Cyclone Nardis: CARE's Response

CARE unloads two mobile water purification plants, collapsable jerry cans, water purification tablets from a plane that arrived in Yangon airport. (2008 Melanie Brooks/CARE)

The UN estimates that 2.4 million people have been severely affected by Cyclone Nargis and are now in desperate need of help. CARE is on the ground in Myanmar, delivering food, water, shelter materials and emergency supplies to survivors. We are also helping with water purification and sanitation efforts to help prevent the spread of waterborne disease. Find out more on our blog.

To date, CARE has assisted more than 237,000 people in Yangon and the Irrawaddy Delta. CARE's aid workers with specialized expertise in disaster response now can be deployed where they're needed most. Our first international staffer to erach the region says that the relief effort is well underway, thanks to CARE's dedicated local staff.

"Help has been getting there, and it will continue," says Chris Northey, Emergency Team Leader, who traveled to Pyapon in the delta on May 28. "We have hundreds of national staff that have been working on this emergency since the beginning, distributing food and water and emergency supplies."

The survivors themselves are part of the relief effort, Northey adds. "There was a lot of activity, people getting on with life, people getting on with their business. It shows people’s resilience that they do find a way of coming back from this."

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CARE has 60 years of experience providing immediate and long-term relief to survivors of disaster.

In a crisis like this, CARE must focus immediately on saving lives. But we recognize that millions of people have lost everything – their homes, their rice fields, schools – and they have few resources to build upon. Recovery will take years and we'll be there to support families as they rebuild their lives and communities.

CARE staff load water tanks onto a truck in Yangon for transport to temporary camps in Myaungmya township in the Aeraywady Delta. (2008 Melanie Brooks/CARE)

Key principles:

• CARE's response should first and foremost be proportional to the scope of needs of people affected by this disaster
• We should ensure an appropriate time frame for our response, and which our funding requests should be aligned with, thereby enabling us to program funds both in the short and medium term (recovery), and avoid being pressured by unrealistic donor spending deadlines
• CARE's response should be developed and implemented to high standards of quality and performance, in accordance with CARE's humanitarian accountability framework

Goal and objectives:

The goal of CARE's response is to meet the immediate relief needs of women, men, boys and girls affected by Cyclone Nargis and to support target communities in recovering from the impact of the disaster over the medium and long term.

Key interventions:

Key sector	Phase I Emergency Relief Activities
Water supply, sanitation and hygiene	Distribution of water Restoration of water supply systems (immediate repair, fuel, cleaning, etc.) Distribution of water purification supplies Restoration of sanitation facilities (cleaning of latrines, etc.) and hygiene promotion Distribution of water storage containers and hygiene materials
Emergency family shelter and household recovery	Distribution of temporary shelter materials (including plastic sheeting) Support for mobilization of community organization committees in displaced persons centers to organize and improve shelter conditions Distribution of family household kits including basic items such as cooking utensils, soap, sanitary products for women, etc.
Recovery of food security	Distribution of food Support for recovery of food production, seeds, tools, cleaning of land, etc. Alternative livelihood recovery
Cross-cutting issues	The response will pay particular attention to assessing and responding to the needs of women and girls, particularly on protection issues arising from the disaster The response will also take a disaster risk reduction approach, considering in particular the environmental impacts of the disaster

Phase II and Phase III interventions to be developed based on further assessment and sound analysis of appropriate disaster relief and recovery measures and strategies.