One Year After Nargis, American People Continue to Assist Victims

Friday, May 01, 2009

As part of America's commitment to the welfare of the Burmese people, the United States has provided nearly $74 million to assist recovery from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis which struck the Irrawaddy Delta last May 2. 

U.S. disaster relief has helped over 1 million Burmese since the cyclone.  The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided $56.6 million in disaster assistance, emergency food, water, shelter and health assistance, and early this year USAID pledged an additional $5 million to communities for clean water, shelter, and other critical needs. 

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spent nearly $12.3 million on relief flights transporting the goods from Thailand to Burma. 

Since the cyclone USAID has provided $30 million to partner with a variety of respected international organizations and several U.N. agencies to help rebuild lives, provide seeds and tools to farmers, support the development of non-agrarian livelihoods, rehabilitate rural health facilities, and train community health workers to provide improved medical services. 

After the cyclone, U.S. partners, who were already operating in Burma, immediately launched efforts to search for outbreaks of storm-related diseases.  One of USAID’s leading malaria, dengue fever and avian influenza (AI) experts arrived shortly thereafter to assist health authorities and improve laboratories.  USAID is conducting malaria surveillance and looking for cases of drug-resistant malaria.  USAID spends more than $2.25 million annually on its AI, TB and malaria projects in Burma.

Officials from USAID's Regional Development Mission Asia in Bangkok and from Embassy Rangoon regularly visit the Irrawaddy Delta region to monitor and evaluate the delivery of U.S. government assistance and to speak with beneficiaries about their priorities for recovery. 

Countless recipients have expressed gratitude to the American people for helping in their time of need. 

The United States recognizes that recovery from a natural disaster of this magnitude is a long and gradual process, and we hope to continue to assist recovery efforts with additional programs in health, education and humanitarian assistance.

FURTHER READING

• One Year After Nargis, American People Continue to Assist Victims (34 KB PDF)

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