HOPE has already started emergency relief and medical assistance for cyclone survivors.

While the government of Myanmar gives an official death toll of 31,938 and 29,770 injured, the UN estimates that up to 102,000 have died and up to 2,000,000 people have been affected by the storm.

Because there are staff members based in Myanmar, HOPE was privileged to be in a position to help immediately after the cyclone hit. HOPE’s staff in Myanmar have been working on the ground and aiding thousands of people in the most devastated delta areas of southern Myanmar almost immediately after the Cyclone hit the country.

Current Situation

Surviving families have little or no shelter from the oncoming rainy season.

Presently, the survivors are living in inhumane conditions and if people are to survive they will need food, medicines, clean water, and other essential materials. Recent rainfall is a curse as well as a blessing: people are struggling to collect drinking water and thousands are living out in the open in these miserable conditions.

On the morning following the storm, HOPE International Development Agency Myanmar began to work with local people to deliver emergency care to survivors. HOPE teams are currently working in the hardest-hit delta region, where the following has been witnessed:

• extensive destruction of power, communication, and transportation;
• severe diarrhea;
• a lack of food, and food prices doubling within less than 24 hours of the disaster;
• extreme lack of drinking water
• water contamination due to salt water and decaying animal and human bodies

Animal and Human remains floating in rivers and waterways are not only a source of trauma, but threaten to contaminate drinking water and cause outbreaks of disease.

Right now, HOPE is:

• providing medicines
• providing clothing, chlorine water treatment, and funds to purchase food and other essential items
• providing water purification systems and rainwater harvesting kits
• performing medical treatments, surgeries, providing trauma counselling, etc.
• planning rebuilding efforts with community members

HOPE Is Present and At Work In Myanmar

HOPE Myanmar has a longstanding relationship with communities in the delta regions, and HOPE staff members are familiar faces to cyclone victims. They have the trust required to work effectively with survivors now, and in the future, when rebuilding starts in these communities.

HOPE is at work in Myanmar today. The need is profound and yet we are privileged to meet this need when you give. Please ensure that those blessed to survive are not cursed to now perish by our lack of response.