A message from Gitameit about Cyclone Nargis

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Gitameit has turned into a disaster relief organization. The musicians and I drove to outlying townships today - we focused on the areas in which we started our music performance and teaching projects.

In our Gitameit Center backyard alone in Yankin - the hindu temple ceremony hall - there are 800 people camped out with less than satisfactory sanitation, diminishing clean water supply and very little else than rice porridge in the last two days.

We headed over to Hlaing Thaya and before we even got to the monestary where we help out - stopped in an elementary school that had around 300 homeless people with a broken water pump. Across the way, in another temple, another 250 or so from the same village where thatch houses had been totally smashed by cyclone Nargis.

We’ve identified these communities linked to us already - around 3000+ people. We figure we will need to raise at least $150,000 in the coming weeks - just to keep these communities afloat until some of the markets get up and running. We’re concentrating on food/water/medicine first.

The musicians will be responsible for delivery, the monks will deliver food (some of which will feed them, too). We have a budget-savvy assistant from Foundation for the People of Burma who will handle fund transfers and communication - and we will put regular progress reports here on the Gitameit website.

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There are other NGO’s here - Metta Foundation, IDE, Hope International, etc who will work in the Delta region. We can only take care of what we know.