School for Myanmar's kids - but.....where are the schools?
YANGON: 2nd June 2008 -- Archbishop Charles Bo, whose tone in recent letters is ever more insistent that the people's plight be not overlooked by the aid-weary international community, now focuses on the children in a particular way, since 2nd June is the opening of the school year.
Gone, all -gone
"Last week I visited a village called Aima and some surrounding island villages, Pha-ya-lay-gone, Pein-ne-gone, Ta-yoke.gone and Lein-maw-gone. Aima village is in Labutta township in the southern delta region and very difficult to reach. It took almost ten hours to get there by boat. There I met families who are still struggling to survive and feed their children. In this area all schools were destroyed. For the children of Aima the horror of the cyclone still haunts them. Many children cry at night and when it rains. The children fear the worst and re-live the trauma of the night of 2nd May".
The archbishop points out how very little aid has been able to reach these communities, and that the only aid to reach them for the first fortnight was from the Catholic Church. The Government now supplies but two cans of rice per person per day - not enough to live on. Then hinting at what the international media have also made clear in recent days, he says: "In some cases people have been asked by the Government to leave temporary camps and return to their villages. But in many of the villages there is still no shelter, food or clean water and the Government has only supplied them with a few kitchen utensils".
The Church's activities
To date the Church has been able to supply food, clean water, tarpaulins for shelter, cooking utensils and medical supplies to approximately 20,000 people in Labutta township. "We must continue to support them", the Archbishop writes, "firstly to survive but also in rebuilding their lives".
"On my recent trip, amidst so much death and destruction, the resilience of children was brought home to me by many stories I heard. In one case a lady called Veronica told me of how she and her three month-old child were stuck in their house when a tree fell and blocked the doorway. The floodwaters rose inside the house so she piled furniture up to climb above the water. As the water level rose she had just her head and her baby above water with a foot or so left to the roof of the house. She remained like that till the following morning till the water gradually subsided. Veronica told me this story then added that during this time her baby had not cried once".
"I also heard the story of a five-year-old boy in Lein-maw-gone. He had been separated from his family and when the floodwater rose he could no longer stand on the ground so he grabbed onto his dog. He held onto his dog as it began to swim. The dog kept swimming for hours until he eventually brought the boy to safety on dry land. Sadly, following this amazing feat, the dog died of exhaustion".
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Title: australasia 2165
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces MYM Schools to reopen
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2165
