AMERICAN GIVING | Strengthening communities through generosity
27 May 2008
U.S. Humanitarian Assistance Continues to Arrive in Burma
Businesses pledging millions to help victims of Asian disasters
Washington -- More U.S. humanitarian assistance is getting into cyclone-ravaged Burma and is being distributed by local partners of several major nongovernmental groups.
As of May 21, the United States had flown 45 loads of relief commodities into Burma's largest city, Rangoon, from neighboring Thailand.
A total of $20.4 million in both U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department of Defense aid for victims of Cyclone Nargis has been provided so far, according to a May 21 USAID fact sheet.
Much more aid -- food, clean drinking water, hygiene kits and plastic sheeting for shelters -- still needs to get into the country, said Henrietta Fore, USAID administrator. She said that to date only 20-25 percent of those affected by the May 2 cyclone had received lifesaving U.S. emergency assistance.
Fore and seven representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) briefed reporters May 22 in Washington. A seven-days-a-week, round-the-clock USAID operations center is gathering assessments of needs from a variety of sources and coordinating relief efforts with other international donors, Ky Luu, USAID's director of foreign disaster assistance, said.
Fore said that the international community's message that it is willing and capable of providing more assistance to victims "is getting through" to Burmese officials.
Some of the NGO representatives at the briefing said Burmese officials are granting some visas to outside aid workers so they can provide more aid and assess needs for an eventual reconstruction period.
A USAID disaster assistance response team is waiting in Thailand for permission to enter the country. So far, only the head of the team has been allowed an escorted aerial tour of the affected areas, Luu said.
The previous day, Burma had requested more than $11 billion in aid for cyclone victims, according to media reports, USAID said.
Nargis killed up to an estimated 101,000 people and left 2.4 million people needing assistance.
In addition to reaching more people affected by the cyclone, many of them living in remote areas, Luu said a major concern of USAID and NGO workers is being able to get continuing support to people who have received initial aid, especially as the region's rainy season begins. This includes such disease prevention supplies as latrines for camps housing victims displaced from their homes by the storm. Medical personnel also are needed, Luu said.
USAID will continue to assist partners with equipment, access to trucks and relief supplies to increase the affected populations' access to the aid, according to the fact sheet.
U.S. PRIVATE SECTOR HELP
Meanwhile, the U.S. business community is stepping up to aid victims of Cyclone Nargis and of the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province May 12.
To date, U.S. businesses have pledged $3.7 million for victims of Cyclone Nargis and more than $32.7 million in response to the China earthquake, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) reported in a May 21 press release.
The pledges include cash and noncash contributions, corporate foundation monies and employees' own donations.
Combined response to both disasters marks the third-largest international aid initiative undertaken by the American business community, behind only the Pakistan earthquake relief effort in 2005 and the Southeast Asia tsunami response in 2004, the business association said.
"The magnitude of U.S. corporate contributions indicates the level of concern for the victims," said BCLC’s Stephen Jordan.
BCLC reports that 17 corporate donors have pledged $1 million or more in cash or a mix of cash and noncash support. They are Abbott Laboratories, American International Group (AIG), Anheuser Busch Companies, Baxter Healthcare, Caterpillar, Chevron Corporation, Cisco Systems, General Electric, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard Company Foundation, The HSBC Group, Merck & Company, Proctor & Gamble, United Parcel Service, Wal-Mart and The Walt Disney Company.
Founded after the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, the BCLC helps corporate donors find out about areas needing disaster assistance and the government agencies and nongovernmental groups working in those areas, spokeswoman Kitty Taylor told America.gov.
The leadership center is in the process of tracking current corporate donations so donors can learn how their donations are being used, Taylor said.
More information about USAID assistance to Burma is available on the agency's Web site.
More information about corporate donations for disaster relief in available on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Web site.
