Delivering Hope Amid the Floods
We recently shared several posts updating our donors about our flood relief campaign in Kyaukse, specifically assisting the village of Kon Gyi. Our team, traveling in a convoy of trucks and vans, delivered 5 sacks of rice and 600 eggs to 120 families. The journey was challenging due to damaged roads and flooded areas, requiring us to transport goods by boat and navigate fast-flowing streams. Despite these obstacles, we successfully handed over the supplies, with some team members continuing to the village by ox-cart. Despite the difficult conditions, we remain committed to supporting these isolated communities and are grateful for the donors who made this possible by providing donations and other support. There is still much to be done as more villages remain in need of aid with further bad weather predicted. In the following essay, our team leader further updates how they have responded in providing more relief where it is most needed.
I would like to tell you about the continued travel and delivery of flood relief aid items to the targeted village Kone Gyi. Today, I visited the leader nun of the team that went on to the village yesterday. She said, "It was fortunate for the elderly people that we returned to the town."
After we left with some of the aged nuns and donors, they had to take an ox-cart and two Troller-G (Chinese tractors/trucks) for an hour and walk for another. They also crossed the streams and rivers in some places. On their return, after they distributed the relief aid items including food, there were no local volunteers from other villages as it was already dark and there was no ferry in those streams where the water was as deep as an adult man's neck (the place where we crossed by ferry). The nun told us that there are 600 families in their village, and our contribution of 5 sacks of rice and 600 eggs for 120 families helped them and the villagers. At first, they could only arrange to contribute for around 400 families and our contribution provided help for 120 other families. Sadly, some remaining families didn't receive food (mainly rice) but they just received some snacks, water, and some other items.
The nun then sadly told us about the tragic stories of another village which was located next to their village and on the bank of the Samone River where a few dozen houses and people were washed away and killed by the flood tides of water! The water was released by the dam around 8.00 pm and it suddenly reached and flooded the whole village at 11.00 pm. No one was notified prior and no one could prepare. Oh, those evil military people! The area had never experienced this kind of flood in many years of history because it is located in the Kyaukse Plain although the villages were located between the two rivers named Panlaung and Samone.
Soon after our talk, two other leader nuns arrived near us: one of them said that she had got sick today and another was bending and stretching her arms as she fell in the stream where the water was flowing speedily. The second one is on the plump side and aged in the 60s. She slipped in the water and fell on her knees so her elbow and arms were hurt. Fortunately, her merits guarded her and she was not washed away.
It is truly on alert to know that another typhoon or cyclone is impacting some parts of lower Myanmar. We should also prepare some plans to help and relieve those areas as much as we can. Also, very sadly, I read the news this afternoon that the junta's local authorities restricted the relief aid programs in Taungoo or Yedashe. We must find a way to help those people who are now in desperate need, though.
I would like to thank everyone once again for the generous donations that made this relief effort possible. Even now though, the situation remains critical, and so we need to prepare for the next steps in our relief efforts, and your support is more important than ever. If you can, please continue to contribute to our relief efforts so we can provide essential supplies and assistance to those who are suffering. Thank you for your ongoing support and compassion in these challenging times.
