Ma Ni Ni Mar with baby Pan Hsu Pyae Kyaw, and (from left) Thiri Kyaw (5 yrs), Soe Sandar Kyaw (3yrs), and Aung Myo Min (10 years).
A fifth child, Thandar Kyaw (8 yrs), is not in the photo.
(Photo: Nant Nay Zar Tun/Myanmar Red Cross Society)

The nightmare of Cyclone Nargis and the miserable days and nights that followed, are a thing of the past for casual labourer Ko Kyaw Win Naing, 31.

The cyclone which struck Myanmar on 1 and 2 May 2008, destroyed his home forcing him, his pregnant wife and four children to seek shelter in a school. It left 84,500 people dead and 53,800 missing. An additional 2.4 million people, mainly in the Ayeyarwady delta, were severely affected, according to the United Nations.

Today, Ko Kyaw Win Naing and his family enjoy a sound and dry night’s sleep in their new home in Thone Kyaing village in the delta, thanks to the Myanmar Red Cross Society’s household shelter project.

Their new home was built in early July, 2009. It was constructed by local carpenters and Ko Kyaw Win Naing, under the supervision of shelter technicians and field assistants attached to the society’s hub office in Maubin township where Thone Kyaing village is located.

Ko Kyaw Win Naing, his wife Ma Ni Ni Mar, 30, and five children aged 13 months to 10, are one of 416 families across Maubin township which were selected for the Myanmar Red Cross Society’s household shelter project. Households which had not yet effected proper shelters since the disaster struck, were selected for this project.

Ma Ni Ni Mar and the children also helped out with small tasks during the construction. Their new home is made up of wood, poles, bamboo, bamboo matting, coir ropes and dani (palm).

“It protects us during heavy rains and even the baby sleeps soundly”, says Ko Kyaw Win Naing, adding that he would not have been able to construct it with his own effort.

All he could do in the aftermath of Nargis, was to build a simple hut using the debris from his old home which had collapsed in the cyclone. The family then moved from the school where they had sought refuge, into the hut.

“But we were miserable. It was uncomfortable for us as there were seven of us. When it rained, almost everything got wet and the children cried and could not sleep”.

Their new home, he says, has made such a difference.

The current phase of the Myanmar Red Cross Society’s household shelter project targets a total of about 8,000 families across 11 townships. At the time of going to press, 4,187 shelters had been completed since the initiation of the project earlier in 2009. Beneficiary selections were undertaken by Village Tract Recovery Committee members comprising village leaders, in consultation with the society’s hub offices. A second phase of shelters for an additional 7,000 vulnerable families is scheduled to begin in January 2010.

The household shelter project is part of the society’s overall Nargis relief and recovery operation aimed at assisting 100,000 affected families across 13 townships. The three-year operation (2008 to 2011) is being conducted with the assistance of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the coordinating body for about 186 national Red Cross societies throughout the world.

Other ongoing shelter projects conducted by the society include the construction of Red Cross posts (for a variety of uses by communities and Red Cross volunteers), schools and rural health centres, as well as repairs to community buildings damaged by the cyclone.