Bringing Help and Hope to Where it is Needed Most
June 19, 2008
In country Myanmar Resilience Network (MRN) staff is reporting that travel and access to vulnerable populations in the Delta remains difficult for most relief groups. Local NGOs already cleared to be in those areas have a great advantage over foreign NGOs with no experience in an area. This makes operations with the most vulnerable areas very difficult without NGO connections and other social connectedness, social capital, and leverage with the Myanmar government. By focusing on building strong relationships between the local NGOs, the influential business sector leaders, and the government, we have had relatively good access to date.
We have distributed 20,000 units of antibiotics to the organization leads by Sedagu Sayadaw who is actively leading the relief work. He will go to five different hospitals in Bogela township and distribute medication. Mya Tun has also distributed 60,000 units of antibiotics to the Egress group, who is building six clinics in Phapho area. Mya will also distribute 10,000 units to the Beyond Rangoon group who are from the U.S embassy in Myanmar.
In addition, the MRN will distribute 10,000 units to Myanmar Development Foundation. In country MRN staff are now building a database on other Myanmar NGOs and will continue to distribute medications and other resources to the most effective and strategically useful NGOs working in the areas of mission critical gaps.
In country MRN staff are documenting the need and the relief efforts with photographs. Today, communication in the Delta is extremely poor with essentially no communication devices, except a very limited number of Chinese CDMA phones. In country MRN staff is requesting that near future supply shipments combine medications and communication equipment to assist in logistics and supply chain development and management. Local NGOs are requesting communication equipment and are suggesting that as one of their priorities right now, given its high value in current relief work in the Delta. One local NGO is now trying to set up IPStar in the Phapho area.
Given the hurdles with customs right now, any agency from outside Myanmar coming to Yangon and the Delta should plan on at least 7 days given current strict restrictions on travel to Delta area. Arrangements through official channels for medication and communication equipment may take at least this long.
June 10, 2008
In Phase 0 starting around May 10, we stood up the U.S.-based Myanmar Resilience Network. By working with local Burmese NGOs and business community, and communicating through them to the Myanmar government, we were one of the first groups to go in to the Irrawaddy Delta in mid to late May, even before the Myanmar government announced that they were allowing relief workers access. During Phase 0, we have been studying the basic needs of the 2.4 million Burmese at risk, with an emphasis of those most vulnerable. We have examined the good work of the local and international NGOs to meet the still substantial relief needs.
The Myanmar Resilience Network team now has a sense of the most important mission critical gaps at this time in the late Cyclone Nargis relief effort. Situational awareness is high on the list and is absent throughout the vast majority of the Irrawaddy Delta. The Myanmar Resilience Network (MRN) static and GIS based static mapping capabilities has been a crucial scientific visualization tool in Phase I. It will remain central to upcoming MRN Phases 1,2, and 3. In Phase 0, we have also built the foundations of the MRN communication and logistics platform with a base in Bangkok.
In Phase I, we intend to create a semi-permanent base of operations and hub of communication in Yangon, with Egress and the Myanmar Development Foundation (both Myanmar-based NGOs). We will be emphasizing the development of in-country logistics and communication in Phase I in June and July 2008. Mya Tun (a Burmese American), as the MRN lead within Myanmar, will be taking in 250,000 units of antibiotics next week and communication equipment (a BGAN unit and satellite phone) to assist field operations and establish the foundation for the establishment of five township mobile communication bases for the Myanmar Resilience Networks in Phase II.
The MRN MAPS working group has been aggregating extensive static and dynamic maps and mapping capabilities. Joe Adams, for example, has been developing Myanmar vulnerability maps in Google Maps as a key element of the Myanmar Resilience Networks (MRN) vulnerability assessment project, that would start up in Phase I. It is proposed that we create a Google Maps-based landing page in the MRN populated with clickable "balloons" (pop up dialogue boxes) that can be viewed by authorized personnel and can be added to by the vulnerability assessment team that has write capability. We are experimenting with different ways to approach this application now.
For those of you that would like to join us for a conference call (on Free Conference Call) with Mike Gardner and Ron Espinosa to discuss placement of the Google Maps window into the MRN and to talk about the forms-based balloons with underlying database, please let me know. We are also exploring how we should link SAHANA in to the MRN including its Burmese / English translation capability.
May 29, 2008
Citizens groups all over Burma/Myanmar are forming "NGOs" to respond to the Cyclone Nargis disaster. Most of the relief is being done by Buddhist monks and the people themselves trying to save themselves, their families, and their communities. The Myanmar Resilience Network is designed and is being carried out to help them in their relief and recovery efforts.
