MYANMAR (formerly Burma) – For many residents of Western Myanmar, the decision was clear: let the children eat first.

Ripe harvests had been devoured by plagues of rats, causing a famine known as Mautam that occurs about every 50 years.

“When the rats suddenly flooded our land, we had to fight for our survival,” said one villager. “We had to scavenge for any food we could find. At times, we even ate the rats that had eaten our crops just to survive.”

For those families who couldn’t find food, children were given preference to eat first.

“As parents, we let our children eat what they needed first while we fasted from at least one meal a day,” said a father of six children.

To help meet the immediate needs of these desperate families, Operation Blessing sent relief teams to the affected areas.

After 3 days of travel and battling monsoon rains, landslides and broken bridges, teams arrived and were able to distribute over 32,000 pounds of rice to 927 hungry yet grateful villagers.

“I am amazed at their faith in God,” said relief team leader Cheich Maung. “Despite their dire situation, they could still rejoice, and never uttered words of complaint. They faithfully believed that God would send them the help they needed.”

MYANMAR – Regrettably, the delta is still essentially locked down to expats and foreign aid workers. In addition, we heard that cyclone victims are now being told to leave the temporary camps and return to their devastated villages.

Despite all that, there is some great news to report. We were able to enlist 31 doctors and nurses to deploy to the delta after spending about a week training and preparing them. We actually ended up with 6 more than originally anticipated (1 extra doctor and 5 extra nurses).

After their intensive training time, we outfitted them with sleeping bags, raincoats, high rubber boots, mosquito nets and life preservers. We also had nice vests made for them. They departed on Wednesday and began seeing and treating patients on Thursday.

More updates to follow soon…

MYANMAR – Aid workers do not only provide relief goods, but we also have the duty to fight for the protection of the suffering people we serve. All too often we are kept silent over the sensitivities of speaking out against oppressive and corrupt governments in case we endanger ourselves, the project or the people we are assisting. This morning I left Myanmar and can now talk openly about the things I saw.

When I first arrived in Myanmar 9 days ago we were able to quickly organize a team of local volunteers and begin emergency food distributions. The first day we managed to get into the Irrawady Delta region and reach cut-off communities using dugout canoes to deliver rice, plastic containers and water purification tablets.

The communities we were reaching were devastated. Many of the children were already sick with diarrhea and needed medicine. We told them we would be back the following day with more supplies. But the next day, as we headed back toward to Delta region, we were stopped at a military checkpoint and told to turn around. No foreign aid workers were allowed to pass through and our local team was not allowed to go in alone to deliver the supplies. We were told that we could donate the supplies to the military and they would distribute them for us. After hearing stories of where military aid was going, this was not an option.

You don’t have to go far to find suffering cyclone victims and fortunately we were able to distribute to a community closer to the city that day. But it was terrible to think of the village we had wanted to serve, especially the children we had brought medicine for. All that day we ran into other aid groups who had experienced the same thing. Foreign Medical agencies with trucks full of medicine and volunteer doctors had been banned from reaching victims and truckloads of food bound for hungry mouths were turned away.

By closing access to the Delta region that day, the military rulers committed a horrific violation of human rights that has been ongoing every day since. In my opinion, the formation of that roadblock was a crime against humanity.

With the Delta region closed to foreigners, international agencies have had to be creative.

One of Operation Blessing’s trademark relief initiatives in disaster settings like these is to first ask, “What are you needs and how can we help?” Next, we strategize and coordinate efforts through locals, churches and other in-country partners – people who have access to those in need and the ability to provide quick and effective relief.

Operation Blessing has hired local teams to get aid into the hardest hit areas. Because clean water is one of the greatest needs facing cyclone victims, we have already begun to meet that need by purchasing 40 diesel generators which will provide electricity to deep water wells and give villagers clean drinking water. We’re also supplying 3 month’s worth of fuel.

To help combat the growing number of infections and diseases, such as respiratory illness, skin infections, diarrhea and more, OBI has also hired mobile medical emergency teams made up of local doctors, nurses and pharmacists and is supplying them with wages and medicine for the next 3 months.

Helping people in need is not rocket science, but it does require some training or it could be dangerous and ineffective for both the victims and the aid workers. Every hour that passes since the cyclone hit is an hour closer to death for victims that are not receiving help.

