UPDATE : Emergency activity in Myanmar (Burma)
13 Jun 2008

Below you will find the updated press releases with information about our activities

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*********************** UPDATE from 13th June ***********************

Malteser International trucks with relief itemsvare leaving to Labutta on a weekly basis now. The government of Myanmar has already dissolved many of the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and built up new camps outside of the town. According to latest figures, 24,000 people are living in the town of Labutta and about 275,000 people are living in the township of Labutta, thereof about 45,000 IDPs in five camps. Malteser International is providing medical services as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for 16,000 IDPs in two of these camps and for about 16,000 residents in four wards of Labutta. The organization moved its clinics and water treatment plants with the camps in order to support the homeless in these new camps. In addition, there is a close cooperation with the Station Hospital in Labutta. In cooperation with UNICEF, UNDP, Merlin and AZG, Malteser International has started to construct latrines in both camps already: 40 latrines in each camp and 20 more to come. The previously built 55 latrines in the former sites of the camps (a high school and a monastery) remain. As school has started on 2 June again, these latrines will now be used by the students. - Malteser International also erected ten elevated tanks with 80 tab stand outlets for safe drinking water. Furthermore, Malteser International has been requested by the local authorities to clean and rehabilitate drinking water ponds in about 50 villages of Labutta Township. These ponds had been severely soiled by the cyclone and urgently need to be pumped and cleaned. Two teams à five people will be out for the next 50 days to take up the task. While doing so, Malteser International will provide safe drinking water to the remaining people in the villages by transporting water by boat. Besides, Malteser International will also arrange for temporary rainwater collection with plastic sheets.







Two staff members of Malteser International also started an assessment on water and sanitation in the northern part of the so-called Middle Island (at about 40 km from Labutta). The Island used to have a population of 90,000 inhabitants prior to the cyclone, thereof about 50,000 living in the northern part. Numerous villages of this island were completely destroyed by the cyclone; about 15,000 people lost their life or remain missing. – The Island can only be reached by boat; transport by boat is the only means of transport on the Island as well. On 12 June 2008, Malteser International signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the private International Hospital in Yangon for the further cooperation in the fields of health and WASH on Middle Island. For the emergency phase, the International Hospital – supported by Malteser International with an Emergency Health Kit and further medicine - will continue to send mobile medical teams in order to provide basic health care via six fixed clinics on Middle Island. Malteser International will concentrate on water, sanitation and hygiene activities and in the beginning of September also take over the health activities. The emergency and rehabilitation programmes at present are planned until March 2009 with a further prospective of two to three years in total.



For the future, Malteser International plans to expand its health and water/sanitation activities in Labutta as well as on Middle Island. The organization also wants to provide curative (in the emergency phase) and preventive medical services and plans to get involved in the rehabilitation of health infrastructure as well as in the building of rain water collection tanks on household level, the building of latrines, etc. Moreover, disaster risk reduction and prevention mechanisms shall be built up in the concerned area.

Malteser International brought cargo flights from Bangkok to Yangon last week bringing relief items of Malteser International and of other organizations into the country. Next week, further cargo flights of Malteser International coming from Jakarta via Bangkok to Yangon will bring 2,700 “family kits” with cookware, hygiene items and water cans, financed by the Canadian organization CECI (Center for International Studies and Cooperation) which will be distributed in Labutta, thus helping more than 15,000 people. Besides, Malteser International continues its health and WASH activities in three townships of Yangon.



*********************** UPDATE from 5th June ***********************

Tuesday night, annother international team of Malteser International reached La-butta in the Irrawaddy Delta. With assistance from the German Embassy in Yangon, the team with two experts of Malteser International and two staff members of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) finally received a travel permit to the Delta and are now supporting the emergency relief activities of the local Malteser International staff. Furthermore, the international emergency experts prepare the extension of the relief measures.

