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UN's Myanmar appeal only 44 percent funded
Myanmar says US aid can't be trusted
Junta's aid rules delay Myanmar cyclone relief: HRW
UN warns Myanmar funds appeal short of target
ASEAN says team to have full access in Myanmar
Volunteers send aid through Burma's (Myanmar's) back door
In Burma (Myanmar), how many cyclone orphans?

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UN's Myanmar appeal only 44 percent funded
AP
11 June 2008

The United Nations says it has raised less than half of its goal for relief operations in Myanmar more than five weeks after a cyclone devastated the country.

The U.N. says it set out to raise $201 million but so far has gotten just $113 million from donors.

The U.N. says areas like economic recovery and health have been well funded, but emergency food operations and logistics have received only about 20 percent of the funding they need. Education has received nothing.

Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. relief operations, says she expects funding will increase after results from a needs assessment in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta is finished June 20.

The U.N. estimates the cyclone affected 2.4 million people. The government says at least 78,000 people died.

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Myanmar says US aid can't be trusted
AP
13 June 2008

As individuals and aid agencies around the world dig into their pockets for funds to help Myanmar's cyclone victims, the country's ruling junta said Friday that such assistance from the United States could not be trusted.

State media has previously said Myanmar feared Washington was using the cover of humanitarian aid to invade the country and steal its oil reserves.

The suspicion continued Friday, when a media mouthpiece for the regime warned that "the goodwill of a big Western nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine" — a clear reference to the U.S.

Myanmar rejected humanitarian aid aboard naval vessels from the U.S., Britain and France, which sailed toward the Southeast Asian nation after Cyclone Nargis struck May 2-3.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Friday that aid from nations who impose economic sanctions against Myanmar and push the United Nations Security Council to take actions against it come "with strings attached."

Despite the junta's regular attacks on Western donor countries, celebrities, ordinary people and aid groups there have donated generously to help the cyclone victims.

However, the U.N. said Thursday it has received about half the money it requested for cyclone relief, with some nations apparently delaying their donations because of concerns about restrictions imposed by the military government on foreign aid workers.

The U.N. set a goal of $202 million for its relief efforts but so far has received only $89 million, or 44 percent, from government donors, it said. Some $51 million in pledges has not yet been delivered, the U.N. said.

Funding shortfalls were particularly great for emergency food operations and education, the world body said.

"Funding is clearly not coming in at the rate we would hope," said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman in Bangkok for the U.N. relief operations. "Funding is urgently needed to sustain the pipeline for food and assistance."

Other agencies are faring better. The private, Christian-oriented group World Vision, a major international relief agency, says it already has $19 million of the $25 million or $26 million it needs to enable operations for six months.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says it has raised 96 percent of the $51 million it is seeking.

Private agencies — which play a large part in relief operations — raise much of their funds from individuals.

Aid donors met late last month in Yangon and agreed to provide some cyclone aid, but many of them warned the ruling junta they would not fully open their wallets until international aid workers are provided access to the hardest-hit areas. The generals promised to allow foreign workers into the Irrawaddy delta, but have continued to hinder access to the devastated area.

Humanitarian and rights groups said the government distributed a new set of guidelines for relief operations at a meeting of U.S. agencies and private aid groups Tuesday that could further complicate and delay recovery efforts.

The guidelines require repeated contact with national and local government agencies and large amounts of paperwork.

"The government should be streamlining aid efforts to cyclone victims, not slowing down aid with these new rules," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Friday.

Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee — a consortium of 13 humanitarian aid agencies — says Queen Elizabeth II and Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling both contributed "significant donations" to Myanmar relief.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $3 million and offered software to help reunite family members separated in the cyclone.

In Hollywood, the nonprofit organization Not On Our Watch — founded by actors George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and others — awarded $250,000 to Save the Children and offered to match every additional dollar given to the aid group up to $250,000.

The U.N. estimates more than 1 million survivors, mostly in the delta, still need help. The storm killed more than 78,000 people and left 56,000 missing, according to the government.

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Junta's aid rules delay Myanmar cyclone relief: HRW
AFP
13 June 2008

New guidelines adopted by Myanmar's ruling generals are further delaying emergency efforts to deliver aid to regions ravaged by the cyclone, human rights experts said.

The rules, issued on Monday, require UN and other aid groups to receive formal permission from Myanmar authorities to travel and to distribute aid.

