The Famine

The Famine affected Mro Church of Christ brothers and sisters.  The numbers I'm included in the chart are only those affected badly.  Many more have been partially affected.  These are the ones the leadership feel need the most urgent help.  The chart is self evident.  It is clear.  There are over 10,500 persons affected by this famine.  Any and all help we can give them is going to be really appreciated as they aren't getting anything from the government and there aren't any NGOs around there at that.  So, anything we can give them is going to be it.  

Bobby myself will go over and deliver the funds to Chan and will go over to Mrauk Oo and do the distribution as well.  Bobby will call upon the leaders of the Mro brothers and will oversee the purchase of the rice and have them deliver the rice to those in need.

Township	Villages	Families Affected	Persons	Acres Destroyed	Locations of villages
Palet Wa	26.00	768.00	3,155.00	987.00	In the Mi Chaung valley
Kyawk Taw	76.00	1,255.00	4,864.00	2,527.00	Galatan river valley, along the Pi, Yu, Tha Yi and Paung Yin streams or river valleys.
Mrauk Oo	10.00	404.00	1,737.00	570.00	Along the Yang and Ngw Wi streams and river valleys
Bung Na Gyun	6.00	67.00	235.00	116.00	along the Taw Pya stream or river valleys
Pauk Taw	9.00	82.00	532.00	173.00	On the Sin Tet Maw Island
Total	127.00	2,576.00	10,523.00	4,373.00

Here are a couple of pictures of destroyed hillside fields.  The rats are destroying the fields.  They are not the big ground hogs known for this type of bamboo seeding famines in northern Burma, but nevertheless, evidently these small creatures do their share of damage.  What is odd, is they said paddy fields in the lowlands, and even side by side with the hillside fields were not destroyed.  The only reason I can think of this would be that perhaps the paddy rice is not fully ripened yet, thus is not in a seed stage while the other is ready to harvest.  I don't know.  

Again, the funds will be distributed soon.  We just need to remember them in our prayers for quite some time as they won't be able to feed themselves until August when the first of the new crop of corn will ripen.  So, they will be needing additional help down the road.  

Farmers such as these, don't have a government to lean back on or the social structures like we do in the States.  Such as the NGOs or Salvation Army or soup lines or feeding centers.  So, they are totally on their own.  What ever they can find in the woods, such as bulbs, roots, berries, fruits, leaves and perhaps Sago is what many will depend upon to survive the next couple of months.  There is no employment as we know of it.  There are no factories or industry in the area.

So, any and all they have will be what we are giving to them.  So, remember to tell your people of what they are doing is of utmost importance for these people.  It is a matter of life and death.