As donors disappear, cyclone survivors fend for themselves

By SAW YAN NAING
Web Relief

As private donors disappear from cyclone-affected areas of the Irrawaddy delta, residents of Bogalay, one of the hardest-hit towns in the disaster zone, say that they are struggling to rebuild their homes by themselves.

Many residents said that they were using old materials to repair or rebuild their homes, despite an abundant supply of new materials available in local shops and at the homes of businessmen and members of the Township Peace and Development Council.

‘When I went to buy corrugated zinc sheets to cover my roof, they [township authorities] sold it to me for 780 kyat (US $0.68) per foot,’ said Wa Yint, a local resident.

‘I have to rebuild my house using old zinc sheets. But for parts of my house that were badly damaged, I needed some new sheets,’ he added.

Residents said that outside assistance has come to a complete stop more than five weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck the region on May 2-3.

‘In May, five or six donor groups came to donate supplies every day,’ said one resident. ‘They came with six to twenty trucks a day.

‘But from the beginning of June, the number dwindled to one group every two or three days. Now they have completely disappeared. They stopped coming two days ago,’ he added.

Bar Ku, a local donor in Bogalay, explained: ‘In Burma, it is not possible for citizens to feed one another for a long time. Everybody has to struggle for their daily survival.’

‘Who can feed them everyday? I don’t think private donors can afford to donate any longer,’ said a local aid donor in Laputta, another seriously affected town in the delta.

He added, however, that Buddhist monks are still active in relief efforts, delivering food and supplies to survivors in the outskirts of Laputta.

Sources also said that monks have played a key role in helping private donors to get past restrictions imposed by Burmese authorities.

Last Saturday, a group of local donors who traveled to the delta town of Pyapon were stopped at a checkpoint, but were later given permission to go through after they explained that their aid supplies were going to local monasteries, according to Ma Nyein, a friend of a member of the aid group.

She added that the donors were told by the authorities—members of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Swan Ah Shin militia group—that they should hand over the supplies directly to them.

Ma Nyein is the sister-in-law of Burma’s best-known comedian, Zarganar, who has played a prominent role in distributing aid to victims of the cyclone. She said that on one occasion, on May 15, she and her brother-in-law were forced to give aid supplies directly to the authorities.

On subsequent trips, however, they were accompanied by monks, who said that the aid supplies were going to monasteries.

‘When the monks asked them not to block us, they allowed us to go through,’ she said. ‘They don’t dare to confront the monks.’

Tin Yu, a resident of Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, agreed.

‘Five days ago, local authorities stopped us when we tried to deliver aid to victims,’ he said, adding that they were only allowed to pass after a monk from Aung Parahita Monastery suggested that they make the donation through his monastery.

Pyinya Thiha, a senior monk at Thardu Monastery in Rangoon’s Kyeemyindaing Township, said that he and his group were recently approached by local authorities in a village near Laputta, but he was able to continue his journey.

‘They [the authorities] came and asked some questions. But they asked us politely, so we replied politely. If they had asked rudely, we would have replied in the same manner. We didn’t face any difficulty,’ he said.