Today, a team of six additional staff will arrive in Rangoon and join Action Against Hunger's teams already on the ground. A plane carrying 40 tons of Action Against Hunger food and relief items is planned to follow.
The situation in Bogolay is critical
ACF's first convoy transporting relief supplies including 7 tons of rice arrived in Bogolay yesterday. Three more truckloads transporting 18 tons of rice and water purification equipment are currently on their way to Bogolay. According to ACF's teams on the ground, the cyclone has devastated the town of Bogolay, with survivors lacking access to basic necessities such as food, shelter and medicine. Many are seeking shelter in improvised camps. 80,000 people in the area are thought to be in urgent need of assistance.
For the past seven days, the survivors have lived on rice stocks from warehouses based in Bogolay. These stocks have been badly damaged but constitute the only source of food for the survivors. Yet stocks are about to run out. The same applies for access to water with reservoirs running empty and many others destroyed. Survivors are forced to drink dirty and salty water from unprotected water points. Aid is largely insufficient to respond to the needs of the survivors in this region.
For Action Against Hunger, the main priority during the next days is to provide food, rice, oil as well as beans and lentils. Countless animal cadavers and corpses are floating in the rivers. Action Against Hunger's other priority is to provide access to safe water to prevent disease.
Six additional field workers and 40 tons of food and relief items are on their way
Action Against Hunger experts in water and sanitation, logistics and food security are currently on their way to join our 15 international experts already on the ground. In addition, Action Against Hunger is sending 40 tons of relief supplies including 25 tons of protein biscuits water purification kits, motor pumps and equipment for the provision of water.
To make a donation to Action Against Hunger's Burma Cyclone Emergency Appeal, please call 08705 100 722 or visit www.aahuk.org.
For more information please contact:
Christine Kahmann: 020 8293 6197 / 078 0693 4524 / c.kahmann@aahuk.org
Sophie Noonan: 020 8293 6137 / s.noonan@aahuk.org
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Action Against Hunger has worked in Myanmar since 1993. Before Cyclone Nargis struck, 15 international and 300 local aid workers were already on the ground providing assistance to over 140,000 people. Programmes include water and sanitation, nutrition and food security activities.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) is an international humanitarian organisation specialised in tackling hunger and malnutrition with projects in 43 countries. Its teams are directly helping over 4 million people worldwide. www.aahuk.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Survivors take shelter while waiting for first aid treatment is seen at one of Cyclone Nargis' worst-hit areas in the town of Labutta, 120 km (75 miles) southwest of Myanmar's biggest ...