Bureaucratic delays in the issuing of humanitarian visas and official roadblocks across the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta region have already led to criticisms the Myanmar government was obstructing relief.

It had been hoped that assurances given to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon three weeks ago had eased the passage of aid.

"The government should be streamlining aid efforts to cyclone victims, not slowing down aid with these new rules," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Once again the generals are placing control of the population over the needs of the population."

Human Rights Watch says the new rules require humanitarian workers to obtain permission from both Myanmar government ministries and the core group -- including the United Nations, the regional bloc ASEAN and Myanmar governent -- coordinating the aid effort.

The local authorities, known as Township Coordination Committees, must also be kept informed, it said.

The watchdog said its sources in the former capital Yangon also claimed that further permissions are necessary from regional and local military commanders, and that government officials must accompany all travel by foreign aid workers to the delta.

Six weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit, leaving more than 133,000 dead or missing, more than one million survivors have still not been reached by foreign assistance, according to the United Nations.

"Clearly international staff do require much more sustained access to the delta areas, particularly for key skilled technical staff so they can really establish more systematic operations," said Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman for the UN's emergency relief arm.

"The reality on the ground often differs sharply from government promises to allow aid," Adams said. "Diplomats, the UN, and ASEAN need to keep a close eye on aid delivery and sound the alarm if the government improperly interferes."

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UN warns Myanmar funds appeal short of target
AP
Fri Jun 13, 12:05 AM ET

Queen Elizabeth II, Bill Gates, J.K. Rowling and a clutch of Hollywood stars have all given generously to help Myanmar's cyclone victims, but the United Natinons says government donations for its relief effort are falling short.

The United Nations said Thursday it has received just over half the money it requested for cyclone relief in Myanmar, with some nations apparently delaying their donations because of concerns about the junta's restrictions on foreign aid workers.

The U.N. set a goal of $201.6 million for its relief efforts but has received only $88.5 million, or 44 percent, from government donors, it said. Some $51 million in pledges has yet to delivered, the U.N. said.

Funding shortfalls were particularly great for emergency food operations and education, said the world body.

"Funding is clearly not coming in at the rate we would hope," said Amanda Pitt, a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand. "Funding is urgently needed to sustain the pipeline for food and assistance."

Aid donors representing dozens of countries and regional organizations met last month in Yangon and agreed to provide some cyclone aid, but warned the junta they would not fully open their wallets until international aid workers are provided access to the hardest-hit areas.

The junta promised to allow foreign workers into the Irrawaddy delta, but continued to hinder access to the area.

Humanitarian and rights groups said the government distributed a new set of guidelines for relief operations at a meeting of U.S. agencies and private aid groups Tuesday that could further complicate and delay recovery efforts.

The guidelines require repeated contact with national and local government agencies and large amounts of paperwork.

"The government should be streamlining aid efforts to cyclone victims, not slowing down aid with these new rules," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Friday.

Other agencies are faring better. The private, Christian-oriented group World Vision says it has raised over $19 million and expects to get at least $6 million more.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says it has raised 96 percent of the $50.8 million it is currently seeking, largely because it is able to tap a network of national agencies in 186 countries.

Private agencies — which play a large part in relief operations — raise much of their funds from individuals.

"Obviously people see images on television of people in great need. I think there's a natural desire to give in that situation," said World Vision spokesman James East.

He noted that the U.N. has different sources for its funds, primarily governments. "What governments are interested in is access and accountability — they want to be sure that their money is going to be spent wisely and that the aid can be monitored."

Celebrities have also played a part in raising money.

Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee — a consortium of 13 humanitarian aid agencies — says Queen Elizabeth II and Harry Potter author Rowling both contributed "significant donations" to Myanmar relief.

The committee, which says it has raised $20.8 million, would not reveal the size of their donations.

In the United States, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $3 million for relief efforts and offered software to help reunite family members separated in the cyclone.

The donations were given to the private groups Mercy Corps, World Vision and Care "so they can go in there and help as quickly as possible," according to Gates.

Hollywood is doing its part, most notably through the nonprofit humanitarian organization Not On Our Watch — founded by actors Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, producer Jerry Weintraub and human rights lawyer David Pressman.

The group awarded $250,000 to Save the Children, and offered to match every additional dollar given to the aid group up to $250,000.

