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A mother sits with her child in front of their damaged home near Kundangon May 13, 2008. An estimated 2.5 million people are struggling to survive in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.
REUTERS/Stringer Courtesy www.alertnet.orgOne of the first nonprofit organizations to deliver aid directly into Myanmar, AmeriCares airlifted more than 15 tons of critically needed medicines and medical supplies to survivors of Cyclone Nargis. Our emergency response team made successful arrangements to ensure the distribution of our supplies to the flooded Irrawaddy Delta region. Within 48 hours of the arrival of the airlift the medicines and supplies were in the hands of mobile medical teams, which delivered the necessary aid directly to those in need.
AmeriCares airlift consisted of medicines and medical supplies essential for relief efforts after a disaster, including antibiotics, analgesics, latex gloves, oral rehydration salts, multivitamins, anti-malarials and medications used to treat diarrheal diseases and dengue fever. We are also coordinating future plans to re-supply essential aid (including additional anti-malarials).
AmeriCares has a partnership in place with the International Organization for Migration to supply and equip a number of planned primary health care clinics in the affected regions in the coming weeks. These clinics will replace damaged rural health outposts and serve large populations of displaced people living in temporary shelters. We will outfit each clinic with basic medical equipment, instruments and essential medicines.
More than one month after the disaster, there are still an estimated 2.5 million survivors in need of aid. The total number of dead and missing in Myanmar is now estimated to be at least 130,000.
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