SHELTERBOX BURMA

BURMA - 1800 BOXES

“The need exists … the need persists”

A SHELTERBOX EXCLUSIVE FROM BURMA

ShelterBox has just received extraordinary photography and exclusive information from SRT member Mark Pearson in Labutta, Myanmar. The pictures depict that the swift operations and clear cut decision making from early May has helped hundreds of innocent people in times of disaster. Through the sheer persistence and hard work of ShelterBox the delivery and distribution of vital aid continues.

Mark Pearson comments from Labutta, “I have been in Labutta Division in the Irrawaddy I found 'three mile camp' which is home to 5,250 survivors of the Cyclone. There are around 700 ShelterBox tents there all arranged perfectly there is camp security, hospital, clean water, food and schools all run by the government. There are no international NGOs present as the Government is doing such a good job at it to the point that the UN finished the IDP cluster almost three weeks ago. The ShelterBox kit was in a good position above sea level and a cool breeze all day and most importantly shelter from the heavy monsoon downpours which happen most days and night. The survivors have set up shops in our tents and all sorts of little industries inside 3 mile camp.

Following Mark Pearson’s compelling report the ShelterBox warehouse volunteers began to pack 200 tents, 2000 mosquito nets, 2000 tool kits, 600 woodburning stoves, 600 cooking pots, 4000 ground sheets and 50 classrooms in a box. This aid will arrive early July.

“The population was around 40,000 (in the whole of Labutta) at its peak, the families remaining are from the worst hit areas in Labutta and the people I have spoken with their villages were completely wiped out so getting up to Labutta was their only option.

“While I was in Heignyi Island an Australian team member of Medecins Sans Frontieres told me that there were 300 tents on the island in good shape and he was amazed by the speed of distribution to the most remote areas by ShelterBox.”

Tuesday 29th July - MYANMAR: ShelterBox Response Team Training Manager Ed Cox has returned from a successful two-week deployment to Myanmar, to continue the charity’s work following Cyclone Nargis. Ed Cox spent three days in Bangkok, where he worked with representatives from the World Food Programme (WFP) to transport the aid by air into Yangon, Myanmar. He then travelled to Yangon to meet with two other SRT members – Mark Curnow and Martin Jackson, both from the UK – to work with the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), arranging the delivery of the aid to Labutta. A team of three SRT members – Adrian Sumner and John Pearson from the UK, and Rick Commisso from the USA – has now been deployed to Myanmar to work in three locations across the Irrawaddy Delta in which the aid will be distributed. The team will teach local representatives how to erect the tents and use the equipment supplied. Ed Cox said: “ShelterBox Response Teams have been working hard to ensure the delivery of vital aid to those who have been displaced by Cyclone Nargis, and we will continue to work in Myanmar while the need remains.”

Wednesday 9th July - MYANMAR:

ShelterBox can confirm the arrival of 35,000kgs of aid into Bangkok ready for the airbridge into Yangon. ShelterBox Response Team member and training manager Ed Cox will be joining up with the aid to ensure its safe delivery. Two SRT's (Mark Curnow & Martin Jackson both UK) make up the fourth team to enter Myanmar and have arrived safely today for a handover with photo-journalist and SRT member Mark Pearson who has been in country for one month. Back at the warehouse volunteers are packing more classrooms in a box, tool kits, mosquito nets, water carriers and groundsheets that will be flying in to Yangon on Thurs17th.

Out of a community of 300 these 30 survivors begin to rebuild their homes with the help of ShelterBox, Labutta Mayanmar July 08

Monday 30th June - MYANMAR: Packing has commenced in the warehouse today as ShetlerBox plans to revisit Myanmar at the request from ShelterBox Response Team members on the ground. It is confirmed that the need for continued aid is still vital. The monsoon season now follows the devastating Cyclone Nargis making the already desperate situation unbearable for the surviving victims. ShelterBox will respond again with wood burning stoves, schools boxes (approximately 4,000 schools destroyed), tents and boxes (currently used by the fishermen for storage of fish).

