CARE's Country Director in Myanmar Speaks about the Long Road to Recovery

"Here in Yangon I'm now seeing a lot of people out on the street helping to clear trees and debris. People are out there with machetes and chainsaws and I even saw a group of monks with chainsaws," said Brian Agland.

As the massive clean up effort continues, CARE is working tirelessly to meet the needs of the survivors. CARE has distributed emergency rice rations and first aid kits throughout the township of Thaketa.

Material for household kits procured in Thailand will be shipped into the country as soon as possible. In the preliminary relief phase, CARE is working to arrange delivery of the kits to 50,000 families (250,000 people).

The kits include basic items such as blankets, ropes, mosquito nets, buckets, soap and plastic sheeting along with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

CARE is also conducting assessments in Pathien in the Irrawaddy Delta which bore the brunt of the cyclone and suffered massive devastation.

CARE International's Secretary General, Dr. Robert Glasser, announced the amount of funding needed to support CARE's programs to help survivors will be in the vicinity of $10 million. The long-term recovery plan for Myanmar could last three years or more.

He outlined three distinct phases:

• The first phase would focus on the immediate response to the disaster and would last up to six months.
• That would be followed by a transitional period, in which survivors of the cyclone begin moving back to normal life and self-sufficiency.
• The final stage, which could be as far as three years away, would concentrate on re-establishing the social and economic framework that existed before the cyclone hit.

Despite the devastation and the long road to recovery, the resilient spirit of the local people continues to shine through.

"What has probably struck me the most here in Yangon is the community spirit," explains CARE's Country Director, Brian Agland. "People here are so used to looking after themselves that they're not sitting around waiting for people to come in to help, they're just getting on with it."

Helene Gayle, CARE USA President and CEO, said CARE is well-placed to assist in Myanmar's longer-term recovery. "Our 500 staff members in the country, most of them local nationals, are part of the communities where they work. With 14 years of experience in Myanmar, CARE will be there long after this crisis disappears from the headlines."

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