Two more cargo flights of Malteser International with emergency supplies have landed in Yangon this morning. They brought emergency supplies of Malteser International from Bangkok to Myanmar. Amongst others, the flights brought three boats which will enable the staff to reach people also in very remote areas. Furthermore, they contained three drinking water treatment plants as well as 14 tons of medicines, dressing material and medical supplies for the emergency projects of Malteser International in Yangon and Labutta.

“The cooperation with Caritas during the preparation of the flights was very good. It's important to see that the cooperation with other organisations in such a difficult situation works so well,“ Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, points out. “For Friday, we plan a further cargo flight from Jakarta. It is going to bring 2,700 so called “family kits” with cookware, hygiene articles and water cans provided by the Canadian organisation CECI (Center for International Studies and Cooperation) to Myanmar.”

*********************** UPDATE from 27th May ***********************

"Today, Malteser International will bring two drinking water treatment plants of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) from Yangon to Labutta in the Irrawaddy Delta. During the past days, staff members of the THW in Yangon intensively trained Malteser International personnel in the construction, handling and maintenance of the water treatment plants. One of the two plants will be installed on the grounds of the hospital in Labutta where it will produce 500 litres of drinking water per hour. The other bigger plant will be set up in the centre of Labutta; it can produce up to 6,000 litres of drinking water per hour.

“Together with other non-governmental organisations and local authorities, our staff members will also organise a distribution system, so that the drinking water from this plant can be brought to the other emergency shelters and camps in the city”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, explains. “With the support of the THW, we can provide safe drinking water for more than 10,000 people every day only with the bigger plant.”

“With these drinking water treatment plants, we can make an important contribution to assist the people in the disaster area,” Albrecht Broemme, President of the THW, points out. “In such a situation, it is important for the relief organisations to work together closely. Malteser International is an important partner on the ground – together, we can reach our goal to help the people in need.”

The work of Malteser International is also supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, by Caritas and by the Israeli organisation „Latet“. As Malteser International has been able to start the relief activities in the disaster area right after the Cyclone, they are now also bundling the assistance of other organisations and partners and implementing it.

*********************** UPDATE from 23th May ***********************

Myanmar: A cargo flight will leave Cologne (Germany) on Saturday Malteser International sends further medical drugs to Yangon

Yangon/Cologne. “We are happy and grateful for the success of the Secretary General of the United Nations who achieved the opening of Myanmar for all foreign aid workers,“ Ingo Rad-tke, Secretary General of Malteser International, says. „We interpret this as a visible sign of improvement. But nevertheless, we have to wait and see what will happen in the next hours – because being able to enter the country does not automatically mean to be able to move with-out restrictions. As the phase of disaster relief is not yet over, we urgently must extend the relief now – also with international staff members.“



In the framework of a cargo flight to Yangon organised by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, Malteser International will send further medical drugs to Myanmar on Saturday, 24 May. Therefore, the organisation has delivered another so called „Emergency Health Kit“ to the airport in Cologne-Wahn from where an airplane of the German Federal Armed Forces will bring the relief goods to Yangon. Such a Kit contains among others antibiotics, dressing material, pain killers and further medicines, enabling Malteser International to take care of 10,000 survivors for three months.

Care Germany has delivered another „Emergency Health Kit“ to the airport in Cologne and handed it over to Malteser International whose staff members will use them to treat more pa-tients in Myanmar. „Malteser International as well as Care is member of ‘Aktion Deutschland Hilft’ (a Relief Coalition based in Bonn/Germany),“ Ingo Radtke says. “Our aim is to com-bine the members’ knowledge, experience and resources to provide fast and more efficient relief after major disasters. The fact that Care provides us with an Emergency Health Kit is one more proof for the good cooperation between the relief organisations.”





