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Myanmar Progress
The following update from Myanmar, was received May 15 by the Pontifical Mission Societies national office in the United Kingdom. The correspondent asked to remain anonymous for reasons of personal safety.
Things are making some progress, but there are many delays due to rain and other unforeseen events. Different church groups, NGOs and the government are supervising and trying to direct the aid groups, so material is slowly reaching the places where it is needed. Myanmar is still reeling from the effects of Cyclone Nargis, with more bad weather expected, thereby complicating an already difficult and tragic situation. We have become tragically accustomed, during the past few days, to ‘updating’ the news of the situation in the Asian country. However, it is the people there for whom the Cyclone was far more than a ‘news event’ and who therefore experience the reality of something they describe as a ‘three-in-one’: a cyclone, tornado and hurricane.
Our contact continued speaking, describing what has become the harsh reality of daily life for so many people in his country.
In our media, there is very little coverage of what has happened, so you will know more than we do. You will have seen more pictures than we have.
In the delta region, there is some progress. Some homeless people have been rescued, but there are still many who are not receiving either tents or food aid. They are in a desperate situation. The Church is trying to help. The dioceses throughout Myanmar, where there are Sisters who are trained in health care, have supplied them to the flooded region of the country and have also sent whatever materials they can spare.
In the delta region itself, some churches were destroyed and at least one priest, Fr. Andrew, was drowned as he tried to return home from an outstation and was caught by the waves.
In Yangon, telephone lines are beginning to function. We are at last able to phone other parts of the country and to find out more about how others are managing. In some parts of the city, there is now electricity as of Wednesday. Until then, we had been depending on a small domestic generator, so we had very limited power.
In many places, the water supply is difficult, especially for those people living in flats where there is no electricity as yet. What is happening is that people who have personal domestic generators are going around the blocks of flats and pumping water for them.
The cost of food has escalated sharply, as you can imagine. Prices were already high, but with the destruction of crops, prices are soaring. The effect of the cyclone has had repercussions on the whole of Myanmar even though the worst-hit area was far away in the south. The delta region is the main source of rice for us, so not only have the crops been devastated, but also the means for transporting rice have been seriously affected. Even in normal times, the price of commodities was rising, but now, they are even more costly.
I myself was travelling back from the airport during the cyclone. It was very frightening, even at the airport, where roofing was blowing away. On both sides of the road, trees both big and small were uprooted or broken. Houses were ruined. I was both amazed and shocked.
In the city, many roads are still blocked by branches, but very slowly, these roads are being cleared. It is a mammoth work.
There was some damage done to the seminary, where the building that houses the chapel and the dining room was damaged and the roofing was blown away. A letter has gone out to all seminarians telling them that the seminary will re-open on 15th June instead of 15th May as originally planned. The third and fourth year students have been asked to return now in order to help with relief and with reconstruction work. Of course, it is difficult for some of them to travel.
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