Disaster Response team reaches community in Mandalay that was one of the worst-affected areas of Myanmar’s devastating earthquake.
Amid the suffering caused by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar, MAF’steam were greeted with big smiles and shouts of joy when they arrived with enough supplies to feed hundreds of families.
MAF’s General Manager in Myanmar, Deeram Khong, drove with engineer Terry Fahey to Tada-U to assess the damage and meet the needs of people trying to rebuild their lives after the natural disaster.
The supplies, funded by the donations of MAF supporters, were sorted into parcels so that each family received 25kg of rice, canned sardines in tomato sauce, coffee mix, Burmese fish paste, Chinese sweet sausage, oral rehydration powder, cooking oil, instant noodles, soy protein balls, garlic and onions.
“The recipients were very happy and very surprised and excited to receive such a variety of goods. It was great to see the smiles,” said Terry.
MAF’s team met with the leaders and youth of The City Mandalay Church, in Myanmar’s second largest city, to divide goods into the 300 different distribution bags.
Of those packages, 180 were handed to families in a community which was hit hard by the March 28 earthquake. The highway bridge was damaged, monasteries were flattened, river communities fell into the water, and houses collapsed.
The remaining 120 portions are being distributed by The City Mandalay Church. Another delivery supplied 25 families connected with the Department of Civil Aviation.
Deeram said: “This is one of the most affected communities in Mandalay, the town is called Tada-U. “Some of the ladies shouted with joyful voices that they are receiving good quality rice from us. Some smiled with their mouths wide open because they're getting several items.”
The team also held discussions with the local church about how MAF in Myanmar can help. The visit included an assessment of damage at the church building in Mandalay.