The Myanmar government is way overstretched. There is evidence that it is trying to support in-country "NGOs" as best it can, as far as we can tell. But there is little to no infrastructure for doing so. Shedding light on all of this is part of the solution.
Communication infrastructure in the Irrawaddy Delta will be essential to discovering how big a problem the Myanmar/Burma society and the international humanitarian community has in facing the health and life critical issues of Myanmar/Burma. The Myanmar government has now approved visas for many UN humanitarian relief workers who are now rushing into the Delta. It is still unclear if they have been approved to use disaster communication best practices.
People affected by Cyclone Nargis are getting sick and dying now of simple medical and public health problems that we can quickly and effectively address. The biggest and most widespread problem right now is diarrheal diseases. Dysentery and cholera are risks that have to be evaluated carefully as mental and public health aid workers carry out medical and community vulnerability assessments in the Delta disaster areas.
We have a responsibility to act as part of the solution in this humanitarian crisis. Impediments that unduly restrict medical, public health, and larger humanitarian efforts to relieve the suffering of the people impacted in the Irrawaddy Delta have to be removed. We are working on this as best we can.
We are now in discussion with the United Nations agencies, private sector equipment and satellite companies, TSF (Télécoms Sans Frontières) in regards to engaging COMMS equipment and best practices in the Irrawaddy Delta. We are also interacting with Department of State, Treasury, Commerce and the White House to understand their concerns and to apply for exceptions and waivers, if or when necessary.
During these times of further delays due to restrictions on those working in Myanmar, we are recommending that Myanmar Resilience Network COMMS team members focus on COMMS architecture associated with relief and recovery efforts in the Irrawaddy Delta, and talk with international NGOs and private sector COMMS folks that need to be a part of a comprehensive Irrawaddy Delta Relief and Recovery Communication Infrastructure.
There is a broader ethical issue during times of humanitarian crisis, like current conditions in Myanmar, that we are still grappling with. Can we step forward to save lives through channels that can only be opened by those that are sanctioned by foreign governments, which the current Bush Administration is in a legal and rhetorical conflict with? We are looking into it. In the meantime, the folks that are working on the medical and public health side are proceeding with plans to save lives in ways that are not in the gray zone.
The current constraints we are all feeling, while innocent lives are being unnecessarily lost, are unfortunately a part of the territory we are working in, when political interests supercede the interests of people. We need ever better ways to move more decisively to save lives in these circumstances.
May 25, 2008: Special Report on the Myanmar Resilience Network Activities
** Critical Need for Communication and Logistics Infrastructures to Assist Relief Efforts**
The Myanmar Resilience Network will be testing exploratory Fly-away kits within Myanmar over the next few days. We will fly the equipment into Myanmar from BKK. We have been assured by leadership within Myanmar that we will be able to bring the essential relief communication into the country by working with partners in the Myanmar business community and Myanmar citizens.
Once the first Fly-Away kits with voice and internet are demonstrated to work without problems in Bogalay, we intend to take five other units in as a beta test in six townships. Then, within two months if the beta test is successful, we are looking to have 200 units (100 under our control and 100 through other NGOSs) as the backbone of the Myanmar Resilience Networks in the Irrawaddy Delta disaster areas.
The Myanmar Resilience Networks are uniquely set up to move supplies and personnel from BKK to Yangon and the Delta through our Air Bridge, as well as providing the essential nervous system for direct relief to the most vulnerable populations in the Cyclone Nargis disaster areas. We have now successfully moved supplies and personnel into Myanmar. We are working on a second air bridge from Atlanta to Bangkok. We have been successful with Myanmar visas, even before the supposed opening to all country relief workers. We are now offering to help other NGOs bring personnel and supplies into Myanmar from Thailand.
We have been flying in water purification material since May 21. We currently have local Myanmar NGO team members in Yangon, Bogalay, and five other townships. Medical kits from MAP International for IMC go in in two days, assuming the Atlanta to Bangkok leg is secured. We have storage for supplies in Yangon and transit to some areas of the Delta. If all goes well this week with transport, we will have a large amount of medication and water purification supplies in country, sufficient for the next three months of the late-term relief phase and the beginning of the recovery phase.
Ultimately, we are looking to link 200 Township/Camp/Resilience Network ICT units (VSat/BGAN) within two months. This would give us a core nervous system to optimize relief efforts throughout the Irrawaddy Delta. The following core functions of the Myanmar Resilience Networks would be provided for all interested township/camp/NGO efforts in the Irrawaddy Delta Region:
- Anticipatory Science Base (with prospective best practices)
- Situational Awareness (with user-centric common operating picture)
- Mission Critical Gaps (threshold alarms, alerts, hotspot visualization, ...)
