Photo: one morning in Bogalay river bank and A WFP heli flying above ( 23Jun08)

I am safely back from Myanmar ( Burma) to the county i reside.  I was volunteering as a consultant for the one of aid agencies there..

Thank you all for all of your prayers and kind words.

Our agency provide primary health care and NFI ( non food item ) distributioin in Bogalay township area. I was embedded with  entire team; mobile clinic medical teams, non food item distribution teams as well as logistic and coordination team.

I stationed at our Bogalay field office and have travelled to the villages in Bogalay, Phyarpon and Mawlamyaing Kyune townships area.

I was involved daily logistic support, coordination, public relation ( with villagers who come to our office asking for help), reporting to head office and attending inter and antra agencies coordination meetings..etc

 Photo: A WFP heli flying on top of WFP warehouse in Bogalay..(18Jun08)

our day start at 6:30 am and end at 12:30 midnight daily except Sunday..

There are around 15-25 aid agensies field offices in Bogalay township.

Most active organization in that area are UN agensies like UNDP, UNICEF, IOM, UNHCR, WFP etc..Redcross and INGO like MFS, Save the Children,GAA ( German Agro), World Vision, ACF ( French NGO) and local NGO like Bogalay township association, Noble compassionate volunteer group, Htoo trading etc..there are some smaller relief groups in that area too..

I am not sure if Htoo group ( owned by Burmese Tycoon U Tay Za) involment in that area is any business related though . but in my opinion, their group is doing good job and reaching out to the victims there too.

Btw, only Htoo and UNICEF are allowed to rebuild and reconstruction of local schools and hospital/rural clinics in that area.

Everyday, representatives of villages from different villages come to our office to ask for help whatever they can get.

They are range from ordinary villagers, village elderly, low level village authority like Sae Ain Mhu ( 10 household chair) & Yar Ain Mhu ( 100 household chair) ,village USDA ( union solidary and development association) leader, shcool teachers to even buddhist monks of the village.

I had chance to directly listen to their painful voice and needs. the demand was overwhelming and so, needless to say we can't satisfy to every villages came to us for our help..it had become our daily work and daily life. In our day to day activities, we have to  live with village names ( so confusing names even to a Burmes like me ), water way to reach villages, tidal time, aid agencies' names, relief item names, daily health monitoring numbers ..etc..etc...and almost the same work daily challenges...it was totally a different world.

We prioritized our work  by ourselves..seting priority is simple, the worst and most needed villages first. I have also visited  to the villages with mobile med team and NFI distribution teams a few times during my stay there.

No disease outbrake is reported at all area that we visited in Bogalay and Mawlamyaing Kyune township area (It is true that we have daily/weekly report from our mobile clinics med team) .

There are 75 village tracts and almost 600 villages in Bogalay township alone. our mobile med team have fully covered almost 200 villages in that area.

Mobile clinics of IOM, MSF, Save the Children and MOH ( government's ministery of health) are working very hard to continuously monitor any outbreak of diseases.

There was no major outbreak of diseases in Bogalay/Mawlamyaing Kyune townships, the area where our mobile med team cover for primary health care.

Most people in the area suffered general weakness and shows symptoms like pnumonia and some suffered some form of PTSD ( post traumatic stress disorder ).

Even many young adult males are showing symptom of general weakness..

Most villagers look very tired and weak since they are still clearing water way to their villages, cleaning up fallen trees, and rebuilding their temporary shelters, small huts with available material like bamboo, betel tree ( for pole), coconut leaves( for roof and side wall).

Photo: A villager trying to roof his hut with coconut leaves ( which will dry soon) (25Jun08)

Almost all villages and over 90% of household in this area have been received one form or another type of relief items as far as I know.

But most villages and households do not receive enough relief item especially food ( such as rice). Obvioulsy demand take over supply since the needs are overwhelming.

Some villagers are a bit upset for not receiving  some relief items when they know other villages recieve popular item such as mosquito nets and family kits.

