Voices from the Field - IRC Blog

“It’s just awful. People are in just desperate need, begging as vehicles go past.”

- Gordon Bacon, IRC emergency coordinator in Myanmar, speaking with Reuters about the plight of Cyclone Nargis survivors.

“We didn’t reenter Iraq lightly. But we felt compelled given the further deteriorating humanitarian situation and lack of service providers.”

- Michael Kocher, IRC acting vice president of international programs, telling The Chronicle of Philanthropy about the IRC’s decision to restart programs in Iraq.

“I do this to soften the hearts in the community. I want them to know that being infected does not make you cursed or a monster.”

- Amuge Patricia, a member of a drama group based in Kotido district, Uganda, that performs plays and songs with HIV-related educational themes.

“Have you ever traveled to a place that couldn’t be farther from home, but where you felt an instant connection?  For me, that place is Liberia.”

- IRC communications officer Emily Holland in her first blog post from her second trip to Liberia

Read the latest news, posted this morning, here.  To help our emergency effort in Myanmar, please make a gift here. 

Watch at CNN.com >

To learn more and help, please visit theIRC.org/myanmar

More than 2,000 people died in this town and the villages surrounding it.  The survivors wear their pain on their faces. In this township, there are 97 settlements where 17,000 homeless are staying.  But everyone here is desperate.  Some of the settlements get assistance from local monasteries and authorities.  But really, they have nothing and they beg for help.

Today I visited one of these settlements.  It was really bad. About three hundred people were clustered together in a shelter that gives them no protection because the roof was torn off by the cyclone.  Still, this is all that they have.  So they sit and beg for help as the rain comes pouring down over them.  The children hold out their hands.

We were the first ones to come here and offer aid. The people were so grateful to see us. We talked to the monks who agreed to give our supplies to the most vulnerable ones. We gave them clothes, blankets, some pots and pans, and clean containers to collect water.  We also gave them mosquito nets, because malaria and dengue fever are very big problems here, and tarps to help them stay a little bit drier.

One of our biggest concerns at the site was the sanitation.  Not one latrine here survived the storm and all the water sources are contaminated. What’s worse, the hospital is in no condition to receive sick people.  It badly needs repairs and new equipment.

We’re definitely going to return here this week to deliver more supplies and we’ll look into providing clean drinking water and latrines.

To learn more: Read the latest IRC news and Myanmar blog archive.

To help: Make an urgent gift to support IRC’s emergency response.

We are procuring other life-saving supplies in a race against time to avert a health crisis in the delta and other hard-hit districts of Myanmar.  You can read the latest on our relief efforts here.

“It takes less than a spoonful of contaminated water for a person to come down with dysentery or cholera,” says IRC water and sanitation expert Ben Harvey. “These are highly infectious diseases and untreated can quickly kill in the tens of thousands.” 

“Nearly all homes were destroyed in the villages I assessed today and the survivors have virtually no access to clean drinking water,” IRC emergency response coordinator Gordon Bacon told the AP this week. “With each passing day, we come closer to a massive health disaster and a second wave of deaths that is potentially larger than the first.” 

Gordon was one of the first aid workers to be allowed to enter the country after Cyclone Nargis struck.  ”It looked as if it had been raining trees and branches,” he told NPR about his arrival in Myanmar. “It was very, very obvious there had been an immense storm.” Listen to NPR’s interview with Gordon >

Now, forecasters say a new cyclone is headed toward the Irrawaddy Delta.  Please make an urgent donation to support the work of IRC’s emergency teams in Myanmar.