YANGON, Myanmar — Days after a cyclone's widespread devastation in Myanmar, the first two planeloads of United Nations relief supplies landed in the capital, Yangon, May 8, and Baptist relief organizations are waiting to follow.
Observers fear the death toll could rise from 23,000 to more than 100,000 because safe supplies of drinking water and food are not available to large numbers of people.
Visas for relief workers, however, still have not been approved by the military government of the country formerly known as Burma.
A Southern Baptist relief effort is focusing on establishing reliable communications with partners in Myanmar, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist Convnetion international relief and development organization.
Representatives of Baptist World Aid, the relief arm of the Baptist World Alliance, are in Bangkok, Thailand, awaiting visa application approval to enter Myanmar.
And the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has allocated $5,000 in an initial response to assist victims of the deadly cyclone.
Two other U.S. Baptist denominations — the American Baptist Churches USA and the Baptist General Conference — are developing relief plans.
Cyclone Nargis, a category 3 hurricane that hit the country May 3, wiped out much of Myanmar's communications networks and has made it difficult even for the country's own relief system to ascertain the extent of the damage. In addition to food and clean water, aid organizations expect that the most urgent needs will include plastic sheeting, water purification tablets, mosquito nets and emergency health kits.
The death toll stands at 22,980, with another 42,119 people missing, according to Myanmar's state media. Up to 1 million people are homeless. Relief organizations are concerned about outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and illnesses such as diarrhea that often occur in the wake of natural disasters because of dirty water and poor sanitation.
“Our priority is now to establish reliable communication with partners in Myanmar,” said Palmer of Baptist Global Response. “We hope to have some things in place communications-wise in a few days. From all our sources, we understand other organizations are also experiencing difficulty in responding.”
The Southern Baptist Convention has allocated an initial $100,000 to provide basic necessities for people affected by the cyclone, Palmer said. Once a comprehensive on-ground assessment of the situation can be made, relief efforts will proceed in partnership with key Myanmar nationals, who will be instrumental in any response Southern Baptists are able to implement.
“This looks to have the makings of a long-term response, so we want to lay a good foundation as we start,” Palmer said. “We are beginning to ready partners here in the U.S. in case Myanmar's government decides to allow international aid groups to enter the country and we are able to mount a response from here.”
In the meantime, Palmer said, Southern Baptists can get involved in relief efforts for Myanmar's people by doing the most important thing Christians can do: Praying that God would reveal his love to the country's suffering multitudes.
“You can get involved right now by praying for those who are trying to recover from this disaster and those who are racing to help them restore their lives,” Palmer said. “Pray that God would open the doors to allow our trained disaster response people into the country. This is still a huge barrier.”
Meanwhile, the BWA teams — consisting of representatives of the United States, Australia and Hungary — are hoping to enter the Southeast Asian country to assess the damage. Virginia Baptists are working closely with the teams.
They are trying to make telephone and Internet contact with the Myanmar Baptist Convention, through which relief aid to the country is expected to be channeled. But in Yangon, also known as Rangoon, the largest city in Myanmar, “All the telephone and electric poles have been destroyed,” said Kabi Gangmei of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, who is among those awaiting a visa to enter Myanmar.
The teams from Hungary and Australia, which are part of BWAid Rescue24, and which does search, rescue and relief work, have bought $30,000 worth of basic food items, medication and blankets in Bangkok to take to Myanmar. The funds were donated by Hungarian Baptist Aid, which works closely with Baptist World Aid.
Trained search and rescue personnel from the country of Singapore and from North Carolina may join the BWAid Rescue24 team.
Baptists from around the world continue to pledge support for relief aid to Myanmar. In addition to $50,000 pledged by BWAid, the German Baptist Union has made a provision of up to $62,200 for Myanmar relief.
Bonny Resu, general secretary of Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, one of six continental unions of the BWA, and who is also BWA regional secretary for Asia, said they “are putting plans in place to provide food, drinking water, mosquito nets, temporary shelter, pots and pans, and basic medicine.” APBF, working closely with BWAid, has appealed to Baptist churches on the Asian continent and in the Pacific to respond by making contributions for relief.
Baptists in Norway, Sweden, Canada, Hungary, Australia and Britain have pledged their assistance.
His Nets, a charity that provides mosquito nets to help prevent the spread of malaria, has offered its assistance through BWAid.
The cyclone, which packed 125-mile-per-hour winds, hit the central coastal region of Myanmar, “inundating the Irrawaddy Delta with tidal waves and floodwaters and smashing much of the fragile infrastructure of Rangoon, the country's largest city and commercial hub,” a report out of Thailand stated.
The agricultural sector, the mainstay of the Myanmar economy, was largely wiped out, with rice paddies, the main crop, mostly destroyed. The rich alluvial plains of the Irrawaddy, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, account for at least 60 per cent of the country's rice crop, Myanmar's staple food.
One of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's field personnel serving in Thailand is scheduled to travel to Myanmar to assess the situation and meet with local Baptist partners.
“Our prayers are with the people of Myanmar in this very difficult time,” said Rob Nash, the CBF's global missions coordinator. “We will remain in close touch with our field personnel and partners in the area to do our very best to meet human need.”
Financial contributions can be made:
• To Baptist Global Response by visiting its website at gobgr.org.
• To Baptist World Aid by visiting www.bwanet.org/bwaid or writing to Emergency Response Fund, Baptist World Aid, 405 N. Washington St., Falls Church, VA 22046.
• To the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship by visiting www.thefellowship.info/give or writing to P.O. Box 101699, Atlanta, GA 30392, with checks payable to CBF and “Myanmar #17000” in the memo line.
Compiled from Baptist news sources