Thursday 26th June - MYANMAR: Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar in early May leaving an estimated 150,000 dead and over 2 million left homeless and having lost their livelihood as 500,000 acres of rice farmland areas were swamped by a large seawater tidal surge. To summarize our progress in Myanmar Operation Manager Lasse Petersen says, "While the UN and most NGO’s could not gain access into Myanmar, ShelterBox was able to; immediately obtain as many visa’s as we wanted for our volunteers, bring almost 100 tonnes of ShelterBoxes into the Myanmar and be involved in delivery of boxes and establishing ShelterBox tent camps in some of the areas in the Irrawaddy Delta worst affected by Cyclone Nargis." He adds, "Initially ShelterBox sent 648 boxes. (200 boxes had 2 tents hence total was 848 tents). Thereafter ShelterBox chartered a DC10 from East Midlands to Yangon to deliver a further 1050 ShelterBoxes (Approx. total commitment so far provides shelter for almost 20,000)." To summarize to date 8 SRT’s have deployed in Myanmar including SRT’s from UK, USA & Australia. ShelterBox holds visa’s for several other SRT’s and currently has personnel in Myanmar with further aid delivery to disaster victims in progress.

Thursday 22nd May - Myanmar: ShelterBox can confirm that the majority of the ShelterBox tents have now been used in the two worst hit disaster areas of Labutta & Bogale. Considering the circumstances the first stage of the mission was completed; getting the most boxes of aid into the country in the initial stages of the disaster. Importantly a realistic pipeline for more ShelterBoxes to enter the country under the guidance of the local authorities has now been established.

These tents are in Bogale, one of the worst affected areas where many villages were completely destroyed. The image at top right shows Ian Neal, a ShelterBox Response Team [SRT] member in the Irrawaddy Delta overseeing the distribution of ShelterBoxes. One thousand eight hundred boxes were deployed in Burma. Lasse Petersen took the photos below as he flew over the devastated area.

The village of Kyien Kyaung Gyi, Myanmar where approx. 30 tents had been erected. The leader of this village lost his wife and all six children to the storm - water levels exceeded 15ft.

The DC10 was loaded on 14th May at East Midlands, the airport authorities waived the landing fees since it was an aid flight. The Shelterboxes were joined on the flight by two members of the Shelterbox USA Response Team, who represent two of very few Americans to receive visas for Burma. The flight itself was the very first aid flight to leave a UK airport since the start of the disaster. The boxes have now been distributed to the heart of the disaster area and the tents erected. Above a local Doctor can be seen on her rounds at one of the tented villages that has sprung up.

Below are pictures from Yangon Airport - the Shelter Boxes are unloaded to waiting trucks.




	The Army and the ShelterBox Response Team lead by a Cornish Fireman worked to unload the DC10.
	ShelterBoxes packed for sending to Burma – another vital shipment of humanitarian aid from the ShelterBox HQ in Helston, Cornwall UK. Donations from around the world of more than $2.1 million have enabled this assistance. Funds to replenish stocks. ShelterBox has been confirmed as the first UK-based disaster relief team with aid to have landed in Burma to assist with disaster relief work. The team of four highly trained specialists spent the first 24 hours surveying and assessing the situation. The first 220 boxes arrived from prepositioned stock in Dubai, 400 were sent on a commercial flight from Cornwall, 220 were despatched from Melbourne, and 1,000 left on a specially chartered DC10 from East Midlands (UK) airport on 14th May arriving in the early in the morning of 16th May an Yangon in Burma. All boxes were loaded onto trucks for immediate distribution to the delta by the Burmese Fire and Rescue Service; The DC10 was the very first chartered aid flight to leave the UK since the start of the disaster. The first boxes were distributed by the Fire Service with ShelterBox (SRT) members assistance. ShelterBox UK advises, “new ground has been broken this morning as ShelterBox Response Team members in Yangon met with Burmese Fire and Rescue Service at the airport to instruct them in how to use and distribute this vital aid.”