Miles Collins

News from Burma….

As I left work this afternoon the heavens opened and I cursed my bad luck and more especially my timing. I cycle to work and back four times a day, it helps to keep me fit and we all know the benefits of leaving our cars at home as much as possible. I took a bit of a soaking cycling through the village, not the end of the world but slightly annoying nonetheless. Once home a telephone bill lays on top of a pile of mail in the hallway.

Mail is left on kitchen table, recipient gets washed and changed and heads for gym in air conditioned car. Recipient feels better already. Come home, see phone bill and feel annoyed. It’s not the money, it’s the annoyance of paying a bill. Go through rest of mail, my home insurer wants to tell me how great I am for renewing my policy, Canon UK want £20 for a repeat subscription to their EOS magazine, Conde Nast publications think I should subscribe to House and Garden and Starglaze want to double glaze my already double glazed house, you know how it is.

At the bottom of the pile is a letter from World Vision, from time to time they send me information on how to purchase gift aid as well as updates on community projects throughout the Third World countries. But this one was different, it was a letter specifically for me regarding my sponsored child in Burma. I had been waiting for this letter ever since Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country’s coastline and into the Hlaing Tharyar area where I help to fund the development programme.

The letter told me of the huge problem they faced in trying to reach those hardest hit, many of the roads into Hlaing Tharyar were impassable and many families had left to seek refuge with friends and relatives. Finally and with some considerable relief I was told that their local staff had managed to confirm that four year old May Mi Mi was still alive, though her home was destroyed she and her family had been provided with the materials to rebuild it. The letter went on to say that despite the destruction of local businesses and crops it had not affected May Mi Mi’s father’s income as a food vendor.

According to the latest official figures and I quote World Vision: “2.5 million people have been severely affected by Cyclone Nargis, with 138,000 people killed or missing. World Vision relief teams have responded by distributing rice, water purifiers and materials for temporary shelters. In the first six weeks after the cyclone, 350,000 people have benefited from the emergency supplies and the 44 Child Friendly Spaces set up by the organisation”

The rest of the world has moved on from the situation in Myanmar/Burma now, there’s not a newspaper article or television bulletin to be found anywhere, the Russia-Georgia conflict will run until the media get bored with it and Britney Spears has another custody battle. Yet all the while innocent people suffer in a media silence. It would be cheaper for me not to sponsor May Mi Mi, I shall never meet her or her family so what’s in it for me? Well, the next time I curse at having to go outside my double glazed house to put a leaflet from a window company in my recycling bin I shall think of May Mi Mi’s father who has been given tarpaulin, bamboo, nails and wire to rebuild his home with. So whilst he’s stuck in the mud and rain knowing his government are doing nothing for him save lining their own pockets maybe he will think of me now and then. That will do for me.

Remember Myanmar.