(From left) Siblings Than Than Mar, Ye Myint Htun and Tin Win Zaw
(Photo: May Myat Swe/Myanmar Red Cross Society)

O n a paddy farm in Tha Pyay Chaung village in the Ayeyarwady delta, three orphaned siblings work hard to make ends meet. They are Tin Win Zaw, Ye Myint Htun, and Than Than Mar, aged 20, 17 and 15 respectively.

They lost their parents and youngest brother in Cyclone Nargis which devastated the Ayeyarwady delta and surrounding areas on 1 and 2 May 2008. The disaster left 84,500 people dead and 53,800 missing. An additional 2.4 million people, mainly in the delta, were severely affected, according to the United Nations.. 

The three were also swept away and separated by the water surge but thankfully, they escaped death. Tin Win Zaw who was swept away in the waters, passed out on a floating log. When he regained consciousness, he found himself on a tree with his sister, Than Than Mar and cousin, Mg Mg Zaw, 20. They made their way back to their village two days after the cyclone and found their brother, Ye Myint Htun there.

Today, they are trying their best to salvage their parents’ 20-acre farm which was damaged by the intrusion of salt water.

“We can’t make any money from the farm yet. We lost buffalos and fowls as well. So we have to count on relatives for food and clothing,” explains Tin Win Zaw.

As their house was destroyed in the cyclone, the three siblings now live in the farm’s granary. They wake up every day at about 5am. While Than Than Mar stays at home to do the cooking and other chores, her brothers work in the field but their efforts seem to be in vain.

“Despite some help we received from neighbours, the paddy is not growing. We will have to pull out the plants and get new seeds from other fields in nearby villages”, says Tin Win Zaw.

Tha Pyay Chaung village is located in the Kyar Hone village tract in Mawlamyinegyun township. A village tract comprises several villages. Kyar Hone was the hardest hit among 15 tracts in Mawlamyinegyun that have been targeted for assistance under the Myanmar Red Cross Society’s relief and recovery operation for affected communities. Kyar Hone had the highest number of deaths – in Tha Pyay Chaung village alone, there were about 69 deaths or persons missing including the siblings’ parents and brother.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the siblings received some relief supplies such as food and hygiene kits, as well as a tarpaulin through Myanmar Red Cross Society relief distributions. However, they have not been targeted to receive recovery (longer-term) assistance such as livelihoods support as they fall under the category of farm owners, and as such, are not considered among the ‘most vulnerable’ groups of affected people. (see Editor’s note at the end of this article)

The Myanmar Red Cross Society’s three-year Cyclone Nargis relief and recovery operation (2008-2011) aims to assist 100,000 affected families across 13 townships. Assistance is provided through the following programmes: shelter, livelihoods, community-based health and first aid, psychosocial support; water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, and disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The operation is conducted with the assistance of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the coordinating body for about 186 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies throughout the world.

“My brother and sister were my reason to live”, says Tin Win Zaw.
(photo: May Myat Swe/Myanmar Red Cross Society)

Along with their cousin Mg Mg Zaw, they also received some much-needed psychosocial support from Myanmar Red Cross Society health teams comprising health officers and volunteers trained in psychosocial support. For months after the disaster, the four of them were traumatised. Happily, Mg Mg Zaw has since been reunited with his parents.

As the eldest of the siblings, Tin Win Zaw was wrecked with sorrow and a sense of guilt that he never found the bodies of his parents and youngest brother. “My brother and sister were my reason to live”.

The health team aided the youngsters by helping them in their grieving process.

Si Thu Toe Nyunt, a health officer with the Myanmar Red Cross Society’s hub office in Mawlamyinegyun, who set out with assessment teams to affected villages during the emergency period, explains: “We helped survivors empty their feelings by listening to them talk about their ordeal. We also held their hands and sometimes hugged them to show empathy. Sometimes, we cried with them and wiped away their tears.”

“So many of them blamed themselves for not saving family members and for surviving without them,” the officer recalls.

Ironically, the siblings’ father had heard of the cyclone warning over the radio. He had alerted neighbours, calling them to seek refuge in his farm house, little knowing that it would be destroyed. Out of the 30 people who sought refuge in the house, 18 died.

The health team persuaded the youngsters to make offerings of prayer for their loved ones, and to focus on living a new life, as the “best way to move forward”.

Tin Win Zaw and his siblings are grateful for the support and counselling received. “We can live a normal life now although it is hard.”

Editor’s note: Tin Win Zaw has been included in an initial list of beneficiaries selected for an Asset Recovery Project due to be launched soon under the Nargis Operation’s livelihoods programme. However, at the time of going to press, the beneficiary list was pending confirmation. An update on Tin Win Zaw’s situation will be provided in the months to come.