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Meet the suffering people of Burma.
Jenny's story - A family torn apart by Nargis
Saw K'Tray Soe's story - A thirteen year old land mine victim
A letter from a Church in Burma
Jenny's story - A family torn apart by Nargis
Jenny is married with six children. Jenny and her family are survivors of cyclone Nargis and live in a refugee camp.
When the cyclone hit Jenny’s village she was at home with her elderly mother-in-law and her youngest son, aged two. Her husband and other children were safely away from the village.
They only received news of the oncoming storm a few minutes before it hit. They were not given any advice and did not understand what it would mean. The news for them came too late; there was no place for them to go. Those who could run tried to get away.
Jenny’s mother-in-law was bedridden and unable to walk. Jenny had to leave her alone as she left with her son to try to escape the storm. It is presumed she died.
Jenny managed to hold onto her son and find some bamboo to hold onto, but in the force of the wind and waves, she lost her grip on her son and he was washed away, now presumed dead. She clung on for her life for three hours. In the morning she heard that from her village, a place normally populated by approximately 250 people, only 45 villagers had survived.
She had to stay in her village from Friday night when the cyclone hit, to Monday morning – the government would not allow them to leave – until a different group came to take them out to safety. Jenny mentioned that during these three days there was no help from the Burma army except for when they came to help the Burman people, ignoring the Karen. During this time her husband and surviving children thought she must have died. They were reunited a week later.
Together they left Burma in the middle of May and crossed the border – a journey that took four days.
They cannot return to their village - it no longer exists.
Saw K'Tray Soe's story - A thirteen year old land mine victim
On 19 November 2007, thirteen-year-old Saw K'Tray Soe detonated a landmine while sitting on a log waiting for his mother to collect vegetables and hitting the ground with a machete. The mine blew up in his face, blinding him and wounding his face and upper torso. The mine had been laid two months previously by the Burma Army.
He was taken to a local mobile clinic, many hours walk away, but after some basic treatment they said that they could not help him any more.
In January 2008 an FBR relief team came across Saw K'Tray Soe. One of the team members described their meeting:
"Today as we were running a clinic, a young boy was bought to see us. He was bent over and shuffled dejectedly with his head down, helped by his older brother. Seeing his damaged eyes, hunched over little body and crushed spirit, I felt very sad. I told him that I did not know if we could help but that we would try. I then knelt down and prayed with him."
The FBR medic examined his eyes and saw that there was extensive damage in both, but the left eye had a distinctive pupil, and Saw K'Tray Soe explained that he could tell the difference between light and dark. So, the team decided it was worth trying to get him into Thailand for further examination.
This took many days of walking, but eventually Saw K'Tray Soe reached the border and was taken to a hospital in Chiang Mai. After a series of appointments and tests, the recent, sad conclusion is that nothing can be done medically to restore his sight.
One of the Partners Relief team members had the privilege of driving Saw K'Tray Soe to one of his appointments at the hospital and commented:
“I can honestly say I believe him to be one of the bravest people I have ever met. In the few months he has been in Thailand, living in one of the refugee camps, he seems to have adapted well to living without his sight. During the journey, even though at first he was shy, I was able to get a few smiles and sentences from him. I believe that God is answering the prayers of many for this young man and even though the doctors cannot now help him, God can perform a miracle.”
Saw K'Tray Soe's life embodies the situation for all the IDPs, refugees and migrants from Burma - An innocent young man hurt and damaged by a wicked and brutal regime.
It has to stop.
Watch the video interview with Saw K'Tray Soe
A letter from a Church in Burma
The long march continues with a pause for gratitude - A letter from Burma
Dear Friends,
After 45 days of hectic work, the church and its group of committed volunteers take a pause from the long journey of re-building our people's lives, to express our deep gratitude to all of you who stood by us and the people of Burma in their hour of darkness.
Thousands are returning home, or where their home used to be. Children return to school, knowing some of their friends will not be here. Farmers are returning to a slowly healing land, wounded by the marauding sea on that fateful day. The Ayeyawady River is subdued into serenity after straddling killer waves and exhibiting dead bodies for a month.
It has been a heavy month for the church. In Dedeya, groups of Christians valiantly buried dead bodies, exposed to sun and rain for a month. It is a challenging work, for days together many villages were a valley of bones, and now they are rested with dignity in a place. Elsewhere the caregivers, our volunteers, faced threats to their own physical and psychological health, living amidst contaminated water and rotting bodies. Some have to be carried back to Yangon for medical attention.
All the parishes have been turned into disaster response teams. Food and non-food items are distributed through them. Many times the Buddhist monks are fellow sojourners in this act of mercy. Just a month ago, no family had wish or wherewithal to send their children. This month, with our support for uniforms, books and fee, hundreds of children are returning to the school.
This return is healing and the first signs of life return to the battered communities. Hundreds of temporary shelters are coming up. Seeds are distributed. The Church is designing a healing process through Psycho-Spiritual training and trauma healing services.
The nightmare is slowly replaced with hope.
Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM), all the religious and faithful, Karuna (national Caritas) and the Caritas international reiterate their commitment. We thank all of you at this juncture. Our work has been very challenging, done under great restrictions of access. But you all made our work rewarding by standing by us with your great fellowship. The churches from various nations contributed their might and prayers to our work.
It has been a month of pain and sorrow for our people. But the tide is turning, because people like you felt their pain from afar and rushed with assistance. The Church could save lives because of you. On behalf of those thousands who survived we owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of you. Once again we realise that the universal Church is a mother who reaches out where there is a tear, a human brokenness.
It is still a long journey. The full recovery will take at least two years.
Cyclone Nargis was nature's nuclear attack on our people. There are villages destroyed without any trace. The farm lands are polluted with the sea water.
The human asset is diluted, social assets destroyed, natural assets mutilated with wanton destruction. The poor of Myanmar, already handicapped by some of the worst permanent disasters, are crawling back to normality.
So our journey continues. The urgent needs are for setting up homes, shelter and regenerating the livelihoods through supply of seeds to farmers, encouraging micro enterprises.
This has been a month of challenge, but a blessed challenge because we felt the power of human oneness, the unstinted support of the Mother Church and great generosity of human spirit among the people through their selfless service to their suffering brothers and sisters.
Our heartfelt thanks to every one of you.
On the ground in Karen State – 18 June 2008
Extracts from Delta Tears workers providing relief to Cyclone victims.
Karen villages didn't get any of the aid being distributed because the authority didn't allow volunteers to go and help the Karen villages.
The properties that belong to the Christians were mostly destroyed in Laputta area. In some villages there is nothing left.
When the authorities sent back the students of the Bible school, they gave them 16 tins of rice and a pot. And each family for every village was given sixteen tins of rice and a pot. And the families which have more than four people were given a tarpaulin twelve feet wide and nine feet long. The families with less than four people did not get the tarpaulin. And they sent all the villagers back to their villages.
Over 60 churches were hit by Cyclone Nargis in Karen State. The rest (approximately 2000) were not affected and are helping the churches that were hit by giving money and rice through the arrangement of Baptist Karen.
For the Christians society they gain boats, 180 thousand kyat, 300 baskets of rice by Karen Baptist. Moreover a generator is given for each church. They can't give enough petrol in every church.
Some big villages are looked after by the SPDC's security. This makes unity difficult.
I want to say we need the international humanitarian aids. Why I have to say that because the authority in the country could not give us, but they don't want to accept the humanitarian aids from the international community too. We believe they should accept the international aids. It's not only my wish. I believe the other survivors from the other areas have the same wishes as mine.