Since the introduction of the checkpoints, the city has been filling steadily with foreign workers who went through the frustration of trying to get a visa and are now having to sit in the city waiting for the doors to open.

Aid has been trickling into the Delta region, even at the hands of the government, but where that aid is going is the worrying thing. A Myanmar worker with one of our medical teams returned from one of the hardest hit areas with some horrific stories. He said one village they worked and slept in was “like being in hell.” He had difficulty sleeping because the villagers were screaming in terror all through the night.

“People are finding dead bodies even at night and having nightmares,” he told me. But he also said that the government is being “selective” in who they give aid to.

By utilizing locals, however, OBI is able to access these otherwise restricted areas to foreign aid workers – and even ignored by Myanmar government and military officials – to get the relief in.

Right now, the monsoon rains are soaking the victims, leaving them cold and damp. Combine this with an already weak immune system due to malnutrition and they are open to respiratory illness. Then take clean water out of the equation and people begin to suffer from diarrhea. All of these things combined kill quickly.

It will be impossible to know how many people died because they did not receive aid…but OBI is doing our part to reach as many as possible. When all 40 generators get in place, we’ll be able to provide clean water to an estimated 20,000 people a day.

Our local medical teams will be on the ground five days a week, providing primary healthcare and medicine to an average of 200 victims a day. In 3 month’s time, our teams anticipate reaching an estimated 60,000 people with critical, lifesaving medical care.

Leaving Myanmar this morning was a sad experience for me. I have worked on disasters in the past where governments have been too proud or afraid to allow in aid, but I’ve never seen anything of this scale. With the unofficial death toll approaching 200,000, most aid workers on the ground are in agreement that without immediate intervention the death toll could easily exceed that of the 2004 Tsunami.

We all pray, “something will happen” to change the posture of the Junta very soon…but in the meantime, Operation Blessing is working tirelessly and strategically behind-the-scenes to prevent as many innocent people as possible from dying needlessly.

The need is still urgent in Myanmar…please click here to help the victims of Myanmar and other disasters.

MYANMAR – I’m back from the Delta region, it was an incredible day.  My translator and I travelled by boat some distance and then hired a driver to take us into the worst hit areas.  I purchased 2 tons of rice as a continuation of OBI’s rapid response project. 

We loaded our hired jeep with the rice and headed in.  We also purchased plastic buckets and will return with water purification tablets for an emergency fresh water solution.

The plan was just to drive until we found a group of victims to aid.  It didn’t take long before we came to a village where 90 percent of the homes were destroyed.  We stopped and talked to the people. Most of them had lost everything; their homes, possessions, rice store, crops and animals were all gone.

We assisted the 25 families with rice packages and they told us of a village that had even worse damage but could only be reached by boat.  We loaded several canoes with rice and non food items (NFIs) and set off for the hour-long paddle to reach the village.  The heat is almost unbearable here as the evaporating water is driving the humidity up. We arrived at the village and sure enough it was trashed – almost every home destroyed.

We delivered all the rice, and today reached more than 1,000 people. Despite all the difficulties, we are having amazing success at bringing relief to desperate victims of this disaster.

Myanmar – This morning I visited an orphanage with 60 children. The roof was badly damaged and they told me that food was a priority need. I purchased one month’s worth of food and charcoal.

I have found a good translator and guide who speaks good English. He has arranged for us to go to the badly-hit delta region tomorrow. We will travel by car and boat.

I hear that there are camps of people forming in some towns, desperate for relief. The U.N. estimates that 1.9 million people are in need!

Our Humedica medical team from Germany is waiting for visa approval in Bangkok and should be here by Wednesday. I also plan to talk to UNICEF about logistics support since they are bringing in high energy biscuits and other goods.

I will give you a further updates later today…

The leader is telling me the children are sick with diarrhea and badly need a new roof, which is made out of corrugated steel tiles. I’ll see what I can do for a quick initial project.

After that, I have arranged for a driver with a 4 x 4 to take me and my translator to some of the worse-hit areas. We will assess the needs of the people and look for partners already in place. My hope is to get as deep into the zone as possible tomorrow.

I have been unable to get through to anyone at the YMCA clinic where OBI and Humedica hired three local doctors and two nurses. I hope to be in touch with them tomorrow.  I am also trying to track down the World Food Programme team.

I think the doors will soon be open for other aid workers to come in, but for now, OBI is on the ground doing our part in helping the people of Myanmar.