Myanmar - Irrawaddy-Delta‏: Assessment Report

Hello, THIS JUST IN: Our negotiations with UNICEF are looking quite positive and it seems we will get funding to create 30 temporary schools using our successful design and project formulas from the Yogyakarta earthquake.

OTHER NEWS FROM THIS WEEK: Our food distribution program continues. We have now served over 2,000 families with food for a week. The villages in the delta where we worked in the last week were in the Dedaye district in the Irrawaddy Delta. On the resources site there are some photos from the village of A Kai.

We created a second team that started to do asessments on Child Friendly Spaces. These teams go village to village to identify young children, orphans, single mothers and pregnant mothers that need support. There are some pictures of those as well on the resources site photo gallery. Our main donor the German child protection agency KNH is interested to fund these efforts.



I am quoting one of our assessment reports so you can get an idea of the work.

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Our 3 staff had a welcoming response in 2 villages south of the main town of Thout Kyot (pronounce Tau Cha) (GPS coord: N 16 ˚11 575' EO 95 46 244) .

First village: Kyut Lot (pronounce Chau Lo') (GPS coord: N 16 ̊11 158' EO 95 47 482) where 75 out of 92 houses had been destroyed, where the deaths of 10 children and 6 adults reduced the population to 460 inhabitants. The village is extremely poor and is struggling for survival! Around 25 KG-age children and 7 pregnant women. Access: 1/2 hour's boat trip from Thout Kyot (approx 2 miles)

Second village: Gue Gon (pronounce Gwe Gõ) (GPS coord: N 16 ̊ 09 297 EO 95 47 142) where all 100 houses were affected by the cyclone with 85 casualties! Present population: 529 (in two sub-villages on both sides of the river) The village is bereft of all its resources. There are 12 children below 5 yrs. The 53 children between 5 and 18 lost their school facility which served simultaneously all the neighboring communities (approx 1 km walking distance). Representatives of the military government had ascertained earlier, that the reconstruction of this school should be given priority! We were told about 10 pregnant women. Access takes 1 hour's boat trip from Thout Kyot (approx 4 miles).

Other near-by villages had almost no survivors! Tadar Choung was decimated from 240 to a mere 9 inhabitants! The question of child care does not arise!