WER is working in partnership with ADRA Burma, based locally within Myanmar (Burma), to provide emergency aid to victims of last week's Cyclone Nargis.
WER is preparing to immediately airfreight emergency medical boxes to Myanmar for distribution to communities through ADRA Burma. Each Doctor Emergency Medical Pack (DEMP) contains basic antibiotic, antiseptic and general medical supplies specifically selected for emergency situations and provides approximately 1500 treatments. The boxes are specifically prepared so that doctors and nurses can quickly have basic supplies available while they make assessments for additional specific medical requirements, including pharmaceuticals, medicines and water purification supplies.
ADRA Burma has sent out teams of doctors and nurses, in conjunction with their disaster relief personnel, to the Labutta district of Myanmar where they have been working over the past 4 years. Emergency medical boxes will be provided to each of the teams as they treat the sick and injured.
Up to 80,000 people are believed to have been killed in Labutta district, located in the Irawaddy district which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis on Friday and Saturday last week. Reports to WER from the local area indicate that the clinics and main hospital in the area do not have even basic first aid supplies and yesterday no local medical staff could be found.
Approximately 120,000 people are homeless in Labutta district, the main rice-producing region of Myanmar. Government officials are planning to move as many of these people as possible to Myaungyma, a larger town with some land and safe water supplies available for displaced communities.
WER will be sending large tents for use as temporary health clinics, together with ten-man tents to provide temporary shelter for displaced families. ADRA Burma is setting up food distribution and medical centres in Myaungma.
ADRA Burma is an officially registered NGO which has been operating in Myanmar for over 10 years. Recent activities include the implementation of Tsunami-related projects and the establishment of rural health clinics across the country.
WER and ADRA Burma have been given approval from authorities in Myanmar to import these supplies and space is allocated on a flight leaving the UK on the 17th May.
WER is appealing for additional funds to enable us to send further urgently-needed emergency aid to ADRA Burma. If you would like to make a donation to WER's Myanmar cyclone appeal, please call the WER team today on 0844 249 2129 or donate online via www.wer-uk.org. Thank you.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A worker carries a sack of rice at rice storage area which was hit by Cyclone Nargis in the village town of Labutta, in Irrawaddy Division May 9, 2008. Myanmar will ...
