heavy rain
17:45 hr - Passed through Ton Tay (KaM - ToT: bad road and destruction along the road)

Conclusion, based on this experience, it's very feasible to reach to the affected areas in Delta very quickly. Road conditions in some areas are bad, but manageable: with normal speed (40-50 km/h), even Bogalay can be reached within 4-5 hours. Since some bridges are not strong enough, heavy supplies (such as rice) wouldn't be practical. There were some normal checkpoints (asked questions: where to go? driver's name?) One must avoid any argument with the authorities at the checkpoints as it might just delay achieving your main objectives.

I have discussed with different group of volunteers (TZ, KM, SM, HM, AM confirmed) and will coordinate with them from here or in-person for distributions and local supplies. The full assessment report, pictures and plan will be posted soon.

NL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good News
Low-cost carrier Thai AirAsia, which flies daily to Yangon, said it was extending help to Myanmar by offering to carry for free donations from the public and by continuing to provide regular flights to the country. The airline wants to make sure donations such as food, clothing, flashlights and articles for shelter reach Myanmar as fast as possible. The airline would not cancel its Bangkok-Yangon route, he said, adding that humanitarian agencies planning to travel to Myanmar may contact the airline as the airline continues to operate regular flights to Yangon. "We are allowing all guests on the Bangkok-Yangon route who were affected by the cyclone to change their travel dates free of charge," he added. (Source: Bernama)

Still Waiting

2008-05-10T20:54:00.002+06:30

Not able to contact my point person in Myanmar yet. He went to Bogalay this morning so I will update you all tomorrow morning.

Pt

May 10th 2008 Situation report from BKK

2008-05-10T18:18:00.003+06:30

- Received 3000 WPTablets each tablets is for 30 litre of water, will email you the invoice on Monday.

- Bought various assortment of Milk powder from Enfalac, Dumex, Nestle
some are for 1 yr old and some are 3 yr plus
each bag is from 700 grams to 1200 grams
toatl 100 bags. Detail will follow.

- Two options to distribute
1- There is a doctor who is going to Bokalay on 12th May and he is willing to take and distribute for us
2- We now have contact with Q so if his team can wait one more day we will have someone flying into Myanmar tomorrow especially for us with our goods.

- At the moment, I am trying to arrange a lunch bags for monestry in Bogalay where 600 survivors are sheltering. According to my contact that is the only monestry left in Bogalay. This monestry is also known as Sayardaw Bokalay Phone Phone Monestry. I will have all the detail very soon.

- I have't talk to my contact in Myanmar, I will call him very soon and will have the latest updates soon.

Thank you all for your generous support, we could not have done it without you. Let's use what we have to run towards our best...that's all we can do right now.

Regards,

Pt

May 10th 2008: About supplies

2008-05-10T17:54:00.008+06:30

Thanks PT. You are great!

Summary of our talk last night:

Budget for supplies
- $2000 water purifying tablets
- $3000 milk powder
- Balance for lunch bags and rice bags

- Keep all receipts
- Energy biscuits
- Medicine to buy to prepare for potential diseases (let's consult with doctors)

SS

May 10th 2008: We got fund. Shopping for supplies

2008-05-10T13:36:00.005+06:30

The driking water is transported from near by regions. We don't know how clean it is so the tablets are still very useful.

- I've just ordered the water tablets for 3000 Tablets (30 Litre per tablets) for US$2000 and they will deliver it today. He can't issue the invoice today (Saturday) so he will give me the invocie on Monday.

- Arrange with some friends to distribute food bags. She will let me know the detail soon.

- Going out now to buy milk powder for children.

- If I don't find anyone within two days to fly in I will go there tonight. Will email you soon.

PT

May 10th 2008: Concern on water purification tablets

2008-05-10T13:32:00.004+06:30

I saw news about water supplies being contaminated by salt water and water purification tablets are not useful in those areas.Should we be sending medicine for diarrhea and malaria for widespread illness ?I'm not sure if those medicines are over-the-counter or need prescription. May be we can ask a pharmacist.We need to give those with care, children may need a different dose than an adult...etc. A safer bet may be mosquito nets.

KL

May 10th 2008: Fund Balance

2008-05-10T11:41:00.005+06:30

Dear all,

We are very touched by your generosity. Many thanks to all our fund-raisers and donors for your support.

Today, we received $7758 in donation. Please stay tune on how your donation will help support victims in Myanmar.

Thank you.

SS

May 9th 2008: Situation in Myanmar

2008-05-09T19:45:00.006+06:30

Today
- Hlaing Thar Yar: 64 bags of rice to victims only (60 x 16,800 kyats, 2 x 25,000, 2 x 21,600)
- We were surrounded by about a thousand villagers, distributed to real heads of YatKwatSu (about 10 of them) based on the figures. Many of them showed their appreciations and said "Thar Du" to all. (pictures attached)
- Car service = 40,000 kyats
- Tontay: 30 bags through Save the Children (SC) (30 x 16,800 kyats)
- Nga Pu Taw: 60 bags through SC (60 x 16,800 kyats)
- 2 ORS and 4 WPT through Air Force (they are flying 9 helicopters back/forth for the whole day) - Detailed destinations will be provided later.
- SM will take care of Dala, GyatKyi, TharKayTha, will provide rice: he will call back on amount and logistics later today
- TZ's crew will take care of Delta area (various township): I will give him the rest of WPTablets for distribution

Tomorrow
- I will go to either Bogalay or Laputta
- SM and his brothers will help me for logistics etc. We can rely on him for future plan.
- The operations need to continue for months and funds need to be provided either small or large scales whatever possible
- We don't have time to really distinguish between real victims and not and it's very hard. One thing for sure is that everyone looks very desperate.

Yangon is trying to be back to normal, many people don't look desparate, back to their normal daily work. Some areas received electricity starting from Yesterday, water from the day before yesterday. Many schools in YGN (including TTC) are in bad shape. The roofs blown away and the chool supposes to start on the first week of June.

Credit Save the Children

Important Figures (As of 8/5/08)

- Nga Pu Taw - 30 %
- High Gyi - 95 % - 976 deaths
- Laputta, Pyin Sa Lu, Kyaik Latt - 95 %
- Maw Kyun - 95 % - 1,835 deaths, 2,187 lost
- Phyar Pon - 90 % - 5 deaths, 4,000 lost
- Amar - 90 % - 152 deaths, 16 lost
- Bogalay - 90 % - 20 deaths, 11,674 lost (most like dead)
- Day Deye - 95 % - 789 deaths, 172 lost

AyeYarWaddy Division
- Worst hit townships - Hain Gyi Kyun, Laputta (including Pyinsalu), Bogalay, Amar, Mawlamyinegyun)
- Badly hit: Nga Pu Taw, Pyapon, Daydeye, MyaungMya

Nga Pu Taw - Hospital collapsed
Laputta - 19 villages totally damaged
Yangon (Mayangone, Insein, Paungdaung, Dawbon, Kaya, Seikgyikanaungto, Mingalartaung Nyunt, Thingankyune, Yankin, DagonSeikkan, DagonMyoThit (South), Dala) - 124,438 affected people, 24,888 households

Requirements
- Rice 900 tons per day, 6,358 tons per week