Fund Raising for Burma Cyclone Victims

2008-06-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

"To see how they [cyclone survivors] suffer is a heartbreak. To observe how they refuse to surrender and their determination to rebuild their lives is certainly an inspiration."

Surin Pitsuwan

Secretary General

ASEAN

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Up date photos!

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"To see how they [cyclone survivors] suffer is a heartbreak. To observe how they refuse to surrender and their determination to rebuild their lives is certainly an inspiration."

Surin Pitsuwan
Secretary-General of Asean
Chair of the Asean Humanitarian Task Force

Up Date of Aids distribution!

2008-06-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Up Date: What is going on?

So far, ABA has raised a little over 20,000 A$. Thanks to you all for your generousity, and kindness. We are truly grateful to both individual as well as friends who not only donate but also organise fund raising for Burmese. Friends from including Germany, Argentina, Dawin, Alice Spring, Sydney, Melbourne sent their donation to ABA to save thousands of lives.The money have been constantly transferred to Burma and Aid have been distributed to more than thirty monasteries in the Irrawaddy through Saytana shin, grass root voluntary organizations.

Saytana shin organization is a respectable voluntary organization whose members include medical professionals to laborers. They have been distribution Aid daily to the remote villages in the Irrawaddy delta [see how http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/on-the-outside-looking-in/788860.aspx].

By using owncars, rented trucks, ships, boats, tractors and carried supplies by themeselves, Saytana shin has outreached the cyclone victims. They drove shipments and dispersed this aid into the devastated delta areas. They are the true heros on the ground.

The monks are doing marvellous job! The monks are existing respected community leaders in Burma. Monks have their own network and access as every Buddhist man has to become a monk at one stage in their lives. Every village has a monastery. While foreign Aid workers are still struggling to get access, and being restricted by bureaucratic hindrances to deliver Aid, these Saytana shin and monks are by passing the military roadblocks with dana practice [see http://www.saytana.wordpress.com.au/], most fundamental practice of Buddhism. It has proven to be the most successful operation. Above all, dana is thousand years old Burmese Buddhist traditional practice by ordinary Burmese and even the most powerful regime can not break it.

What's the biggest challenge for the monks/ volunteers?
Donation! The biggest challenge for them is not a problem of access to the cyclone victims but too much access and too little Aid to offer them. Simple they have not enough Aid to offer. They need more help.

ABA's funding is coming from individual donors like you and me. As now Burma is slowly fading from the world's face, donation is coming fewer. Both monks and saytana shin say that the most difficult thing for them is they have to turn their back from the cyclone victims without being able to offer anything after all the supplies that they carried run out.

One of the monks said ‘after we hand out all our supplies and yet there are still many are lining up. You can see they are desprate. You can see they need help. Seeing those already suffering people under the heavy rain and leaving them behind without being able to offer any food or kinds that break my heart. We got access to the most remote areas within five days but we have not enough supplies to offer.

What more needs to be done?
Help!! Help! Help! After over a month, people are still surviving wihtout shelter, food and anough clothing and blanket. Many receive no aid. Starvation and extreme weather exposure of burning sun and heavy rain are making them sick. Dried clothing, blankets, tarpawling and rice are mostly needed.

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Places!

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Monks & Aids!

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Delivering Aids from Australians!

2008-06-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Photos of ABA aids distribution!

2008-06-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Little update: what is going on?

