Myanmar volunteers Group (UK)

Ngwe Nyi Naung village (Daunt Gyi region) to War Chaung village (Sat Sun region) Bogalay

2008-06-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

As soon as we finish the distribution the rain stopped, then we headed to the another village , the distance would be 3 miles form Ngwe Nyi Naung .

We got two option to go there, one with the boat which will take 2 hrs and another on foot will take about 1hr.

We decided to go on foot through the fields which is a short cut.

All the way what we could see is nothing but a horizon, not even a small village.

We, all the volunteers and local people with us were very tired when we arrive the next village.

That village name is War Chaung situated in Set San group.

The village is wide and long along the creek, it has three groups.

As the pre-survey, we estimated the families and collected the homeless families.

Observation and social visit were being made and looked for the appropriate place for temporary tents.

As usual, we built the tents with the help of the locals and started distribution.

The local people said that "they have experiences in aid work, but our group is the special one"

wow! Think How we feel? Guess it.

We brought some water sample for the test and notes from the villages to our way back to Kwin Pone village.

Kwin Pone Village (Dount Gyi region) to Ngwe Nyi Naung village (Daunt Gyi region) Bogalay

2008-06-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

We packed up our things and searched for the route for the next village Ngwe Nyi Naung village.

(Dount Gyi region).

With the help of the Kwin Pone villagers we went to Ngwe Nyi Naung village with tow small boats, along the small creek.

In some places, the people stepped down from the boats and pushed the boats in the creek.

With relief materials, we had to take nearly 2 hours to arrive Ngwe Nyi Naung.

As always, we made our observation and home visit to the whole village.

It was raining heavily when we started the meeting but we started to distribute the aid.

There were a lot of homeless who were shared to live with other people.

The amazing thing we saw all the way is Myanmar people can share their home and food with others as long as they could. They say it is good mind.

We built the tents for the homeless with the help of locals in the rain.

Bogalay to Kwin Pone Village (Dount Gyi region) Bogalay

2008-06-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

We all haven't been there, only on the maps .The River is too wide for us.

We can see all the villages along the river were destroyed by the cyclone and the people with mourning faces, longing for helps.

According to the pre-survey data, we can’t help all the people.

We categorize the victims in three groups,

1. Person who is left alone or orphans

2. Homeless family

3. Ordinary

At 13:30 hour, we have arrived Kwin Pone village.

All the villagers were so glad by the sound of the relief aid.

They all approached to the boat and brought all the bags with eagerness.

We first set up a camp and stored our goods for distributions.

We made home visits and tried to learn about their situation.

We made a meeting with leaders of the villages and explained about our MVG and how we do the relief work.

We started the donations to one by one, family by family .

People were so happy and they said

"This is the first time they remember to smile after Nagris"

We took the rest to Kwin Pone village, it was 22:00 hour in late evening.

22-05-08 Thursday

We finished the distribution for Kwin Pone village.

We built the temporary tents with their help for homeless families.

MVG New Photos update

2008-05-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

THE DISTRIBUTION FIELD PORJECT ONE

2008-05-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

20-05-08 TUE

We start to leave yangon(Rangoon),at 16:30 by irrawaddy shipping,to Bogalae.
We arrived Bogalae at 09:30,late arrivel compare to normal.
We got total 12 volunteers for this field project one.
As we decided we devide in two group,one for Bogalae and one for MawLaMyinggyun.
Six volunteers in each group start to collect servey data form vitims of Nargis,so called locals.
According to the data first group start with KwinPone village(SetSu region,Bogalae)and the second with SweSone village (ShoutChaung region , MawGyun@MawLaMyainggyun).
Everything is ready but we have to wait for the donations which will be Bogalae tomorrow by cars.
We all worry for our donater's donations....coz there's alot of rumor about..

According to the phone message, yangon office said the aid would arrive at 16:00, but we were still waiting …

At 17:00, all the cars arrive with no disturbance inside Bogalay.

We take all the cars into one of the monastery with a great parking space.

The evening is full of joy for the volunteers.

21-05-08 Wednesday

Early morning, we go to bogalay jetty to rent a boat to go to Kwin Pone village of Bogalay and Swae Sone village of Maw Kyun .

After 19th days of Nargis the prices were so high for renting boats, we got bargain for 60000kyats and 10 gallons of diesel for each trip.

We loaded relief aid to the boats for three hours.

We start the trip at 10:00.