*********************** UPDATE from 21th May ***********************

Myanmar: Malteser International prepares further cargo flight Cooperations facilitate quick and effective relief

Labutta/Cologne. At request of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, Malteser International is currently organizing another cargo flight to Yangon. „This flight will contain relief items for our projects in the Irrawaddy Delta: We will load on board among others 2,700 family kits with cooking ware and hygiene articles, three portable water purification systems, three boats, medical drugs, equipment and consumables. The flight is financed by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and supported logistically by Caritas”, Ingo Radtke, Secretary General of Malteser International, explains. „In addition, further German relief organisations will also have the possibility to load their relief goods on board of this cargo flight to Yangon“, Radtke continues. Today, Malteser International could rent a warehouse of 1,000 square meters in Yangon at 20 minutes from the airport for a period of six months initially.



„The cooperation between different organisations with regard to this cargo flight, abut also with regard to numerous further relief activities for the people in Myanmar works very well and is very effective“, Radtke points out. „Our colleagues in Yangon also tell us about the good cooperation with other organisations on the ground, for example with the German Fed-eral Agency for Technical Relief (Technisches Hilfswerk – THW) and with Caritas which sent a doctor to support our team in Yangon“, Radtke continues. “Also in our Headquarters in Cologne we can clearly note that the bundling of our operational forces enables us to provide relief even quicker and more effective.” *********************** UPDATE from 16th May ***********************

Myanmar: Malteser International teams treat first cholera patients Two more cargos with relief supplies for the Irrawaddy Delta

Labutta/Cologne. “By now, we have treated the first cholera patients,” Malteser International staff members report from the severly affected coastal town in the Irrawaddy Delta. “Since the cyclone hit the region, the people here in Labutta could only drink water from wells that have been spoilt and heavily polluted by the flood wave.”



In order to reach as many survivors as possible in the disaster region, Malteser International has sent out three mobile clinics to the Delta. About 50 staff members - of the total of mean-while around 200 staff working for Malteser International in Myanmar – are providing relief in the disaster region nearly round the clock. The top priority besides medical care now is to secure the access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Malteser International is going to pro-vide rainwater harvesting tanks for the 8,000 internally displaced people in the biggest camp in a monastery in Labutta (Lay Htat Kyaung). Furthermore, the water is sanitized with chlo-rine. In addition, Malteser International in cooperation with Unicef will set up 100 latrines in this camp. In total, Malteser International is providing help for about 50,000 survivors of the cyclone in the Irrawaddy Delta and in Yangon.

Today and during the weekend, the organisation will send further relief supplies to Labutta. A convoy will bring the three “Emergency Health Kits” to the Delta. They arrived in Yangon yesterday with a plane of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) with logis-tical assistance by the World Food Programme. With the antibiotics, dressing material, pain killers and further medicines contained in these Kits, Malteser International is able to take care of 30,000 survivors for three months. A further transport also left for Yangon from the Malteser International project site in the Wa Special Region II in the north of the country. “Staff members in the north of Myanmar want to support the people in the disaster area and provide dispensable medicines from their warehouse for the survivors of the disaster,” Roland Hansen, Head of the Asia Desk of Malteser International, reports.





*********************** UPDATE from 15th May ***********************

“The situation in Labutta is disastrous. Within the city itself, there are around 100,000 internally displaced persons living in 58 camps. The people are really lacking everything,” Malteser International staff members that have been providing assistance in the Irrawaddy Delta since the weekend report. “Within the first hours after the opening of our emergency clinic in Labutta, we treated around 250 patients. The people mostly suffer from diarrhoea, skin diseases and burns due to cooking outdoor on the open fire.” Another big problem is the provision of children and babies. “As a reaction to the horrible events, many of the breastfeeding women don’t have milk for their babies. This endangers first of all the youngest ones who therefore urgently need help.”



To assist the survivors, Malteser International sent three so-called “Emergency Health Kits” to Myanmar. “Our relief supplies were on the plane of the German Technical Relief Organisa-tion (Technisches Hilfswerk) that landed in Yangon last night,” Roland Hansen, Head of the Asia Desk of Malteser International, says. “Already tomorrow, our staff members on the ground can bring the medicines and further relief supplies with which we can help 30,000 people for three months, to Labutta in the Irrawaddy Delta.” There, they will make up the supply for the emergency health station as well as the two mobile medical teams of Malteser International in Labutta. Staff members will also distribute further relief goods in the three districts of Yangon where the organisation has been providing assistance since right after the Cyclone.

