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Gitameit volunteers have been deeply involved in helping with cyclone relief efforts. Among other things, Gitameit thought of sending volunteers to some of the collection centers with paper and crayons, so children there could draw some of their Nargis experiences – the idea being that children in the United States would then send drawings and messages back to them.

The Burmese children’s drawings bear silently eloquent witness to the devastating experiences that they and their families went through during the cyclone and its immediate aftermath. Two American volunteers with school-age children have since collected drawings and messages from a number of elementary school children at two different schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Burmese translations are being made of the messages the American children wrote with their drawings – messages that express caring, concern, and hope for the future. A selection of these drawings and messages will be posted here once they have been translated and scanned in.

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Gitameit Volunteer

Meditation center, Pagoda in Hlaing Thaya
I think our method of providing aid is effective only because the abbot supervised our activities. We should continue to visit this location in the future.

Shwe Pauk Kan
The refugee camp is not so far from the city. So the situation doesn’t seem so bad. I don’t think their spirits are down because aid works come regularly.

South Dagon
I think that all the refugees are depressed and miserable. I don’t see their situation improving soon. I am sad, fed up, and feel sympathy for these refugees.

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It’s time for an update from Myanmar. I’ve been discouraged to see the type of coverage coming out of CNN and BBC and others regarding relief efforts underway there. And despite the fact that I am in the US, I’m still in daily contact with our people in Yangon, and therefore may be able to continue to provide a better sense of some aspects of the realities of providing relief in Myanmar than you will get if I leave you to fend for yourselves with nothing but television news as your guide! So here goes…

Among the biggest challenges to relief efforts right now is the distribution issue. This is the impression being given by international news agencies, but the perspective they take in reporting it is different than mine. Let me back up and give you some history. Before the cyclone, there were quite a few international, non-UN development organizations, as well as some local development organizations, working in the Ayewaddy Delta. These organizations had field offices in many of the main towns and larger village areas and had built up working relationships with local authority structures and local community members. When the cyclone hit, these agencies and their staff remained in place. Their international staff may not have been allowed to go out to those field offices post-cyclone, but the local and international staff who were already there were able to remain. This was threatened for awhile, but in the end, their continued presence was successfully negotiated. Certainly the lack of ability to put additional people in those field offices and out into the surrounding communities was a problem, but there was a presence.

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Ashin Dhammasara — Monk — Irrawaddy Division

Sadness

In Myanmar, the people from Irrawaddy divisions are in grave danger. Nargis destroyed many villages. As a member of one of these villages, I have never experienced anything like this storm. When it came, I felt both overwhelming shock and sadness. I have deep compassion and empathy for those who don’t have food, water, and shelter. To say the least, if you look at this experience from a Buddhist perspective, it is possible to get a very valuable life lesson. As someone who has suffered greatly from this storm, I want to thank you for your generous support. I am looking forward to seeing the benefits of your future acts of generosity. Thank you.

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May 15, 2008

You just never know when that 7th grade home sciences course is going to come in handy. Today my 32-year-old Sears Kenmore sewing machine and I embarked on a rainwater-collector prototype sewing project. We’re trying out different designs that are simple to set up once they get to the field. Yesterday, we had a group of church people, a senior monk, several HOPE staff and some miscellaneous friends of HOPE staff, all crammed into office area, gathered around a pile of tarp, brainstorming how to design water collection equipment for the situations they are currently aware of in the Delta. With a prototype in hand, we will quickly get someone else with more appropriate equipment to produce more of these rain collectors.

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Thit Ti

We have been helping these victims as much as we can for the past few days. They can’t get out of the situations we see. Most of their homes were completely destroyed. And the rest, if they weren’t destroyed completely were very bad. So they have to live in this bad place with lots of difficulties.

The homeless have to gather at public places, such as monasteries and schools. But then, the refugees are allowed to stay at these public places only for a limited period of time. Since they are homeless, where else can they live if they are asked to move from these places? We can do nothing but feel sorry for them. Among them, the aged, children, sick people, and pregnant women suffered more. I was wondering, if I were one of these refugees, would I be able to deal with this trouble?

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May 14, 2008

If you listen to "Message for the Queen," from the "300" soundtrack, you will understand what my mood was for the past couple days. It started on Monday, with an early morning text message that Save the Children’s cargo plane of relief supplies was being impounded at the airport by the government, because the waybill said the recipient was "Save the Children" instead of "UN." Suddenly, some dam inside me broke, and I was at the mercy of a huge, roiling tide of despair and frustration. Then more and more bad news and scary rumors started piling up and all got the better of me. Fortunately, some of the worst rumors have turned out to be untrue, and good news has also been coming in.

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Su Myat Htet — Hlaing Thar Yar Team

Today my team went to 6 different refugee camps. First, we went to Yadana Thirimyo Oo Monastery. Since we arrived at the camp at lunchtime, we saw many young children eating their meals. It was such a wonderful sight to see. We were especially glad to see them eating enthusiastically because we knew that we were the ones who were able to give them food.

Next we went to Amaka 31. For this site, we had a plan. We had a raffle for tarps. We awarded tarps to 24 out of the 50 families there. After we finished the raffle, we met a young girl who was sick. We saw that she was recovering well from dysentery. When we saw her yesterday, she was a sorry sight to see. She seemed to be in so much pain. What a sad thing to see a girl who was so young, only 11, in so much pain. Yesterday we gave her some money so that she could go to a doctor. So again, we were happy to see that we could make a difference. As soon as we went to houses of the raffle winners and took pictures, I became very upset. The losers of the raffle were distraught and shouting that they had nowhere to sleep. I felt really sorry because it was impossible to provide enough for everyone. As we only had a limited number of tarps, we could only help them so much.

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