By Kathleen Naab
YANGON, Myanmar, MAY 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Myanmar's rulers have made it difficult for international aid groups to help the cyclone-devastated nation. But Caritas Internationalis, working through its local partners, is "a bit freer to move around," said a spokesman.
Patrick Nicholson told ZENIT that Caritas Internationalis has not been able to send Myanmar as many international workers as it would have liked, but the aid organization has "been able to provide technical support from its international team in Bangkok."Caritas Internationalis is supporting the local bishops' conference, which has fewer than 100 staff and volunteers working on the cyclone response in Myanmar, a nation slightly smaller than Texas and nestled between India, China and Thailand.
The Church in Myanmar -- though Catholics are less than 1% of the total population -- provides an effective network for relief, Nicholson explained: "[The Church there] has limited resources, but does have parishes and religious in the affected areas, which provides an effective logistics network."
That means Caritas Internationalis, working with the Church, is able to get aid to some of the millions of suffering Burmese people.
Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon said, "As a Church, we are reaching out to the victims with all the means at our disposal. At this hour of darkness, we are encouraged by the show of support by our friends from abroad. There are urgent needs for food, water and shelter. Thousands are in need of medical help."
Head start
Local Church partners in Myanmar are providing food and other aid items to 10,000 people in Yangon and Irrawaddy, Caritas Internationalis reported.
That figure is expected to rise to 40,000 people receiving support by Wednesday. Provisional figures put the relief effort at $1 million for the first month. The relief items are coming from within the country at present.
The official death toll from Cyclone Nagris is close to 32,000, with another 30,000 people still missing. However, officials from the U.N. and other organizations already say 100,000 people died in the storm and its aftermath.
As relief efforts continue to be hampered by the Myanmar junta, some international political leaders have suggested forcing help on the nation.
Meanwhile, Caritas Internationalis is doing what it can, and with its traditional policy of working "before, during and after" natural disasters.
"Caritas had done disaster preparedness in Myanmar before the cyclone, so that gave us a head start," Nicholson said. "That we work through local partners means we're a bit freer to move around."
Overwhelming
Church medical staffers are also traveling to the worst affected areas to provide treatment to the survivors.
Assessment teams have reported back -- and the situation is described as overwhelming, even for experienced disaster-relief response teams, a statement from Caritas Internationalis confirmed.
One staff member, speaking anonymously, said, "I was in Phyapon, far off down the Irrawaddy River. The bodies of human beings and cattle were still in the water. We reached a destroyed village. We were the first outsiders they had seen.
"To my eyes, which have seen the Asia tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake, it was overwhelming. Nature unleashed an orgy of death. Women explained how the waves took their babes. As our boat moved along, a body of a small boy drifted past.
"People have no drinking water or food or shelter. Children are eating coconut shells. Dead animals are everywhere. There is a terrible smell. There were many refugees, living in roofless churches and monasteries. Help has not reached them. We are doing what is possible. In the last two days, we have reached out to the starving people."
