Bloggers build budget huts for cyclone victims

BLOGGERS have raised tens of thousands of dollars to build “budget huts” for Cyclone Nargis survivors in Myanmar. Former IT specialist Nyi Lynn Seck’s web journal tracks the aftermath of the cyclone disaster, which has killed about 78,000 people. In turn, he has received about US$30,000 (S$41,000) in donations, mostly from Myanmar expatriates in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, even some as far away as Europe. Armed with the financial resources, the 29-year-old quit his job and gathered his friends and helped to build “budget huts” in the Irrawaddy delta, a region still reeling from the May 2-3 killer storm. “I have been blogging for quite a long time and many overseas Myanmar citizens read it. They wanted me to go to the delta and help out,” he said. Mr Seck is just one example of a grassrootsmovement that has emerged in Myanmar. Private efforts have filled a lot of gaps in the relief effort, especially in the early weeks after the storm.

Mr Seck’s blog has included personal observations, advice for would-be bloggers and news items. It has not been seen as anti-government by the ruling junta, which controls the media in the country. The blogger said he became an aid worker because he felt the junta’s response to the storm was inefficient.“The government doesn’t rely much on a system or technology and they don’t know what to do. They work only on paper, so the help was really delayed,” he said. Many Myanmar volunteers and the local staff of foreign aid agencies have also started to pack their vehicles with food, water and other supplies and head into the delta. Mr Seck’s group of volunteers, which calls itself Handy Myanmar Youths because it wants to lend a hand to survivors, has put up 88 huts in delta villages. The group makes five- to six-hour boat rides to coastal villages to deliver materials and tools to build the huts and supervise the construction, which is done mostly by survivors.

Due to tides, the volunteers are unable to return to Labutta on the same day, so they usually spend at least one night sleeping without protection from mosquitoes. Several have fallen ill. The blogger said the group’s most pressing concerns were about sustaining the project despite the high price of materials and transportation. “Now the biggest problem is that we’re having trouble finding wood in Labutta, and the wood is also getting very expensive,” Mr Seck said. “As long as there are funds and donors, hopefully we can keep this up for another two to three months here,” he said.

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