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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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)

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.

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

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.