World Vision welcomes the statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that all foreign aid workers are to be allowed into the country following his meeting with Myanmar's top general Gen Than Shwe.
Steve Goudswaard, World Vision's Cyclone Nargis response manager, who is currently in Yangon, said: "Agencies like World Vision will be waiting to see how the Myanmar government's pledge to allow international humanitarian agency staff into the country works out in practice. If our staff are allowed into Myanmar, then this is excellent news.
"There is not a moment to lose in terms of needing to scale up our response. Large numbers of survivors have not so far received adequate assistance and many of them are in an extremely vulnerable situation. Allowing international staff into the country will also ensure our physically and emotionally exhausted national staff have additional support.
"The key thing for us is to get our logistics staff into Yangon to help ensure the supply pipeline runs smoothly to meet demand. With more logistics staff in country we will be able to work effectively with the UN air bridge to suck in aid from World Vision's pre-positioning depots and get it into the field without any bottlenecks."
Mr Goudswaard said the details of the agreement secured by Ban Ki-moon had yet to be outlined but that apart from allowing international aid workers in it was also important that they be given unhindered access to survivors.
World Vision's international staff will also work with World Vision Myanmar's community development experts - who are all nationals - on building their skills in applying humanitarian standards to aid delivery and shelter provision.
World Vision currently has 580 national staff and 11 international staff in country, with six staff waiting to travel into Myanmar. The agency has so far distributed aid to 135,000 people in Yangon and the Delta area.
The agency hopes to be able to assist up to 500,000 people over the next 6 months.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Children salute as they sing the national anthem during a flag raising ceremony outside a temporary school before their first lesson in the township of Longmenshan in Pangzhou county, northwest of ...
