Relief supplies are starting to be distributed by two Tearfund partners in Myanmar to people affected by Cyclone Nargis.
Both partners are using their extensive local contacts to distribute items such as food, water, plastic sheeting for shelter, mosquito nets and generators to operate pumps to clean wells.
The destructive power of Cyclone Nargis has disrupted water supplies, forcing people to wash up and collect water on the streets of Yangon. Picture: courtesy of www.alertnet.org
With its ability to mobilise a large number of people, our church-linked partner is one of Tearfund’s primary routes for responding to the disaster.
It is working with other Christian organisations to get supplies out on the ground in Myanmar to the people who need it.
Disease
And according to the UN, that need is growing. It estimates one million homes have been washed away and between 1.2 and 1.9 million people have been affected by the storm which lashed the southern tip of the country with 120mph winds and a massive tidal surge.
The death toll could now be between 63,000 and 100,000, reckons the UN, although Myanmar state television reported the figure as 28,400 over the weekend.
Fears are growing that disease will spread as a result of drinking water being affected by dead bodies and animal carcasses and widespread reports of diarrhoea are emerging.
So far £5 million has been raised in Britain through the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal, of which Tearfund is a member.