Aid agencies step up relief efforts

Press Assoc. - Friday, May 9 03:12 pm

Aid agencies are stepping up their relief efforts to help those caught in the devastation wrought by the Burma cyclone.

Some members of the Disasters Emergency Committee, a coalition of charities, have workers on the ground and have been able to begin handing out aid.

Other charities are committing funds to local aid groups and flying in food, medical and shelter supplies for the estimated one million people made homeless in the disaster.

Action Aid said it hopes to reach thousands of the most vulnerable - such as children and the elderly. The charity has 50 people on the ground, including 30 in the Irrawaddy Delta, the worst-affected area, trained to respond to large-scale disasters.

The first Red Cross supply plane, carrying shelter kits for 2000 people, landed in the Burmese capital on Thursday night. The kits hold plastic sheets, mosquito nets, water and cooking utensils.

A British and Swiss Red Cross Emergency Response Unit will fly to Burma this weekend and a second supply plane is due to arrive on Saturday.

CARE International has given out water supplies and food to victims sheltering in pagodas in townships in the capital Rangoon. The charity will send blankets, plastic sheets, clothes, kitchen and toiletries for 50,000 people from Thailand next week.

Christian Aid is giving out food, medicine, water purification tablets and blankets to 100,000 people which it has sourced from within the country.

Merlin, an emergency relief charity, have a medical team in Burma and has plans to send in emergency kits for 140,000 people.

Save the Children is giving out food, water purification tablets, plastic sheeting, kitchen equipment and rehydration salts to 60,000 families whose homes have been destroyed.

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