DEC member agencies
continue to deliver aid to the thousands of people who lives have been torn apart by Cyclone Nagris.
Matthias Schmale, International Director at the British Red Cross said: “To
date we not been obstructed in our efforts to bring in key personnel and relief items to affected areas, but it is true that it is frustratingly slow and too little in scale.”
The Myanmar Red Cross has been able to get access for priority personnel. The visas don’t appear to be obstructed but it is true they are slow.”
A plane laden
with emergency relief supplies arrived in Yangon international airport late last night. The flight, chartered by the Red Cross took off from Kuala Lumpur carrying five tonnes of emergency
shelter equipment. A second, eight-tonne consignment left KL on a scheduled commercial flight later in the evening and is due to arrive in Myanmar this morning.
Save the Children are
already getting aid to 63,000 people by boat and truck through their 500 local staff. The boat has headed to the Ngatudaw Township with 50 metric tonnes of rice and plastic sheeting. Two
plane loads of household relief items such as plastic sheeting, buckets and cooking utensils for more than 5,000 families are also being prepared and will leave soon.
Speaking about the
increasingly complex situation in Myanmar, Brendan Gormley, Chief Executive at the DEC said: “Our priority is to deliver aid to those who need it the most and we can do that through our
member local teams already working on the ground. Our agencies are impartial and non-political and it is important that we maintain impartiality for protection of our staff to enable them to
deliver aid to those in desperate need of our support.”
He continued: “Aid is getting through via our agencies and we are calling on people to donate to our DEC Myanmar
(Burma) Cyclone Appeal.”To make an urgent donation to its Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Appeal. Donate online: www.dec.org.uk or call: 0870 60 60 900.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A young boy runs past a wardrobe in a house destroyed by Cyclone Nargis near Pyapon in the Irrawaddy Division of Myanmar May 9, 2008. Myanmar will accept foreign aid but ...