The U.N. hopes that funding will increase after June 20, when it finishes a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the estimated 2.4 million cyclone survivors.

It estimates more than 1 million survivors, mostly in the delta, still need help more than five weeks after the cyclone. The May 2-3 storm killed more than 78,000 people and left 56,000 missing, according to the government.

(This version CORRECTS that Gates Foundation is donating $3 million, instead of $3 billion.)

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ASEAN says team to have full access in Myanmar
AFP
by Bernice HanThu / Jun 12, 9:30 AM ET

Southeast Asian and UN experts will have full access to cyclone-devastated parts of Myanmar, where more than a million people have still not received any foreign help, ASEAN said Thursday.

"Now we have 250-plus of our, what we call our post-Nargis assessment teams, in the Delta, in the Yangon division, in the south and they will be doing the full assessment and they will have full access to the affected region," Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters in Singapore.

"I think if we look at that, it's already a great achievement and we will try to maintain that momentum.

"We have been given full cooperation and support by the authorities in Myanmar."

Cyclone Nargis pounded the southwest Irrawaddy Delta and the main city of Yangon on May 2-3 leaving more than 133,000 people dead or missing.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said one week ago that the Emergency Rapid Assessment Team had begun to deploy in the delta region to start a long-awaited examination of the needs of millions of people affected by the storm.

It said then that its advance teams, ferried by UN World Food Programme helicopter, would compile a first-hand "progress report" for an ASEAN Roundtable meeting in Yangon on June 24.

Surin said there were no doubts that the team would be able to do its job adequately and with credibility, "coming up with a report that would be taken up by all parties in order to be the basis of rehabilitation and reconstruction later on."

Inciting international outrage, Myanmar's isolated military regime had largely barred foreign aid workers from gaining access to the delta, which bore the brunt of the cyclone.

Relief workers slowly moved into the region in late May after the junta started to ease restrictions on access, and asked fellow ASEAN nations to coordinate the international relief effort.

ASEAN has often been criticised for failing to act firmly against Myanmar, a member country which has frequently embarrassed its neighbours with its refusal to shift towards democracy.

"I think ASEAN has made a very, very significant step in trying to connect the international community through ASEAN with Myanmar on the humanitarian mission," Surin said, describing it as a confidence-building measure.

"So I think we realise that this is very precious."

The United Nations estimates that while 2.4 million people need emergency aid, about one million have not yet received any foreign assistance.

The ASEAN team is working under a tripartite arrangement with the United Nations and the Myanmar government.

One Southeast Asian diplomat in Yangon said last week that the team would finish its work by month's end, although ASEAN says its findings will only be released in mid-July.

"We expect them to meet a lot of difficulties, with many parts of the delta remaining physically difficult to reach by road or boats," the diplomat said.

"We are hoping we may be able to fill in the gaps, although we realise there is a big void in terms of aid to be filled."

Surin said things had been going "very well" on the ground.

"Certainly there are rooms for improvement but we are working on that and we have been assured that, yes, we will work together until the mission is accomplished," he said on the sidelines of a meeting about human rights in ASEAN.

The deployment of the ASEAN team last week came a day after the United States gave up trying to convince the junta to allow aid-laden warships stationed off the delta to deliver their vital supplies.

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Volunteers send aid through Burma's (Myanmar's) back door
Copyright © 2008 The Christian Science Monitor
By Simon Montlake / Thu Jun 12, 4:00 AM ET

When the call came, Samantha Finke was in South Dakota. Like other staffers for Sen. Hillary Clinton, she wondered what the future held as primary season finished up.

Five minutes later, she had an answer. Switch to Sen. Barack Obama? No, Ms. Finke elected to fly here June 11 to join a grassroots effort for cyclone relief and civil empowerment for Burma (Myanmar), run by the father of her friend who was calling to urge her to come.

For most volunteers hoping to help, Burma seems like a bust. Five weeks after cyclone Nargis killed 134,000 and uprooted 2.4 million, military rulers continue to keep foreign aid workers at arm's length.

But not all roads to the disaster zone go through Rangoon, where relief groups are based. Aid is also trickling over the Thai-Burmese border, a hotbed of activism against Burma's regime. It's a backdoor channel for aid groups unwilling or unable to go through the front. By tapping an existing underground network in Burma, they try to bypass official channels and put aid directly in the hands of the most needy.

