Cyclone Giri - Two Years On - Burma Action Ireland

Arakan Human Rights and Development Organisation
years, since all the paddy fields were submerged with salt water during the cyclone. So there are dozens
of youth from my village who go to Yangon, Thailand and so on to find good opportunities of jobs to
help their broken families’ livelihoods. There are almost no more youth in our village now.
Q: Do your villagers get any support from the NGOs now
A: Actually the NGOs left more than 7 months ago. Before that period, there was some support from the
NGOs. But the support from them was very limited especially for the capital investment of rebuilding
the damaged family livelihoods.
Q: What about current situations of education and health care in your village
A: There are primary and post-primary (5 th - 7 th standard) schools in our village. As the expenses of
education in Arakan/ Burma are really expensive and costly, most of the families are not able to send
their children to school: even now the families have had difficulty in sending their children to primary
school. Before the cyclone, some families were able to send their children to high school in other places
and town. But there are many families who are not now able to support their children for the education
of middle and high schools. Though it’s fine for the minor and general health care in the village, there
is really a big problem for those who have serious and infected diseases. It’s also because the treatment
in the town and city is very expensive and costly. So most of the rural families can’t afford this treatment
cost that leads to loss of many lives in the rural and remote areas.
Q: What do you want to say to the government and international community
A: In my opinion, the government is fully responsible to help their citizens who are in needs of help for
their rebuilding efforts of farming and agricultural. And I want to request that the international community
should also give some necessary support to the most Giri affected community in their rebuilding efforts
of broken livelihoods. At the same time, both the government and INGOs should provide some assistance
for the education and health care of rural folks of Giri most affected community.
9.
Gender: Male Place of Interview: Randai Village, Marmbra Township
Age: 43 Date of interview: 21 September 2012
Profession: Farmer
Type of interview: Phone
Q: How much was your village tract affected by the Cyclone Giri
A: In our village tract, there includes the villages of Kha Maung Taw, Pyaing Taw, Taung Shey Pyin,
Thaing Kyet, Randai. Among those villages, over 600 houses were totally destroyed and all the paddy
fields including embankments against salt water of protecting the fields, plantation gardens, shrimp
farming and so on were also severely damaged. So many people in our village tract became homeless
and jobless.
Q: What is the current situation of families’ livelihoods in your village tract
A: The people from our village tract are still facing many difficulties in food, education for their
children, health care, etc., and some villagers are still jobless and are living on hand-to-mouth. That
means the many villages are not still able to rebuild their broken livelihoods to normal due to lack of
capital investment in agricultural farmlands and fishing equipment. That is leading to migration of
dozens of youth in our village tract to other places such as Rangoon, Thailand, etc. where they think
they could find better job opportunities. So there are very few youth in our village tract now.
Q: Are there any (I)NGOs in your village tract now
A: Yes there were some NGOs that gave some assistance for the emergency relief phase. At that time, we
were quite fine mainly for food, etc., though the relief supplies provided from them were limited. One of
the biggest problems was that we had to buy rice from other places, as the rice could not be bought in
our area due to inadequate rice production in our area. That means we had to spend much money on
buying rice from other places. Some rice/ paddy seeds were provided last year, but we are not sure
whether we would be provided paddy seeds for this year. One of the UN Agencies surveyed the Giri
most affected people of our village tract and collected list of the names of needy and vulnerable people
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