Myanmar Update: Labutta and Middle Island

Our relief efforts in Myanmar are picking up steam. Trucks with relief items are leaving to Labutta on a weekly basis now. The government of Myanmar has already dissolved many of the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and built up new camps outside of the town. According to latest figures, 24,000 people are living in the town of Labutta and about 275,000 people are living in the township of Labutta, thereof about 45,000 IDPs in five camps. Malteser International is providing medical services as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for 16,000 IDPs in two of these camps and for about 16,000 residents in four wards of Labutta. The organization moved its clinics and water treatment plants with the camps in order to support the homeless in these new camps. In addition, there is a close cooperation with the Station Hospital in Labutta.

Two staff members of Malteser International also started an assessment on water and sanitation in the northern part of the so-called Middle Island (at about 20 miles from Labutta). The Island used to have a population of 90,000 inhabitants prior to the cyclone, about 50,000 living in the northern part. Numerous villages of this island were completely destroyed by the cyclone; about 15,000 people lost their life or remain missing. The Island can only be reached by boat; transport by boat is the only means of transport on the Island as well.

For more on our latest relief efforts, download our emergency relief report online.

Highlights of recent efforts in Asia

Despite all the news about our efforts in Myanmar, Malteser International continues to work on projects throughout Asia. We have great basic information from each of the countries in Asia where we provide relief and rebuilding efforts. You can also view our Asia map with a few of our recent case studies from Asia.

Here are a few recent updates on our efforts. To read more stories and to stay in touch with us, sign-up today for our free monthly newsletter: On The SPOT.

Sri Lanka: Bringing Children Back to Their Families

After one year, Malteser International’s project to reunify children with their families in the district of Galle in the south of Sri Lanka proofs to be successful. Around 21,000 children currently live in orphanages or children’s homes all over Sri Lanka. Most of them are there because their parents are either too poor to care for them or since they expect that their children are better off in these institutions. Only 3% of children in Sri Lankan institutions are orphans without parents.

In cooperation with the Sri Lankan partner organization Sarvodaya, Malteser International used different approaches to address the overall problem: with advocacy and capacity building, the project team tries to convince local decision makers and officers to apply existing laws properly and in favour of the children.

Awareness raising campaigns are organized at village level to inform the communities and their leaders about the advantages of a family-life for the children. At the same time, trained social workers talk to the families to explore other solutions than giving the child away. In selected cases, Malteser International also provides vocational and business training, mostly for the mothers, or even safe and decent housing for the family. Even the change of children homes into day care centers is being prepared so that local alternatives for daily care of children may facilitate the mothers’ need to earn an income.

The Malteser International project team also assessed the case load of children in selected children’s homes to identify either the natural parents, the extended family network or maybe foster families for the deinstitutionalisation of children.

India: Reconstruction after the floods and disaster preparedness

After the severe floods in summer 2007 in the north of India, about 10 million people in the regions Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still affected by the consequences of the disaster. Together with Indian partners, Malteser International started a new project to assist the people in the area by helping them to reconstruct their life and to be prepared for future floods. During the reconstruction process, the homesteads of 60 of the worst affected vulnerable households are raised and rehabilitated as mitigation measure against flood inundation. By raising hand pumps above the level of the floods, access to safe drinking water is assured also when floods occur. 

Sri Lanka: New project for the prevention of respiratory diseases

In order to prevent the spreading of respiratory diseases like e.g. Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) or SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Malteser International started a project to develop and test resource materials using a participatory approach for community empowerment in the South of Sri Lanka. Staff members will develop general health and hygiene measures and design a tool kit to educate the communities to protect themselves from influenza. These participatory tools will be field tested and analyzed and recommendations for the utilization will be submitted to UNICEF for wider dissemination in South and South East Asia. 

Thailand: UNHCR finances HIV/AIDS project along the Thai-Myanmar border

Thailand is home to 140,000 Myanmar refugees living in nine camps along the border to Myanmar. Since 1993, Malteser International has been implementing a comprehensive primary health care program for around 31,300 refugees of Karen and Burmese ethnicity in two of the camps. The main activities during the project include the preparation of meetings with camp-based organizations and NGOs, the implementation of HIV/AIDS intervention groups, the training of counsellors and community health workers, the organization of school health education for high school children on HIV/AIDS and the provision of antiretroviral drugs in case of an infection. On World AIDS day, special activities like a drama performance on HIV/AIDS, drawing competitions and the distribution of T-Shirts are planned. 

Vietnam: Renovation of commune health center in Tay Giang

Malteser International is renovating a commune health center to improve the health situation of the villagers in the Tay Giang district in Central Vietnam. Tay Giang is a remote mountainous district in Central Vietnam, the majority of the population are of ethnic minority. The economic conditions, standard of living standard, existing health infrastructure, and the health system for Tay Giang's residents are low. New health equipment and the training of health staff will be provided in the Bhalee commune health center to secure an access to medical treatment for the population in the area. 

What we have done up to now

According to the latest official figures, the death toll has risen to 78,000 people, while more than 56,000 people are still missing. It is estimated that 1.5 million people are left  homeless and 2.4 million people are affected. It was reported that 1,000 schools collapsed and 2,200 damaged. Most of Myanmar’s casualties were killed by a 12-foot (3.5 meter) wall of water that hit the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta along with 190 kph (120 mph) winds.

Diarrhea, dysentery and skin infections have already afflicted some survivors crammed into monasteries, schools and other buildings after arriving in towns that were on the breadline even before the disaster. The United Nations say more than half a million people may now be in temporary settlements.

Malteser International works with local hospitals to provide medicine, on the job training in rain water collection and chlorination as well as staff members working in the fields of mother-child-health and antenatal care. We're also organizing health and hygiene education for the people  in Labutta to minimize the risk of the outbreak of diseases. The organization also provides  soap for 5,200 households and shelter material (blankets, plastic sheets and mosquito nets) for the internally displaced persons. In Labutta, Malteser International works to make the water safe for drinking (see photo, above).

Here are some statistics from our relief efforts:

• First aid and medical treatment for the injured and sick
• Supply of safe drinking water for 60,000 people, 850 plastic sheets for emergency shelter, 750 "family kits" (containing cookware, hygiene articles and water cans)
• Distribution of about 800 mosquito nets and 400 blankets
• Water testing service for other NGOs
• Training of Malteser International staff members in the handling of water treatment plants by THW

But, we need your help. Your tax-deductible donation to Malteser International Americas can go a long way to support our relief efforts in countries like Myanmar. We're on the spot, ready to help alleviate suffering. You can be part of our efforts.