Myanmar: Disaster Aid

Help AmeriCares Respond to the Myanmar Cyclone

Staff Photo Medicines are loaded for transport in Yangon.

Additional shipments of medicines and medical supplies arrived in Myanmar this week, as part of AmeriCares sustained relief effort in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

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In response to the continued medical needs of the people of the devastated Irrawaddy Delta Region, AmeriCares delivered an 8,400-pound shipment of antibiotics, IV solutions, analgesics, pain relievers and other essential medicines and supplies valued at $825,000.  An AmeriCares emergency response team is working with our partner in Myanmar, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to distribute these critically needed medicines to a network of ten IOM clinics.  

AmeriCares emergency response workers are also coordinating additional deliveries to Yangon this week, including much-needed treatments for malaria and supplies to aid in the prevention of dengue fever.  These shipments will support the work of another partner, The MENTOR Initiative, which is coordinating a campaign to aid in the treatment of these serious diseases.

One of the first nonprofit organizations to fly an airlift directly into Myanmar, AmeriCares delivered more than 15 tons of critically needed medicines and medical supplies to survivors of the cyclone after the disaster. Within 48 hours of the airlift’s arrival, the medicines and supplies were in the hands of mobile medical teams that were responding to survivors’ health needs. Each mobile medical team saw as many as 100 patients per day.

Cyclone Nargis swept across Myanmar on May 2 and 3, creating a huge tidal wave that killed an estimated 138,000 people and devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region.  Two months after the disaster, there are still an estimated 2.4 million survivors in need of aid.