“The example of the successful cargo plane with relief supplies shows that the financial dona-tions we receive really reach the survivors in form of concrete help,” Hansen points out. “Our very well trained local emergency experts have free access to the disaster regions.” They treat patients, take care of the provision of drinking water, the construction of latrines and help building emergency shelters. “To be able to assist more people, we urgently need further do-nations.”

Already yesterday, Malteser International sent a second cargo with medicines, dressing mate-rial, plastic covers, cookware, feeding bottles, milk powder as well as water pumps, pipes and tools for the supply of safe drinking water – together with further staff (a doctor, a nurse and a water engineer) to Labutta.





*********************** UPDATE from 14th May ***********************

Malteser International is extending its emergency relief in the Irrawaddy Delta. Two mobile medical teams are providing help for the people around the city of Labutta and taking care of the wounded. Very sick patients are being brought to the emergency hospi-tal that Malteser International opened in the coastal city last weekend. “One of the mobile teams takes care of around 8,000 patients that sought refuge in a monastery on the outskirts of Labutta,” Roland Hansen, Head of the Asia Department of Malteser International, reports. “The second team is trying to advance to regions that have been inaccessible so far and is tak-ing care of the people living in about 50 camps for internally displaced persons around La-butta.”



Today, another transport with relief supplies tries to make its way to the Irrawaddy Delta. Amongst others, it contains medicines and further equipment for the two medical teams, food, mosquito nets, blankets and material for the construction of 100 latrines.

For its emergency relief measures, Malteser International can count on an experienced team with local experts. Very well qualified doctors, nurses and water engineers guarantee that the money donated to Malteser International really reaches the survivors of the cyclone. Many of the staff members have been working for Malteser International for several years and imple-ment projects in the health and water sector in different regions of Myanmar. Their network of contacts in the disaster region allows them to purchase the relief goods on the ground and distribute them to the people in need without intervention by the authorities.



*********************** UPDATE from 12th May ***********************

A team of eight Malteser International staff reached the city of Labutta in the Irrawaddy Delta on Sunday and has installed an emergency health station there. The Malteser International truck loaded with medical drugs, foodstuff, water purification tablets and plastic sheets for temporary shelters as well as the two escorting cars could make their way from Yangon to the delta region without any obstacles.

“We are very happy that Malteser International is one of the first aid agencies being able to help the survivors in this region that has been most severely hit“, Ingo Radtke, Secretary Gen-eral of Malteser International, says. “We could open our emergency health station in a house that belongs to the family of one of our staff members. There, our doctors and nurses are looking after the injured and hand out medical drugs against diarrhoea and respiratory diseases.” A local water and sanitation expert of Malteser International is organising the distribution of safe drinking water to the population in Labutta. Furthermore, the team is distributing foodstuff and plastic sheets to build up emergency shelters. “Our team on the ground is the garanty that the donations from people all over the world really reach the survivors“, Ingo Radtke points out. On Tuesday and on Wednesday, Malteser International will send further transports with relief goods to Labutta. Besides additional aid workers, these transports will contain the necessary material fort he construction of 100 latrines for emergency shelters as well as the medical equipment for two mobile clinics. With these mobile clinics, the Malteser International team will be in a position to go and treat also the wounded and sick people outside Labutta.



Malteser International also continues its assistance in the region around Yangon. In the three districts of Dawbon, Tantabin and Thongwa, staff members distribute water purification tab-lets for 40,000 people, provide medical assistance, treat injured people and distribute medical drugs. Furthermore, 750 “family kits” including cookware, hygiene articles and water cans as well as 850 plastic sheets for the construction of emergency shelters are being distributed.





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