More than a Million People became Homeless.

With up to 1.5 million people in Burma left homeless by the Cyclone Nargis, the people are now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease. Rotting bodies of people and animals are piled up in many places across southern Irrawady delta.

The official government death toll from the cyclone is 22,997, but the top American diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, said Wednesday that the toll could rise to 100,000 if aid did not reach survivors soon. A military official in the town of Labutta estimated 80,000 dead there alone, Agence France-Presse reported.

According to The New York Times, there are thousands of aid workers inside Myanmar already. Save the Children has a staff of 500 there and has been able to provide 63,000 families with plastic sheeting, food, water purification tablets and other supplies. CARE has a staff of 500, Doctors Without Borders has staff members there, and the United Nations has 1,500 people in Myanmar.

But the scale of the disaster dwarfs these measures, aid experts say. Without a huge influx of supplies and transportation in the area, where many villages were accessible only by boat or helicopter to begin with, the workers can offer only limited help, aid officials said.

Many people in the worst-hit areas have not had any food or safe drinking water or medical treatment since the cyclone hit, said the spokesman for the United Nations’ World Food Program, Paul Risley. The storm has mixed drinking water and sewage, posing a severe risk of diarrheal diseases, and flooding has left vast pools of standing water where mosquitoes can breed and spread malaria and dengue fever.

We met several Burmese friends who are from a village called Daidanaw, when they were in Bangkok a few days ago. Nearly 99 percent of houses in Daidanaw are destroyed and the local cemetery is severely damaged - the gate and the prayer building are destroyed, but the graves are in tact.

In Daidanaw, personal belongings and domestic animals are all destroyed as well. All paddy fields are destroyed so are the rice storages for the households.
As you are aware, immediately after the tsunami 2004, we went and spent a month helping the victims in south India and Sri Lanka and comforted them. Now our Foundation (Hope is Life Foundation) is working hard to help Burmese people.

We will be going to Burma soon as soon as we finalize travel plans, especially visa and raise enough funds to help rebuild their lives. We will keep you posted.

Please visit our website for making donations: www.hopeislife.org

(Photo courtesy: The New York Times)