International Save the Children Alliance
Myanmar 6 Months On
Cyclone Nargis cut a swath of destruction across Myanmar’s southern coast on 2-3 May 2008.
More than 130,000 people, including tens of thousands of children, died or disappeared, while more than 1 million people lost their homes. In addition, the agriculture and fishing industries in the Irrawaddy Delta were devastated, leaving families with no way to earn an income or feed themselves.
Save the Children in Myanmar
Save the Children has been working in Myanmar for 13 years and is one of the largest nongovernmental organisations operating in the country. Our ongoing emergency-response programmes are focused on child protection, food aid, health and nutrition, education assistance, shelter, and water and sanitation.
To date we have reached nearly 500,000 people with lifesaving food and water, shelter materials, and household and hygiene items.
Children continue to suffer
Now, 6 Months on, there are new struggles impacted on the daily lives of the people of Myanmar.
The storm flooded the low-lying areas of the country, contaminating wells, ponds and rivers. The salt levels of these traditional sources of drinking water remain high. As the dry season begins this month, families will have few options for obtaining clean drinking water, increasing the risk of disease.
“The water shortage that typically comes with the dry season is being exacerbated by the unusually high salt content in water sources in the Delta — a lingering result of the cyclone,” said Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children’s country director in Myanmar.
Lack of clean water
“The lack of clean water will directly impact the health of children. Scarce family resources will be further strained if they must purchase water, as will relationships among communities if they must compete for this resource.” Kirkwood continued.
Save the Children is planning to implement a variety of measures to increase access to safe water (including setting up reverse-osmosis desalination plants) and improve families’ ability to cope over the coming months and monitor children’s health. Save the Children also will continue to assist farmers, fishermen and others to rejuvenate their livelihoods and incomes, a program all the more critical if families are to deal with the potential financial shock of a water shortage.
Education in Emergencies
Six months after the devastating Myanmar cyclone, Save the Children has shown that quality education can and should be provided in the aftermath of an emergency. The cyclone destroyed 50-60% of schools, yet over the past six months Save the Children has improved the quality of education for over 100,000 children including the construction of over 350 temporary schools.
“It’s hard to overstate how important getting children back to school is,” added Kirkwood, “There’s a huge demand for this, from communities and children - there were about 400,000 children who were not able to go to school because of the cyclone. Now, we’ve managed to get 100,000 of those kids back into school through, for example, the rebuilding of temporary schools, using very inexpensive materials.”
Save the Children’s experience in many emergencies demonstrates that education in emergencies can be provided and is of value, not only to children but also to whole communities. Yet Save the Children’s new report, Delivering Education for children in Emergencies highlights highlights that education still is not viewed as a critical part of every humanitarian response.
More on our response
Find out more: Save the Children's emergency response in Myanmar
Eye Witness Accounts
Photo Essay: Family Tracing And Reunification
Video: Myanmar 6 Months On
Video: Delivering Education in Emergencies
Press Release
Six Months after Cyclone in Myanmar, Save the Children Warns of New Risks Facing Children Affected by the Storm (30 October 2008)