| Project | Myanmar Emergency Floods Response |
| Objectives |
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| Project Partners | Myanmar Paediatric Society, Sagaing Regional Health Department & Rakhine State Health Department |
| Activities |
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| Locations | Kalay Township, Sagaing Region Yekyi Township, Ayeyarwaddy Region Mrauk U Township, Rakhine State |
| Period | August – October 2015 |
| Accomplishments | Served 8,219 people, through various projects. These include: • Mobile clinic at three townships: 5,929 patients
|
BACKGROUND
On July 31st 2015, the Government of Myanmar declared a state of emergency at Chin State, Rakhine state, Magway regions and Sagaing region. The situation was made worse by Cyclone Komen that made its way from, Bangladesh, a neighbouring country, bringing strong winds and additional heavy rainfall. This resulted to severe fooding in 12 out of 14 states regions. The National Natural Disaster Management Committee (NNDMC) identifed Hakha in Chin State, Kale in Sagaing Region, Pwintbyu in Magway Region, and Minbya and Mrauk-U in Rakhine as the fve most afected townships where a total of 229,600 people were afected by the foods. Over 1.1 million acres of farmlands were engulfed with more than 872,000 acres of farmland destroyed. The situation posed concern on the long term efects of the food security. Major agricultural produce is rice which covers about 60% of the country’s total cultivated land area. A total of 125 people were killed and some 1.7 million people were temporarily displaced by the foods and landslides.
On 4th of September 2015 a medical mission was deployed to respond in Ayeyarwaddy region which faces food situation annually. MERCY Malaysia in collaboration with Myanmar Paediatrics Society worked together to provide medical services to 448 patients in Kwin Yhwar Village which consisted of 583 Households (3593 population). In addition, 250 hygiene kits were distributed to villagers. The medical mission conducted awareness on hygiene (Food, Water, Hand and Lavatory), Hypertension (how to prevent and reduce), Nutrition and ways of hand washing.
In Rakhine State, a team consisting of 1 Medical Doctor, 1 Health Assistant and 1 Nurse was deployed to Mrauk U Township to assist Rakhine State Health Department during the emergency response. During the period, a total number of 2,431 patients were attended to by the medical team, in which 1,293 patients were female patients. In addition, two personnel from MERCY Malaysia Country Ofce were deployed to support the response eforts. The team managed to distribute 500 sets of medicated mosquito nets in Mrauk U Townships throughout its emergency operations in Mrauk U Township. MERCY Malaysia’s Country Ofce was also tasked to coordinate the food response eforts in Rakhine from Yangon by the State Health Department where a donation of 1000 water purifcation sachets were successfully sent from Yangon to Rakhine.
MERCY MALAYSIA’S EFFORTS
MERCY Malaysia’s local and HQ teams directly responded to this calamity by sending out a Rapid Assessment Team and local medical teams to Ayeyarwady Region, Sagaing Region and Rakhine state. Mobile medical teams were deployed to provide emergency medical services to rural areas in Kalay Township, Sagaing Division and Yekgyi Township, Ayeyarwaddy Region. At the same time, the current medical team based in Sittwe were mobilised to assist Rakhine State Health Department in responding to the emergency situation.
MERCY Malaysia provided services to 3,050 patients between 15th August to 12th October in Kalay Tonwship. Apart from that MERCY Malaysia also conducted distributions of 907 household items and 500 medicated mosquito nets. In addition, a total number of 118 female and 15 children attended education sessions on health and hygiene.