Volunteers in Burma who can get aid directly to the victims

2008-05-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

A local group taking aid and relief to the worst hit areas of Burma affected by Cyclone Nargis

Our group traveled to the cyclone hit area and was shocked to find the lack of aid reaching victims. We put together a diary of our journey and has taken some incredible pictures of what we saw. there are still places that have not received ANY aid in over 2 weeks after the Cyclone hit. In many of the villages we visited, over 75% of the buildings have been destroyed and in some almost half of the inhabitants were killed. Due to the lack of co-operative from Burma most foreign aid agencies are still not allowed in, we can move around freely as we are Burmese and we are already working with NGO's (Non Government Organisations) to transport aid.

We have set up a way for you to buy needed items from the UK. We will be taking food, tents, blankets and equipment out to the most remote villages over the next few weeks. Any donations you can spare will be of great help.

Please check out the website, it is an interesting read and has some eye opening images http://www.myanmarvg.org.uk

If you could forward this to friends, colleagues and relatives, just a couple of pounds each will supply over 228 families with the food and shelter they need. Thank you.

Alternatively you can donate through the Google & DEC aid organisations, but as to exactly when this aid will get through is still unknown. Support victims of the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma)

Regards

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Photos of Bogalay and Maw Kyun

2008-05-18T07:00:00.001-07:00

Our Focus

2008-05-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

We decided to form a team to help cyclone victim. Irrawady delta is the life stream of Myanmar, 65% of rice is produced at Irrawady division. This cyclone will effect the whole country. Survival of the cyclone are depress because of the slow moving aids and lack of concern from the authority. For their survival they are start think to leave their villages and move to cities. That will defiantly affect the work force and county economy. With our very limited resources and funds we have to narrow down the most effective way to help the victim. We see these crises will not be a short term problem. So we divided into 3 stages to help the cyclone victim.
To help them with food supply, water and medical supply just to sustain for a week or two.
Helping with basic accessories to start a new live. Just providing a very basic shelter we can save may life for example water proof sheet. To strike back the starvation and provide food to their family they going to need cooking pot and fish nets.
Providing basic framing equipment and seeds will help them to go back to work.

We formed 3 teams to focus on 2 area Bogalay and Maw Kyun. A team will include one team leader one doctor or a medical officer, one register and 3 helper form our team and 5 helper form local. We did appointed local agent to supply local information and do arrangements before we came. We are going to appoint an accountant to report the funds usage to our donor. According to the latest news from locals this morning food supply is start flooring in from local donor with the arrangement of religious organization. So, we decided to focus on water proof sheets (ready to make a tent), cooking equipment and medical supply for Bogalay. And some food supply, medical supply, water proof sheets and cooking pot for Maw Kyun.

Good news is one organization has offered us to responsible for disturbing their supply as many village as we could. We are also going to accept donations around the world and inform you how to donate tomorrow. If you want have any questions do not hesitate to contact following e-mail in the meanwhile. We will launch the web site as soon as we could to update the current news. Let’s forget what has already gone and save the survival.

E-mail: savetheppl08@gmail.com
Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 10 (12th May 2008) Kan Su Village

2008-05-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Kan Su Village
Township : Maw Kyoon Township
Home : 300
Previous : 1300
Death : 382
Left : 918
Refugee : 200
Aid received : Food, Water, Medicine
Note : Found Diarrhoea on Children
Refugee camp is build at the monastery and got over 200 refugee.
Aid just coming by the arrangement of local people.
Found diarrhea on very young child and no medical services.
Clean water supply has been contaminated by human and animal remain.
They are trying to clean up the lake.

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 10 (12th May 2008) Hlaing Pone Gyi Village

2008-05-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hlaing Pone Gyi Village

Township : Maw Kyoon Township
Left Maw Kyun around 0630 without having breakfast.
Hlaing Bone Gyi is a big village and surrounded by 10 other villages.
On the other side of the river is Kan Su.
80% Damage
This is the first village we see hope.
Aid are drop by military helicopter.
According to the local, aid were start distributing on Day 4.
Soldiers are cleaning the street.
Got WCDMA phone for communication.
They funded them self for medical to prevent diarrhea.

