Bringing your donation into a sensitive area
We received the following wonderful report and accompanying photos of a team that spent the better part of a week safely bringing your donation to a population that desperately needed help, given their proximity to military camps. The following excerpt describes the careful planning and execution of how they were able to successfully ensure that the funds reached those who need it most. With terror gripping the country and the military trying to suffocate many of these communities while they go after CDM workers in hiding, even the volunteers delivering your donation are doing so at great risk. We thank them for ensuring your funds went where they were supposed to, and we thank you for your generosity. For those able to support continued efforts, please note that there are remaining households still in need that this current fund was not yet able to meet.
“As part of the network supporting CDM, particularly public sector workers, in Yangon, our volunteers and activists know where help is needed most. The donation from Better Burma enabled them to mobilize quickly (over the course of a few days- thank you for the rapid bank transfer and flexibility) to provide desperately needed help for about 350 families living in low-income housing areas around a public hospital in Yangon. These families are mostly lower-salaried hospital workers, such as janitors and ward charges, some have small businesses such as food stalls or taxies which are used by these workers. A few just happen to live here because there is a ramshackle collection housing here offers some options like weekly-pay for those living on the margins.
Because of the public hospital, the area is very closely monitored by the military, and families living here have been unable to access resources since walking off their jobs in resistance to the Junta after February 1. As one of our volunteers explained, ‘They have no support from other sources, because they are surrounded by Military.’
Our brave young volunteers have closely monitored the humanitarian concerns developing in this area and were able to distribute food parcels (about a two-week supply for a family of four) for about 350 struggling families. They had two distribution strategies in order to access the area as quickly and safely as possible- a group of volunteers who went door-to-door, and a distribution point near the hospital where food could be picked up.
Our volunteers have also been monitoring the immediate risk faced by a small group of six families with members on arrest lists or some other sign that they are in immediate danger if they do not hide or flee the area soon. We gave each of these families a cash transfer of MMK 100,000 to meet immediate food, shelter, or travel needs. We sent a mobile money transfer with that part of your donation to two volunteers, who worked for 48 hours to withdraw the money then get that cash to those families.”