2008-05-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

1. Fund raising dinner on 16th May [Friday] raised
6700A$. We had sent out rice, drinking water, medicine, and clothing for the
Burmese.
2. On 17th May [Saturday], we had organised religious ceremoney at the
Buddhist Society of ACT.
2. "Andy & George", famous Canberra based wonderful musicians came down
and played at the fund raising dinner voluntarily. Thank you!
3. On 23rd May Friday, "Andy and George" team once again raised fund for
Burma at the Front, Lyneam and raised 704$.
4. On 24th May [Saturday] Australian Burmese community in Canberra and sent three loads of cars to Sydney on by Jo, Sophie, Ko Zaw Naing, Ko Sai, and Ko
Aung Lin Zaw to Sydney. We sent two loads of truck with donated goods to Sydney Buddhist temple to send to Burma. Burmese Buddhist monk and Sri Lanka monks donated new blankets, tarpawlin. Burmese community come together to donated goods. These items are extremely useful and much needed for Burmese.
5. After five days, our donations reached out Kunchangone, phyapon,
kawhmuu, Laputta areas most effected areas. Saytana shin bought 29184
pyi of rice, 10,000 of paso and longyi, 1000 cooking pots and giving to
the monasteries and helping the monks to distribute.

Latest News - as at 11 am, 8th May, 2008

2008-05-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

SBS - Burma cyclone deaths may exceed 100,000

More than 100,000 people may have been killed in the cyclone in Burma, a US diplomat says, citing information diplomats were receiving from the devastated Irrawaddy delta region of the Southeast Asian country.

"The information that we're receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area," said Shari Villarosa, the head of the US embassy in Burma.

State radio and TV, the main official sources for casualties and damage, reported an updated death toll of 22,980 with 42,119 missing and 1,383 injured in Asia's most devastating cyclone since a 1991 storm in Bangladesh that killed 143,000.

Source: SBS News, To read more Click Here

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U.S. envoy: Myanmar deaths may top 100,000

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- The death toll from the cyclone that ravaged the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar may exceed 100,000, the senior U.S. diplomat in the military-ruled country said Wednesday.

"The information we are receiving indicates over 100,000 deaths," said the U.S. charge d'affaires in Yangon, Shari Villarosa.

The U.S. figure is almost five times the 22,000 the Myanmar government has estimated.

The U.S. estimate is based on data from an international non-governmental organization, Villarosa said without naming the group. She called the situation in Myanmar "more and more horrendous."

"I think most of the damage was caused by these 12-foot storm surges," she said.

Villarosa also said that about 95 percent of the buildings in the delta region were destroyed when Cyclone Nargis battered the area late Friday into Saturday.

Source: CNN News, To read more Click Here

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BBC - Keeping a lid on Burma's chaos

In the past, when they feared things were getting beyond their grasp, their solution was simple: mass arrests.

But the latest challenge to the generals' demand for order could not be cowed.

Source: BBC News, To read more Click Here

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Latest News - as at 11 am, 7th May, 2008

2008-05-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

CNN - Myanmar cyclone survivors desperate for aid

The government-run radio station said Tuesday that 22,464 are confirmed dead and 41,000 are missing, and the United Nations says that up to 1 million could be homeless.

CNN's Dan Rivers is the first Western journalist to reach Bogalay township, where China's state-run Xinhua news agency says 10,000 died. He reported miserable conditions.

Rivers said that bodies were being dropped into rivers and that survivors had only small amounts of eggs and rice. The area's rice mills are destroyed, leaving Bogalay with a five-day supply. Water pumps were also ruined, and fuel was scarce.

He reported destroyed homes along 30-kilometer stretches. In one area, only four homes remained from a total of 369. People were taking shelter under canvas sheets, and the weather remained awful.

Source: CNN , To read more click here

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SBS - Hundreds of thousands need help in Burma

The United Nations estimates that "hundreds of thousands" of people in Burma are in need of help after a cyclone that killed nearly 22,500, a top UN humanitarian official said.

"Unfortunately we cannot tell you how many people are in need of assistance," Rashid Khalikov, director of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, told reporters in New York.

"We just clearly understand that it will probably be in the hundreds of thousands of people."

Source: SBS online , To read more click here

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BBC - Burma's cyclone death toll soars

The death toll from Burma's devastating cyclone has now risen to more than 22,000, state media have said.

Another 41,000 are missing three days after Cyclone Nargis hit the country, causing a huge tidal surge to sweep inland, according to state radio.

Source: BBC News , To read more click here

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