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 10 (12th May 2008) Yay Twin Kone Village

2008-05-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

Township : Maw Kyoon Township
Home : 1000
Previous : 1500
Death : 950
Left : 550
Refugee : 60
Aid received : None
Requirement : Rice, Water

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 9 (11th May 2008) Maw Kyoon Town

2008-05-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

Day 9 (11th May 2008)

Maw La Myaing Kyun

Arrived Maw Kyun around 11am.
Aids are found as soon as our boat approached the port.
Less Damage was found than Bokalay.
People seem more stable than Bokalay but afraid to help outsider coz of officials.
Fortunately, Maw Kyun got clean water.
We meet with locals and found out refugee were forced to send back to villages by ship yesterday.
Local volunteer were upset and angry for sending refugee back and worried for the shelters if rain comes.
Refugee were distributed with little food before they send back
People who didn’t left the villages were also angry for sending back the refugee while they are short of food supply and didn’t let the ship to anchor to the bank.
After having lunch we arranged to leave the Maw Kyun.
Unfortunately, the boat engine has broken so we headed back.

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 8 (10th May 2008) Kyoon Nyo Village

2008-05-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Kyun Nyo Village

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•95% destroy

•Drying rice, small mall is up and running

•No refugee camp

•Population: 1700: 698 dead, 1002 left

•Some already left the village to refugee camps in Bogalay.

•We are the first visitor and no aid arrived yet.

•Do not have clean water source.

•People are frustrated for their survival.

•Some planning to leave the village.

•We had to head back to Bogalay around 1800 because some part of the area people being rob and killed. We arrived Bogalay round 2030

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 8 (10th May 2008) Dama Thuka Village

2008-05-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

Dama Thuka Village

•90% destroy

•People are Drying rice and polishing rice by pounding for food.

•Around 100 refugee were found at the monastery

•Population: 599: 67 dead, 532 left

•Received Food, water and medical supply form Government Official only once in 8 days.

•Food and clean water is short.

•No sign of diarrhea but don’t have enough clean water.

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 8 (10th May 2008) Maggin Yeik Thar

2008-05-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Myanmar Volunteers Group

Day 8 (10th May 2008) Bokalay Town

2008-05-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Bogalay

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We slept on the platform coz we can not find any accommodation in a pitch black night.We found out we were sleeping outside of the market when we woke up.We have found lots of NGO’s in Bogalay area. Most of them are inactive. Some aid form one NGO’s has been on hold by government’s organization called Kyant Khine Yay.Found long line of army truck loaded with aid.

•We visited some monastery and refugee camps and collect information as much as we could.

•One monastery said only received some private donation from local organization and local people. The master allocates the supply between refugees. Food supply is short and can only feed once for a day and also got problem with water supply.

•Another refuge camp said only once they received 2 cup of rice per person from government official. Men are looking for a job to feed their family. A few private donors came.

•Some people from the town believe that aid were stealing by Kyant Khine Yay and sold to the black market.

•After meeting a few refugees from monasteries and camps we believe that refuge camps are facing short of food and clean water. Do not have medical care in some places.

•Refugees from some camp run by government organizations are forced to move Ma Oo Pin.
To The South

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•Left Bogalay around 14:00

•Boat fair is rocketing to 100,000Ks for 6hr trip coz of the high fuel price.

•Human remains and animal carcasses are found along the river bank after 8 days.

•Small villages are completely vanished by the cyclone.

Myanmar Volunteers Group

ON THE WAY TO BOGALAY

2008-05-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

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Last week a lot of friends and family around the world ask me so many questions regarding the cyclone victim in delta area. Like current situation and aid distribution. Most of the answers were hard to answer. So, me and a few of my friends decided to go some of the area most hit and hard to reach. Just to observe and support the most effective organization which will be acting there. This is my answer and short report for my friends. Please do forward this as much as you could to inform your friends to respond the current crises as soon as you can. The victims of cyclone facing the most crucial and hard time now. I’m sorry that we can not inform you full and formal this time around because we are really busy with relief work and sharing information between local organizations.

DAY 7 (9th May 2008)

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•We left Yangon around 1500 on 9th May after waiting 5hrs at harbor.

•Small boat and ship lied on the bank along the river.

•Houses, Rice mill and small industry building were 70% to 80% damaged along the both side of the river.

•We meet a lot of local people and can mange to collect information and contacts.

•We meet 3 families sitting those who will not have home anymore when they arrived to their village because they all were in Yangon when the cyclone hit. The amazing this is they look like they are having picnic and no sign of depression. Because being alive together is the biggest gift for them while other lost the whole family, some even the whole village.

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Myanmar Volunteers Group