CERF allocates $ 4 million to provide supports to cyclone affected communities
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People are threatened with malnutrition and diseases
[Photo: IRIN]
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20 August 2008: Myanmar has not fully recovered from the effects of cyclone Nargis and thousands of people continue to require humanitarian aid. Thousands of homes were destroyed; healthcare systems were overwhelmed and close to one million people were left without means to access adequate food.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is attending to urgent health care needs and delivering non-food items to cyclone survivors using CERF grants. Basic supplies such as cooking sets, mosquito nets, and hygiene kits are being provided to 40,000 people currently living in emergency shelter, temporary facilities, host communities or self-constructed housing in the Ayeyarwaddy region.
To fill the gap in healthcare provision left by the damage to important elements of the healthcare system, IOM is establishing an emergency referral mechanism and evacuation system for 200 patients in Bogale, Mawlamyinegyun and Pyapon townships, who will be transported to higher level care facilities outside of the affected regions. These patients require urgent diagnostic care which is now only available in higher level medical centres.
To meet the basic food requirements of cyclone-survivors, the World Food Programme (WFP) is utilizing CERF grants to provide food assistance and transport humanitarian supplies and staff via helicopter. Basic food packages and food rations are being distributed to over 900,000 people, targeting people who have lost their livelihoods.
In addition, WFP is using a Mi-8T helicopter to transport essential humanitarian goods and personnel between Yangon and the affected areas of the Ayerarwady Delta as part of the UN Humanitarian Air Service.
[Last Update: 20 August 2008]
CERF allocates over US$ 22 million for humanitarian response to cyclone-affected people in Myanmar
13 May 2008: Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar on 2 and 3 May 2008, making landfall in Ayeyarwady Division and directly hitting the country’s largest city, Yangon. Forty townships in Yangon Division and 7 townships in Ayeyarwady Division are on the Government’s list of disaster areas. This CERF allocation will support eleven projects, covering seven clusters, with a total budget of US$ 22.4 million to provide immediate response to affected people.
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Cylcone Nargis devastated much of Myanmar [Photo: UNHCR]
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The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is establishing up to ten emergency primary health care clinics in the Ayeyarwady Delta region using a CERF grant. The clinics are alleviating the strain on existing health resources such as overburdened hospitals and clinics. They are focusing on the needs of especially 50,000 vulnerable groups including children, pregnant women, the elderly and the critically injured.
CERF funds are also allowing IOM to provide transitional shelter and non-food items to cyclone survivors in the Ayeyarwady Delta region, Yangon Division and the Mon State. IOM is procuring, transporting and distributing materials, building supplies, tool kits, tents and essential non-food items to up to 120,000 cyclone victims.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is utilizing CERF funds to supply emergency water and sanitation services to 800,000 people in Myanmar. Water cleansing chemicals, filters and safe water containers for the treatment, transportation and safe storage of water for households is being provided. Water is being tanked and delivered at distribution points while mobile water purification units are treating and distributing water at water sources. UNICEF is also supplying sanitation and hygiene materials such as latrine pans, buckets, soaps while constructing emergency toilets and rehabilitating existing damaged sewage systems.
UNICEF is preventing malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies among 450,000 children and 40,000 pregnant women in cyclone-affected areas. Through CERF funding, UNICEF is distributing high-dose vitamin A capsules to children under five years of age and lactating women while iron/folate tablets are being provided to all pregnant women. In addition, supplementary foods are being supplied to children and lactating/pregnant women.
To prevent disease-related illness and deaths, UNICEF is providing vaccines, essential drugs, diagnostic kits, insecticide treated bednets and other treatments for diarrhoea, pneumonia, dengue fever and other critical infectious diseases among children and pregnant women in cyclone-affected areas.
To restore and strengthen the food security of the most vulnerable farmers in cyclone-affected provinces the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is supplying emergency agriculture inputs using CERF funds. It is procuring and delivering paddy seeds and assorted vegetable seeds (rich gourd, butter gourd, okra, pumpkin, cucumber, yard long bean) with fertilizers and hand tools (hoe and machete) to a total of 5,000 households in the hardest hit townships in Ayeyarwady Division. Furthermore, to address the need to treat livestock FAO is providing veterinary drugs, vaccines, emergency feed for 2 000 draught animals 3,000 families in the region.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is using CERF funding to provide food assistance to 750,000 cyclone-affected people including 90,000 children. WFP is providing ready to eat food and high energy biscuits in order to meet the nutritional needs of beneficiaries.
WFP and UNICEF are establishing emergency telecommunications services for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar. Emergency telecommunications infrastructure and services are being deployed in all operational areas. Networks are being upgraded to enhance the coverage in the cyclone-affected areas and data communication services are being provided.
WFP is providing logistics in Myanmar to coordinate and support humanitarian staff. It is operating 50 strategic airlifts from UN Humanitarian Response Depots and a fleet of trucks, designed for difficult road conditions, are being made available to humanitarian actors to provide transport in areas accessible by road.
Through CERF funding, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is preventing maternal morbidity and sustaining reproductive health in Myanmar. It is establishing a temporary health facility attached to a government health branch to provide reproductive health services. UNFPA is also operating a mobile clinic services in the Ayeyarwady Delta region and Yangon Division to provide essential health services.
The UN Refugee’s Agency (UNHCR) is spending CERF funds on emergency shelter assistance to 20,000 households in cyclone-affected areas. It is providing tents, plastic tarpaulins, blankets, stoves, kitchen sets, jerry cans, soap, mosquito nets and sanitary napkins to displaced people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is addressing priority health needs through CERF funding. It is deploying national and international staff to strengthen coordination of the emergency health response at district and central levels under the joint Government/UN effort.
[Last Update: 13 May 2008]