A Rough Ride to the Elephant Camp
We received the following update from a local team leader who delivered some of the aid that we allocated to an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp in Karenni state. We greatly appreciate your continued support, which allows us to help those in need.
After the coup d'état on February 1st, 2021, the tragedy of war has continued to flare up throughout our country. The number of displaced people in Karenni State has been increasing day by day as a result.
Out of the many IDP camps now in Karenni, twelve villages in particular are fleeing the conflict and heading to what has become known as Elephant Camp, located east of Loikaw. There are a total of 4,027 refugees, including forty-four people with disabilities, ninety-four breastfeeding mothers including twenty-five pregnant women. The food requirement of the camp is at least 350 bags of rice per month.
We are so incredibly grateful to all the donors who have supported our work, and for Better Burma in being able to ensure that funds reach us. Because of this, we are now able to purchase rice, which is really urgently needed here.
We purchased thirty-one bags of rice in total. Although we were unable to buy enough to distribute to every household in the camp, we prioritized those households in most urgent need.
We also encountered a lot of difficulties in transporting the rice into Loikaw. The military is trying to prevent humanitarian projects and donations of any kind, and so they confiscate any food or medicine they find, and even arrest those carrying out the mission. We also had to protect against the indiscriminate killings of aid-carrying couriers by the military. In addition, while carrying food from the city to the camp, our team had to employ spotters who keep a careful lookout for the military council's patrols. Given the terrain and geography, all of these concerns exacerbated the challenges in making sure the aid arrives at its destination, but we all did our best. It is sometimes impassable through Loikaw to reach the drop-off point. During the rainy season, the forest road to Loikaw is flooded, and so at the halfway point, we had to switch to bullock carts, transporting the goods like people have done for thousands of years here. But we did whatever it takes, and we made it there successfully! Please look at our photos to see how we finally got the rice to these camps.
The Elephant Camp War Refugee Committee expressed its gratitude to Better Burma and friends who donated, and we humbly request them to help again if it is possible.