"It was Thailand all the way. I never questioned it. If you know what's going on in Burma, I don't know how you could not do it," says Ms. Finke, one of several enthusiastic, young volunteers who have joined this underground aid effort.

Aid blocks at the front door
A few weeks after United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon won a promise from Burma's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, that the government would lift restrictions on foreign aid workers, the junta continues to impede their access.

Many have been restricted from entering Burma or, once inside, have been confined to working in Rangoon, which they need permits to leave.

In another possible hurdle, on Tuesday the government issued guidelines requiring relief workers to secure a large amount of paperwork and make repeated contacts with national and local government agencies and a committee called the Tripartite Core Group. The group includes representatives from the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member.

The government did, however, allow 250 experts from the Tripartite Core Group to enter the Irrawaddy Delta, where the cyclone hit, on Tuesday to conduct a 10-day assessment of needs. The UN currently estimates that, of the 2.4 million people affected, more than 1 million still need regular aid.

Humanitarian agencies that are trying to gain access for their own aid specialists say they need money to support their efforts, but fundraising has been a challenge: Private donations have lagged behind those given for earthquake relief in Sichuan, China, a shortfall that some blame on Burma's grudging attitude toward outside help and foreign media.

Mercy Corps has raised $5.4 million for its Sichuan quake appeal, compared to $1.7 million for Burma, says spokeswoman Susan Laarman.

The restrictions on movement that relief workers in Burma face has compounded the problem for fundraisers, as the issue of international access, and not the vital aid that does get through, usually dominates media coverage, says James East, a media officer for World Vision.

Bringing help through the back
Backdoor efforts include sending money to purchase local food and materials, says Tim Heinemann, who runs Worldwide Impact Now (www.worldwide-impact-now.org), the US-registered nonprofit that Finke is joining.

These supplies are then distributed by ethnic and faith-based networks in far-flung cyclone-hit villages in the Irrawaddy Delta that have received little international aid. About 100,000 villagers have been reached, he says.

As well as delivering humanitarian aid, many groups along the border also have a political goal: to expose human-rights abuses in Burma and keep the world's gaze on cyclone relief.

Steve Gumaer, the founder of Partners Relief & Development (www.partnersworld.org), a Christian-based charity that is working covertly in the disaster zone, says the military is extorting money from aid groups and forcing displaced villagers to farm on state land.

He says his group has raised $150,000 for its relief work and doesn't want to see it siphoned off by corrupt officials. Like Mr. Heinemann and other activists, he wants relief teams to double as human-rights monitors armed with video cameras. "We equip people to go in and help their kin and to document what's happening so we can get that out," he says.

This flurry of activity by groups straddling the Thai-Burma border may run foul of Thailand's government, which has commercial and strategic ties with Burma's military rulers.

Activists say Thai authorities are putting pressure on Burmese dissidents to keep a low profile, though it's unclear if this is a policy shift, as such pressure isn't new.

'An eye to future political change'
Heinemann, a retired US Special Forces colonel, began working in Burma's border areas in 2004, running an ethnic leadership training program largely funded out of his own pocket.

When the cyclone hit, he began mobilizing to support cross-border relief efforts, knowing that international aid would be slow to arrive through formal channels.

As the urgency became clear, Heinemann felt overwhelmed. On May 9 he got a string of encouraging text messages from his daughter Malina in the US. "Ask the Creator and He will provide," she wrote in one. Within minutes he got a text from a friend confirming a large donation, enough to move his planning "from conceptual to operational," he says.

While Western relief organizations have sought to gain access by stressing their detachment from Burma's tangled politics, Heinemann takes a different tack. His long-term goals include supporting leadership development and conflict resolution among ethnic communities in Burma, with an eye to future political change. "Our position is uncompromising [with the regime]. To do what the other NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] are not doing," he says.

Having got funding, Heinemann's next goal was adding Generation X manpower. "I called him and said what do you need?" recalls Malina Heinemann. "He said, 'I need a team of young people over here.' "

Ms. Heinemann, a theater costumier currently working on a Shakespeare festival in Westcliffe, Colo., began calling on her friends, including Finke. Several said they would quit their jobs and join Mr. Heinemann, or volunteer their time for fundraising and using new media for political advocacy with covert footage from Burma. Ms. Heinemman says she will fly to Thailand next month after her festival contract ends.

