Singapore-born regional humanitarian organisation, Mercy Relief, has been in Myanmar since last Monday to continue its aid efforts for the floods and conflicts stricken victims in Ayeyarwaddy and  the Rakhine state.  Working alongside the local’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief & Resettlement and a local NGO, Myanmar’s Heart Development Organisation, Mercy Relief’s (MR) response team treaded through the countless meanders of the Ayeyarwaddy to reach the stranded communities there.

Locally-procured hygiene kits and tarpaulin for shelters worth SGD 15,000 were personally distributed to 200 affected families at the severely-inundated villages in Pathein District, to help stabilise the situation until further help reaches them. Another 35,000 ready-to-eat meals, 4 units of MR’s water filtration systems and aid essentials are being prepared by the team who would be delivering them to the conflict-stricken Rakhine and Kachin states to address the food and water shortage of more than 123,000 internally displaced people.

 

The MR team had to switch from boats to vans frequently to get access to stranded communities at the Ayeyarwaddy delta.  


Flood victims collecting hygiene kits and shelters at one of the distribution centres.

The team distributed the relief items amidst persistent rains which have caused the flooding since late July, destroying more than 600,000acres of paddy fields and causing major loss in livelihood opportunities for villagers and severe shortage of food and clean water. More rain is expected to continue over the next few days which would add on to the challenges on the ground operations.

To date, MR has committed and personally delivered 35,000 packs of ready-to-eat meals, 5 units of the water filtration systems and other survival and hygiene essentials ranging from rice, blankets and tents, totaling SGD 168,000 to support the ongoing crises in Myanmar.

 

Left: The flooding is expected to worsen with anticipated further downpours. Right: Stranded communities are heavily dependent on boats to have access to essential supplies.

Back in Singapore, MR is calling on volunteers to help mind the meanders and walk the local streets to do their parts and ventilate their care and compassion for the affected communities. The island-wide fundraiser will take place on 16thSeptember 2012. The public can visit MR’s website www.mercyrelief.org for more information and to register. In response to the request from the Government of the Republic of The Union of Myanmar, MR has obtained the permit from the Charities Unit to raise funds from 16 August –16 September 2012 for the conflicts in Myanmar.  MR can only serve the distressed and disadvantaged as much as the support it gets from concerned donors.

About Mercy Relief

Mercy Relief is a Singaporean humanitarian organisation which engages in both disaster relief and sustainable development programmes. It was established in 2003 as an independent non-governmental humanitarian charity responding to the human tragedies in Asia. Mercy Relief’s aid programme focuses on providing timely and effective assistance to disaster-stricken communities and has maintained the delivery of emergency aid within 72 hours from the point of appeal for assistance.  

In the past 12 years, Mercy Relief has disbursed over S$32 million in aid across 40 disaster relief and 53 sustainable development initiatives. Mercy Relief has impacted an aggregate of 2 million lives in 24 countries and areas, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal,  Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Yemen.

For more information, you may call us at 6514 6322 or email corporateaffairs@mercyrelief.org

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