- Intelligent Social Network (smartswarm management using FAC (Focus, Agility, Convergence) tools and methods)
Mike Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.
President Global Health Initiatives, Inc.
Myanmar Resilience Network Coordinator
Principal Investigator
Disaster Knowledge Management System
Resilience Networks
Cell: 202-468-7899
MMcDonald@ghinet.info
May 24, 2008
In spite of promises by the Myanmar government to allow in relief workers from all countries, still few relief workers are getting into the areas of critical need in the Irrawaddy Delta area. Now 500,000 people have received aid, but almost 2 million, some in the most desperate conditions, are still without any aid or relief. Deaths during the Phase III Relief period are now mounting from lack of clean water, shelter, food, medical attention. The most significant killer now is the diarrheal diseases, especially among Burmese children.
May 23, 2008
In a Meeting with UN Secretary General, Myanmar’s leader agrees to open access to foreign aid workers Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced that Myanmar’s Senior General Than Shwe has agreed to allow international aid workers, regardless of their nationality, into the areas worst affected by Cyclone Nargis after the two men held talks today. Speaking to the press after the discussions, held in the country’s new capital Naypyidaw, Mr. Ban reported that he had held a ‘good meeting’ with the Senior General. ‘He has taken quite a flexible position on an issue that, until now, has been an obstacle to organizing coordinated and fully effective international aid and assistance operations,’ Mr. Ban said. ‘He has also agreed that [the] visa issue will be speeded up.’ The Secretary-General said the Senior General had agreed that the main airport at Yangon, Myanmar’s most populous city, can be used as a logistics hub for international aid so that relief can be distributed more quickly to those in need. Aid can also be delivered to the country via civilian ships and small boats.
May 20, 2008
Around May 13, we entered Phase III of the Cyclone Nargis disaster. During Phase III (Day 10 to Day 25), the people of the Irrawaddy Delta area, who were displaced from their homes and communities by Cyclone Nargis are growing more vulnerability. It is estimated that between 2 million and 2.5 million Burmese are now at risk. Only a small fraction of the communities at risk are yet receiving the supplies and services that they need to stabilize their lives.
We now have free transport of relief supplies through Air Bagan, sponsored by the Myanmar government, as well as other supplies being flown in by the U.S. government, NGOs, the international community, and other governments.
The key issue now is that supplies must now be directed to the Delta area camps. Concerns regarding infectious disease outbreaks are becoming a serious concern, given overcrowding in poor conditions without clean water.
Please contact us by commenting below and sending an email to MDMOviar@AOL.com, if you have supplies (food, water, shelters) to ship from Bangkok or Yangon.
Lack of communication in country is a major impediment to the relief efforts at this point. We have fly away kits (VSAT, BGAN, WIMAX, WIFI) positioned in Thailand and ready to go into Myanmar, whenever the Myanmar government approves the use of advanced communication devices. If you have diplomatic ties with the Myanmar government and feel that you can assist in negotiating the entry of communication for managing relief efforts, please comment below and contact me at MDMOviar@AOL.com.
Our goal is to help assist relief efforts associated with getting food, water, shelter and other crucial life support materials to the most vulnerable during the month of May. If we can achieve this, it could potentially save thousands of lives.
The next Air Bagan shipment of supplies will be on Friday, May 23. Please contact us, if you have life and health critical supplies that you would like to place on the next Air Bagan flight from Bangkok into the Delta via Yangon.
May 13, 2008: Cyclone Nargis Catastrophe in Myanmar/Burma
The United Nations estimate of the deaths from the May 3 Myanmar cyclone had climbed to somewhere between 62,000 and 100,000. The Myanmar death toll could be half of the fatalities that followed the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but the amount of money donated to help has been a fraction of what was raised in the first week following the Indian Ocean disaster.
"We are having a tsunami-like catastrophe affecting 1.5 million people with entire villages leveled under water," Worthington says. "But because we're not witnessing that, it enables the world to move on to the next disaster without being aware ... that we could see hundreds of thousands of people die."
According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, news of the 2004 tsunami — which ultimately had a death toll between 150,000 and 200,000 — brought in $201 million in the first five days. During that time, reports and images of the catastrophe filled television, radio, newspapers and the Internet.
The United Nations estimate of deaths in Myanmar — 62,000 to 100,000 — is twice the official tally of the government, which put the toll at 32,000 Monday.
This site will host the best practice information for preparedness and disaster response while allowing members to post to forums and blogs. Members will also have the option to create their own personal blogs to add to the collective knowledge base.