The timing was perfect for Finke, a native of Ellsworth, Kan., who gets to use her networking and organizational skills in a new field.

"I love a challenge. Hillary's campaign was a challenge, and this is an entirely different challenge," she says.

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In Burma (Myanmar), how many cyclone orphans?
Copyright © 2008 The Christian Science Monitor
By a correspondent / Mon Jun 9, 4:00 AM ET

Like thousands of orphans, Jo Jo was fit enough to survive last month's cyclone Nargis.

Sheltered now by church members in Rangoon, the main city in Burma (Myanmar), he faces more challenges: finding his parents even though, like most Burmese, he has no surname; and surviving in a society where children are widely considered a source of cheap labor.

"The price of everything these days is rising, except one thing – the price of life," says a Burmese celebrity who has been quietly bringing aid to villages in the delta. "Cheapest of all is the cost of children."

In a working-class area of central Rangoon, children pump gas, fix generators, sell fruit, serve tea, cook food, clean monasteries.

Across the country, kids steer coconut boats loaded with contraband or fight in ethnic wars in the jungle. Most have at most four years of schooling. Almost every mom-and-pop business employs children for less than a dollar a day.

While some seem happy to be working with parents or relatives, many have been bought and sold.

"Trafficking has always been big in this region. That needs to be addressed very quickly," says Marvin Parvez, a development activist who has been working with several aid agencies in Burma. "Delta children were the poorest of the poor to begin with. They had food shortages in the delta area before the cyclone. The cyclone put them back at least one century."

"Families are desperate now, so sometimes they sacrifice their daughters or sons. Children are very vulnerable at this time," he continues.

Many hurdles in reuniting families
Many agree that after most disasters, the best way to protect children is to reconnect them with their families or villages. But finding out who children belong to is difficult in a society that doesn't use surnames.

Instead of passing ancestral lineage down through family names, Burmese parents typically give their children a combination of names, such as Aung, Win, and Tin, which give no indication of who is their father or mother. Many Burmese also go by nicknames.

 

"We are taking down names of parents and children. But without surnames, it's going to be difficult," says Steve Goudswaard, the first foreign relief expert from World Vision allowed into southern Burma's Irrawaddy Delta, where the cyclone hit hardest.

Many children, especially younger ones who lost everything, including identity cards, may be unable to recall the name of their village or find it on a map. The cyclone, which left 134,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million affected, also erased many villages completely, obliterating schools and homes, and even shifting earth or scrubbing away topographical landmarks such as trees or patterns of farmland.

Unable to retrace their steps home, many survivors have drifted between makeshift camps and temples. Many children sit with vacant expressions, in shock and grief.

The number of displaced children is hard to estimate. Forty percent of people in the delta before the cyclone were under 18, according to Save the Children. UNICEF says 1.1 million children were attending 4,000 schools that were damaged or destroyed.

UNICEF says that at least 2,000 are orphans or are missing parents, but many Burmese say the number is much higher, because delta families were known for having many children. Some say there are 5,000 orphans in the delta town of Labutta alone.

Returning kids to school, and routine
Aid agencies say Burma's military government has been closing refugee camps in towns and sending survivors back to their villages – a move the junta denies.

Officials say they are working on a voluntary resettlement program that will allow parents to find their children, rebuild their homes, and get children into classes as soon as possible, to keep up with students nationwide who began the school year on June 2.

Andrew Kirkwood, country director for Save the Children, says he supports the government's push to get kids in school: "If kids get into school, it creates a routine. It's easier to identify which kids are traumatized or malnourished."

To fill the gap before schools are ready, UNICEF has opened 80 "child-friendly spaces" in the delta, where kids in groups of 50 to 350 can sing, play, read, and enjoy one another's company. It has also provided learning packages, textbooks, kits for affected schools, and roofing sheets and construction kits to repair them.

With thousands of people cast adrift, Burmese relief volunteers say they hope their government, as well as the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations, will at least protect orphans from child traffickers and even citizens hoping to adopt them.

"Many people come and ask to adopt these children, but we don't allow them to," says a Burmese woman, who works in child-protection programs for the UN and other groups. "The [children] need to remain with their families."

Some people "say they want to adopt children to take care of them, but they have other reasons," she continues. "It's very important to protect these children."

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