Photo:Villagers waiting for NFI distribution ( 17Jun08)

More than 50% of villages have received Tarpaulin sheet in my estimation. But some villagers  want to use them to cover their rice seed storage instead of their roof. they said it is more important for them.

There is almost no report for relief item are stolen  in this area since almost all aid agencies staffs and volunteers directly distributed rerlife items to the victims.

I only saw a few farmland can start raining season rice growing.  most farmers i have spoken have no idea how to restart their farming. most people seems waiting for something to come.. of course they've lost almost everything and they dont know how to recover and how to get their life back. They can't get Seeds ,fertilizers, microfinancing etc.. on time..so they just wait for help to come..

But community is pulling themselves together to overcome this nightmare and hardship. After all, Burmsese are famous for overcoming their hardship and tolerance to their suffering.

I have heard  early recovery and livelihood set up program are underway by UN and other agencies like GAA ( Germal Agro Action) in this area, both fishery and agrictural area.

But again, it depends funding. getting new flash appeal of UN and it solely depends on donar's sympathy to the people in that region as well as Burmese government coorporation.

There is no intervention from any local authority during my stay. In fact they are very helpful and willing to assist to all aid agencies working there. The way they approach us sounds very polite and friendly and welcome.

I have noticed 2-3 navy ships anchored in the area,. I have seen some soldiers from navy stationed in one villges.I saw them from my boat during one trip.

But we have never encountered any soldier in any villages we've visited.

Photo: Village primary students surprised and amused by digital camera images. in Mawlamyaing Kyun township( 17Jun08)

All the schools have been reopen in the area. The lives of children in these schools seems normal at least outside.

I was shocked when i found out that most of primary schools in those villages i visited are run by villages themselves and financially self supports, meaning the villagers set up school for themselves, then hire a teacher, collect money from the family in the villages and bare all expenses by themselves.  there was no government nor any organization supports at all to these little poor schools.

I was amazed to learn that even the hardest time, these surviving people still strongly believe education is impoatant for their little children and trying to make it happen in their most difficult time in lives.

i have no idea how many primary and middle shools are running like this in the whole delta region and the rest 0f entire country in Burma.

No doubt that regime has put  education and health care of the country  in their lowest priority in Burma. There is no government budget for this 2 improtant sectors .

UN agencies like UNICEF, UNESCO and UNDP should pay more attention into education supports in delta region and rest of the country.

I was surprised for level of  UN's education support in Myanmar when i found out that there is only one UNESCO staff assigned in Myanmar  ( I met her in one of early recovery cluster meeting in Yangon before I went to Bogalay).

Photo: A monastery building at Bogalay river bank. 23Jun08

Photo: A village in Bogalay area still yet to recover almost 2 months after Nagis 25Jun08 ( Scene of many villages are similar to this)

Because of being a Burmese,understanding local cluture , and  the agency i worked for,  i have privilige to go anywhere, meet anyone and know all agencies' work as first hand experience of international relief plan and relief works in Bogalay area.

These are the real facts from my experiences from what i have heard, seen, touched, smelt from real field in the villages of Bogalay.

In my opinion, I felt like some international media  and politician are pushing the regime and Burmese Generals too much to the edge with their news and words by taking out of the context sometimes. it can cause negative impact to the people sometimes.

But, most of the time, international media is the only voice of suffering Burmese people.

I have  same old pain in my heart but with many new thought in my head  after i came back from disaster affected delta region of my beloved country.

Burma need us, The people there need us..they need help..tremendous amount of  help from all of us living in free and prosperous lands..And We,  as being global citizens, with our intelligence, knowledge, technology and power, we must help them . If we fail to do so, it is shameful to our human race..  I am not writing these words as a Burmese but as a simple human being.

But, right now, i need to catch up with the lateste news and what is going on in our busy world, since i have been virtually at another planet for a month by now.

But first, I want to update to the Nation.. so here i am..