Agency's longstanding presence in country aids work; preparing response to China quake
More than a week after Cyclone Nargis slammed the coast of Myanmar, Adventist Development and Relief Agency officials report that aid efforts are progressing, due in part to the humanitarian agency’s longstanding presence in the Southeast Asian country.
From its local headquarters in Yangon, operating since 1984, ADRA is collaborating with the World Food Program to distribute food and other vital supplies. ADRA’s established position within the country has aided its response, ADRA officials said. Workers have not needed visas or other permissions from the country’s rulers, a difficulty faced by some outside agencies.
Only one-fifth of the necessary 375 tons of food is available to feed the country’s population of almost 50 million, just one-fifth is currently available, the WFP reported. Starvation and disease are rampant among as many as two million people displaced when the 10-hour storm decimated 95 percent of the homes in some Irawaddy Delta villages.
Myanmar government and United Nations officials today indicated between 62,000 and 100,000 people are dead or missing.
The Adventist Church’s humanitarian agency is also preparing to respond to yesterday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China, which killed more than 9,000 when it leveled the country’s highly populated Sichuan province.