BANGKOK, Thailand (ABP) – Baptist groups are among the scores of international aid organizations trying desperately to bring relief to the hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims in Burma.
Along with thousands of other aid workers, groups of Baptist relief officials waited May 12 for visa approval to enter the country — nearly 10 days after Cyclone Nargis drowned as many as 100,000 residents of the Irrawaddy Delta region.
According to Baptist World Alliance officials, several international Baptist response teams were stationed in Bangkok, capital of neighboring Thailand, awaiting permission to enter Burma, which is also known as Myanmar.
The teams “are putting plans in place to provide food, drinking water, mosquito nets, temporary shelter, pots and pans, and basic medicine,” said Bonny Resu, general secretary of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation. The body is one of six regional fellowships that make up BWA, the worldwide umbrella group for Baptists. Resu's organization is helping coordinate Baptist relief work in Burma.
The teams waiting in Bangkok include members from Baptist organizations in the United States, Hungary and Australia. They expect to coordinate with the Myanmar Baptist Convention based in the nation's largest city, Rangoon, but have not been able to get in touch with Burmese Baptist officials, because the tropical storm's winds severely damaged the city's already-fragile infrastructure.
“All the telephone and electric poles have been destroyed,” said Kabi Gangmei, another Asia Pacific Baptist Federation official who is waiting in Bangkok to accompany the Baptist teams into Burma.
International officials — including President Bush and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon — have expressed increasing anger at the pace of the Burmese government's response. According to news reports, Ban described “immense frustration” that he and other U.N. officials were feeling May 12.
The nation has been ruled by an oppressive military junta since 1992. The generals who run the country are suspicious of outside governments and journalists, particularly Western ones. They have reportedly harassed the few journalists who have made it into the country to report on the disaster, and have intercepted many of the few aid shipments that have made it through.
International public-health officials are warning of a humanitarian crisis even worse than the cyclone itself due to water- and insect-borne diseases if relief supplies do not get to the estimated 1 million victims soon.
One Oklahoma-based Christian group, His Nets (www.hisnets.org), is attempting to provide insecticide-treated mosquito nets to prevent a malaria outbreak.
“The U.S. and other countries will provide food, drinking water and shelter,” said T Thomas, the group's director, in a press release soliciting donations for nets. “However, standing water from the cyclone will quickly cause an outbreak of malaria. This will result in a second wave of deaths if nets are not provided quickly!”
Thomas, a former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary and now coordinator for Oklahoma CBF, said the nets can each protect a family for up to five years. They can be provided for only $6 apiece. HisNets has committed enough funds for more than 1,000 nets, but the need in Burma is “much greater,” he said. The group works closely with BWA.
CBF and the American Baptist Churches USA have each made initial contributions of $5,000 to relief funds and both are accepting Internet donations from individuals and churches (CBF at www.thefellowship.info/give and ABC at www.abc-oghs.org/give). BWA has committed $50,000 to the Burma effort and is also accepting donations through its relief arm, Baptist World Aid, online at www.bwanet.org/bwaid.
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