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Liz Hughes, British Red Cross recovery manager, is based in Myanmar and leading the recovery efforts of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. She said: “The sheer impact of the devastation is enormous. Our cyclone recovery programmes in Myanmar will continue until April 2011, three years after Nargis made landfall, because of the scale and scope of the rebuilding effort.”
The cyclone, the worst to hit Asia in over a decade, killed more than 84,000 people and left more than 53,000 missing.
Relief and recovery
In the immediate aftermath of the emergency the British Red Cross raised £1.6 million to support the Myanmar Red Cross Society which, as a community-based volunteer organisation, was able to begin providing relief immediately. An estimated 1.3 million people in the Ayeyarwady Delta region have received life-saving support through the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
While many of the basic needs have been met, people’s livelihoods were severely affected. Over the next two and a half years, the focus for the Red Cross will be on restoring livelihoods and the ability of those affected to generate much-needed income.
The impact on livelihoods can be seen in Kan Thar Yar, a village some 50 kilometres from the Andaman coast, deep inside Labutta township and one of the regions hardest hit by the cyclone.
Livelihoods
“Four people lost their lives in this village,” said Ba Shwa, a 33-year-old farmer. “More than half the houses were destroyed or damaged, and 21 fishing boats were lost.” He added that most of their buffaloes drowned in the floods and the community will now need help to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods.
For the time being, 39 families are crowded together in the few houses that remain standing. To ensure the children have their daily milk, they rent buffaloes from other villages. These rents will, hopefully, be paid for with sacks of rice after the winter harvest in November. The farmers re-planted their devastated paddy fields in July, just in time for the rainy season. However, the seeds they used were not fit for the high saline content in the soil caused by high sea levels during the cyclone, so the outcome of this harvest is uncertain.
Like the majority of people affected by Cyclone Nargis, most families in Kan Thar Yar did not own their own land, but instead cultivated the rice paddies on behalf of landowners. As their livelihood also depends on fishing, they have been doubly penalized with the loss of their boats.
“As efforts shift from relief to recovery Red Cross assistance will include psychosocial support programmes to ensure the emotional and practical recovery of those affected, as well as programmes to create income for families whose livelihoods have been destroyed, “ Liz said.
Read more about Cyclone Nargis
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