Peace House International and Peace House Travel Team brings compassion and aid supplies to Too-Myaung Village inhabitants.

The combined PHI/PHT team distributed aid supplies to villagers at Too-Myaung village and made plans to rebuild the village school building and construct brick tank to store rain water for use by the whole village.

The mercy mission of the team was greeted with gratitude by the villagers and in return the members of the team were greatly touched by the sincere thanks uttered by the simple folks of the village.
PHI/PHT would also like to take this opportunity to thank all its overseas & local friends for their monetary and material assistance that had brightened the lives of the cyclone survivors with their donations.

Everybody was very excited when it was announced that a third trip was planned to go back to Too-Myaung village to continue with our relief efforts for the survivors there. When the appointed day arrived evrything was ready and all assembled at 02:30 a.m at the Yangon office and by 03:00 a.m we started on our mercy mission.

Surprisingly traffic was light on the road or maybe it was because we were early. It was just 5.00 a.m when we were driving along the main highway to the town of Kyaik-Latt.
This time Mr. Henry Nyan Htun, our Managing Director, was with us. He had just flown into Yangon from Bangkok office where he is stationed most of his time to visit and see for himself the actual situation of the cyclone ravaged regions and coordinate the relief efforts as necessary.
It is 08:00 a.m in the morning when we passed the Kyaik-Latt bridge and some of the houses in the town shone bright with new corrugated galvanized iron roofing sheets but regrettably there remained many houses still in disrepair. However it is good to see that there had been some efforts at rebuilding after the fierce storm that hit the town in early May.

We reach the town of Pya-pone at 09:30 a.m in the morning and went to our local representative's house for a rest. After a 10 minutes rest we were off to the jetty to load the small motorised boats with cement bags and iron bars that we were to take to Too-Myaung village. These construction materials were to be used in constructing a brick fresh water tank at the village.
The boats were packed to the gunwales as we were carrying more than 25 bags of cement, iron bars and miscellaneous relief items plus the volunteers workers accompanying the team to the village. There were three boats going to the village: one boat filled with construction materials, another with aid supplies and the last with the team members.

The boats left around 10:30 a.m but we had to be very carefull. The sky was heavy with rain clouds and there was also a slight drizzle. The wind had freshened up and kicking up small waves that rocked our small boats. All were urged to wear the life jackets brought from Bangkok as a safety precaution.
Enroute we stopped at Myin-Ka-Gone village where we off-loaded 20 bags of rice to the village. It’s the biggest village around here and its location on the main river made it easy for many donors to reach it, so getting basic foodstuff and water are not a big problem for the villagers but  the 391 surviving families in the village are in critical need of shelters as first priority. Here the village monastery acts like a big storage shed for the villagers and aid supplies are distributed daily.
It was around 12:15 p.m when we got to Too-Myaung village. All the villagers had gathered  on the bank of the small Too-Myaung creek to welcome us.

We said “it’s for the kids this time.” We met Daw Wah Wah who is a teacher at the primary school here and also a native of Too-Myaung village. We learnt from her that the date for the school to reopen has been postponed to July instead of the original June 02 date. So we returned the stationaries and other books destined for the school back into storage at the monastery to be delivered to the kids next time. At the same time work started on the construction of the fresh water tank.
However, the villagers were expecting to receive relief supplies from us as before so after hurried consultations we distributed what we have with us to the villagers. Packets of cloths, de-hydrated meat, slippers, cheroots(locally rolled cigars) and blankets for the kids were distributed to the waiting villagers by the team members.
By 03:00 p.m everybody was exhausted and also time to go back as we have a long drive ahead of us. Leaving Pya-pone around 04:30 p.m and taking a different route we arrived back in Yangon after midnight. Every one of us was dead beat from exhaustion but our spirits remained high as our humanitarian efforts were so successful.

Donation List

1) slippers
2) longyis (sarong-like garment)
3) de-hydrated meat
4) blankets for the kids
5) rice bags

See details at Chart of Donation in Cash or in Kind

Relief and Reconstruction works in progress

1) New 4000 gallons capacity brick communal fresh water tank project for the villagers
2) Paint and school benches for the primary school.
3) Fund raising activities for rebuilding of another school at Myin-Ka-Gone village.
4) Construction of communal toilets in the school compound at Too-Myaung-village.
5) Desalination and cleaning of the village communal fresh water pond.

Reported by
Frankie
31 May 2008