>>> Cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) >>>
If you haven’t seen the news lately, there was an extremely powerful cyclone Nargis (cyclone = hurricane) which hit Burma (also known as Myanmar) a few days ago. The latest reports say that 100,000 people may have died, so I can only imagine the amount of suffering for those who survived the storm.
I was fortunate enough to visit Burma nearly 3 years ago after spending time volunteering with an NGO (non-profit organization) in Cambodia called IDE. I visited the related IDE office in Burma’s capital city Rangoon (Yangon), and I can tell you that this country is extremely poor and could really use assistance in a crisis. There are a very limited number of NGO’s in Burma (no where near the number that exist in Cambodia), and that means that external assistance to this country is difficult to obtain and organize. International relations with Burma/Myanmar are very poor due to human rights concerns about the government, but the citizens of Myanmar are some of the most wonderful people you’ll ever meet.
To give you an idea of life in Burma… I went to a market in a tourist area where one could expect life is better than in the rural areas (where tourists are not legally allowed to visit without a government guide from the MTT) and found bottle openers are made from wooden planks with a screw (and they work pretty well), damaged umbrellas are repaired, empty disposable cigarette lighters are refilled, lilly pads were used as grocery bags, medicines from the “pharmacist” were years beyond expiration, … This is perhaps the greenest country in the world because everything is recycled and reused, and nothing is wasted because there is no alternative.
There are many good ways you can contribute to help those in need in Burma / Myanmar. If you’d like to help farmers in Burma, you might want to consider donating to IDE. IDE’s mission is to aid farmers in 3rd world countries by giving them long term solutions that help to raise themselves out of poverty. IDE Burma is extremely well run: Jim and Debbie Taylor are both Harvard educated and street smart, hard working, and two of the nicest people you could ever meet. Debbie is a native of Burma, and they have a very good local staff. This is one of the few non-profits operating in country, and they are very effective. A donation to this organization is money well spent.
If you’d like to see some past postings I’ve made on Burma: http://viewfromthetundra.com/?s=burma
