Aid to the Church in Need: Burma/Myanmar: Charity helps as Burma suffers again

Burma/Myanmar: Charity helps as Burma suffers again

Posted by Press release on 11/6/2008, 10:42 am
Message modified by board administrator 7/8/2008, 1:28 pm

ACN News, Tuesday, 17th June 2008 – BURMA (Myanmar)

Charity helps as Burma suffers again
By John Newton and Eva-Maria Kolmann

A LEADING Catholic charity has offered more urgent help after survivors of the Burma cyclone were hit by a second natural disaster.
Torrential flooding has led to urgent appeals from the Catholic Church in Burma to repair buildings sheltering those who lost their homes after Cyclone Nargis struck last month.
Following updates from the two dioceses hardest hit by the hurricane, Aid to the Church in Need has granted further aid to the Archdiocese of Rangoon (Yangon) and the Diocese of Pathein, bringing its help to date to $179,000.
Archbishop Charles Bo of Rangoon told ACN: “Church buildings such as convents, presbyteries and boarding schools are now providing shelter for those who have lost their houses through the cyclone, but many of these buildings are themselves in danger of collapse if something is not done immediately.”
The ACN help sent out this week comes on top of an initial emergency aid payment dispatched to both Rangoon and neighbouring Pathein on 16th May.

Damaged buildings in the Diocese of Rangoon (Yangon).

Archbishop Bo said the situation is still far from under control: “The rainy season is already setting in, so it is essential to, at least, temporarily repair those buildings that had not been completely destroyed, so that they do not suffer still further damage from the rains.”
The archbishop went on to tell ACN how the church has provided shelter to a mother named Stella and her ten children who survived both the cyclone and the floods.
Already in the late stages of her pregnancy when the storm struck, Stella was rescued from the floodwaters and gave birth to her tenth child “while thousands around her were fighting for their lives and hundreds were dying,” Archbishop Bo said.
Together with her children she has been given shelter inside a church, where they are receiving food and medical attention.
“The shock and suffering that the storm inflicted with such deadly speed could not prevent life from prevailing through the birth of a child, even though all life seemed to have been completely extinguished,” said Archbishop Bo.
More than 40,000 were left homeless after floods swept through Burma in July 2007, when flood waters rose up to four feet, and a similar crisis is now beginning in the country.
The archbishop went on to say that there are still thousands of people affected by the hurricane, who still need help, and he called on the world not to forget the people of Burma.
ACN was told by another source that in the Diocese of Pathein Catholic villages and those of the Karen people, an ethnic minority which has widely embraced Christianity, are being excluded from government help.

Urgent aid distributed by religious Sisters in Rangoon (Yangon)

In Aima, one of the small towns hardest hit by the cyclone, a priest with a small group of religious, and lay people have had to remain in the devastated parish centre so as not to lose the land on which it stood.
Meanwhile, a camp has been set up for those made homeless by the storm, but it is dependent entirely on the help of the diocese, ACN has been told.
The Diocese of Pathein, which runs the camp, is receiving more than $65,000 in aid from ACN.
Archbishop Charles Bo of Rangoon said it is impossible to assess the full extent of the devastation as many regions were still cut off.
“Given the extent of the damage which is already evident, this aid is only the beginning,” said ACN’s General Secretary, Pierre-Marie Morel.

EDITOR’S NOTES

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

To help this cause please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org