New Humanity -

CREATING NETWORKS IN MYANMAR DURING LOCK-DOWN

The whole Myanmar, last month, has been in lock-down. Our staff wasn’t allowed to enter any center, that’s why we had to transform our support in different ways: food distribution, provision of hygienic materials and training at distance.

Since May the 13^th until the 29^th our local staff organized a 6 days online training about disability’s related matters. This idea was born thanks to the collaboration with Don Carlo Gnocchi foundation, which is collaborating with us in Myanmar since last year and which is supporting us and our program in disability field.

These trainings has been a good chance for sharing experiences and good practices, all participants have been involved in sharing and proposing ideas for the future. In this way we are starting the creation of a local network for disability.

IN INDIA STARVATION MAY OVERTAKE CORONAVIRUS: OUR RESPONSE TO LOCK-DOWN CONSEQUENCES

In India the lock-down started at March, the 25^th with 519 confirmed cases. This lock-down started suddenly, with only 4 hours left to people to organize themselves. Many people in India, especially in big cities, work on daily labor and in few days they really run out their savings and had nothing to eat. Images and video crossed the world showing the tragic consequences of this lock-down, thousands of people left without anything in big cities decided to come back to their villages, by foot, for hundreds and hundreds kilometers: pregnant women, elder, little children…and some of them already didn’t survive to this journey.

JaIpur, where our project Navchetan is set, is declared red zone. In our slum, Jawahar Nagar, a family was found infected and the access to the slum is very restricted now.

After 2 months of lock-down there are 101.261 cases and 3.164 deaths, and numbers are keeping on increasing, no showing any slowing down. “Will there be an end?  There will certainly be an answer for Corona but STARVATION MAY OVERTAKE THE CORONAVIRUS in number of victims” said our local program manager.

Thanks to our local staff’s commitment and to our donors’ support we’re keeping on supporting our beneficiaries in Jawahar Nagar slum, in different ways. As our beneficiaries are children with disabilities, their families are not even able to try to go back to their villages.

WATER: NOWADAYS PRECIOUS MORE THAN EVER

The project for water and sanitation in Yang Kha and Yaung Nan villages, Kyaing Tung's township, is not stopping, and they shouldn't stop because nowadays this kind of projects are showing their crucial role. 

"We've always worked in rural areas to grant access to water to all population, during last years we built more than 50 hydric systems. Nowadays the crisis we're all living asks us to underline another value of this kind of projects: sanitation and hygienic prevention." said by Livio Maggi, our country director in Myanmar.

"The area we're working in is now isolated and it is under special surveillance because of lots of workers coming back from Thailan. Water, naturally, is crucial to grant hygiene in order to prevent any disease or infection. Never as in this moment, where governments are aksing for a constant hygiene, this has been so evident." 

Works to build the structures are keeping on going, despite of lockdown, thanks to the dedication and help of villagers themselves.

MYANMAR: SUPPORT DURING LOCKDOWN

As in many other countries, also in Myanmar the lockdown has started already since some week. Also here schools have been first to close, followed by different centers and agencies. Also villages locked down, roads are closed and people aren't allowed to go out.

Until now the lock down is established until the mid May. 

We are really concerned about the impact that this will have on economic conditions of families who already live in poverty. "Here many people work on a daily labour and they don't have savings. - as told by Livio Maggi, our country director - and there are no social help or layoff. Many families are contacting us asking for help because they are starving." 

So, we started up an aid program for families in need through the provision of basic goods. In Yangon we are supporting what local authorities are already doing. In villages we are in constant touch with families and we are organizing collection points at villages gates, in order to safely distribute our basic goods.

We also intensifed the support to the juvenile centre and to other centers for children with disabilities, with provision of medicines and basic goods.

PASSION AND LOVE CAN TRULY IMPROVE LIFE CONDITIONS

Here the story of Ma Hlaing, our Community Based Rehabilitator since 2005, at the service of children with disabilities and their families in villages around Taunggyi.

With her love and dedication to children with disabilities she managed to make communities and families to overcome their prejudice of disability as a punishment of God. They had the chance to understand that children could really be integrated in society and in communities, and how to develop their potential abilities. As she said: It is my passion to help those children whom are the most disadvantaged and neediest in the community. I love my children and I feel happy working with them. Thanks dear Ma Hlaing for your witnessing, it is true that passion and love are the key to improve life conditions!

COVID-19: EMERGENCY RESPONSE IN INDIA

Sadly, official cases of Coronavirus and deaths in India have increased exponentially during last week, after the lockdown declared last 25^th of March by Prime Minister Modi, when cases were only 519. At 7^th of April there are 4.911 confirmed cases and 137 deaths. Jaipur, where our Navchetan project for children with disabilities takes place, is one of the most affected cities. The lockdown is declared until 14^th of April, but people living in urban slum areas, where most of them have just daily wages for work, have nothing to eat and the situation is dramatic, as witnessed by pictures published on many sites of thousands people walking from cities to rural villages in order to avoid starvation due to the lockdown.

Our local staff managed to start reacting even before this because of the immediate response of local community to prevent starvation of our beneficiaries.

This is a beautiful witnessing on how solidarity could start in unexpected ways and in unexpected moments.