Canadian aid agencies respond to twin disasters

By Jim Coggins

CANADIAN aid agencies are responding to two disasters that struck Asia ten days apart in early May. Many of those agencies are Christian.

On the evening of May 2, Cyclone Nargis smashed into Myanmar, also known as Burma, carrying devastation and flooding as far as 250 kilometres inland. The most recent estimates count over 100,000 people dead and missing and perhaps 2 million homeless.

On May 12, a 7.9 earthquake hit Sichuan province in China. There the death toll has been estimated as high as 50,000.

Christian response

Within hours of both disasters, Christian aid agencies with links to Canada were distributing emergency aid. "Christians have a particular history of compassion," said Dave Toycen, president and CEO of World Vision Canada. "A disproportionate amount of aid comes from churchgoers."

World Vision has about 500 workers in Myanmar, almost all of them indigenous. As far as is known, none were killed in the disaster, but about 100 lost their homes. World Vision supporters sponsor about 41,000 children in Myanmar, and all of them are also thought to be safe.

So far, World Vision staff have assisted about 120,000 people with basic necessities such as rice, blankets, tents and water purification. Some of the supplies were stockpiled by World Vision when weather forecasters first issued warnings of the cyclone. Other supplies were purchased locally afterward. World Vision Canada had hoped to raise $3 million to help 500,000 people. It has already raised over $2 million as well as a $1 million matching grant from the Canadian government.

Unless aid is delivered quickly, disease and privations could kill more people than the original cyclone -- so aid agencies are particularly eager to prevent the "disaster after the disaster," said Toycen.

Of particular concern is that the storm struck the Irrawaddy delta, the country's main rice-growing area, and its largest city, Yangon.

While the cyclone hit a low-lying area, the earthquake hit a more mountainous region in northwest China. World Vision has 700 workers in China and 75,000 sponsored children, including 10,500 sponsored by Canadians. None were in Sichuan province, but World Vision had a warehouse in a neighbouring province and so was able deliver aid quickly to survivors.

Because of the large population and the frequency of natural disasters in China, World Vision also has an emergency response team stationed in Beijing, which was dispatched to Sichuan within 24 hours. World Vision is initially trying to raise $100,000 for China relief.

Local contacts important

The response to these disasters illustrates that relief and development work has changed in a number of ways in recent decades.

First, the Myanmar situation illustrates the importance of having indigenous staff, said Toycen. The military government of Myanmar has been slow to allow foreign aid and foreign aid workers into the country, and World Vision's few expatriate staff in the country have been restricted to the city of Yangon -- but its indigenous workers have been allowed into the hardest hit areas.

Local staff are less expensive, they know the local needs and they sometimes have more personal impact on those they work with, said Toycen. Even the technical experts that World Vision would like to send in to Myanmar are mostly not from Western countries.

Like most relief and development organizations, World Vision has a policy that it will only distribute aid directly to the needy and not through governments. "It is essential to the credibility of our organization" and to "financial accountability to donors," said Toycen. World Vision's agreements with governments such as that of Myanmar recognize this principle.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is another North American-based relief and development organization that has stressed working more closely with local people.

MCC is raising $500,000 for Myanmar relief, as well as donating $100,000 in food aid from its Canadian Foodgrains Bank account. MCC does not currently have staff in Myanmar but distributes its aid through partner agencies who do.

In China, however, MCC had English language teachers assigned to colleges in Sichuan through an agency called Mennonite Partners in China. All are reported safe.

Buy local

Another thing that has changed is that the initial relief supplies, including food and tents, have been purchased in Myanmar and China and sometimes in neighbouring countries. This gets relief aid in more quickly, said Toycen, and with rising oil prices driving up transportation costs, it is also less expensive.

Local food is also often more appropriate and culturally acceptable, said Willie Reimer, director of food, disaster and material resources for MCC.

In the past Western aid was often used to support Western agriculture -- by disposing of food surpluses -- and Western businesses, but that that is changing.

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For instance, the Canadian government used to match donations to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank on a three-to-one basis, but only if Canadian wheat and other grains were shipped to disaster areas. However, a couple of years ago, the government reduced the requirement to 50 percent Canadian grain, and it has now eliminated that requirement altogether.

Disasters don't usually affect an entire country, and other parts of the country are usually capable of providing resources, said Toycen. In the past, shipments of Western food into disaster areas sometimes had the effect of lowering food prices in the country or region, undermining the local economy and reducing the ability of the region to feed itself in the future.

But Toycen said there are still times when it makes sense to import food from the West. For instance, the current needs in Myanmar are so great and the disruption of local agriculture so serious that food will likely have to be shipped in this time.

Focus on development

The focus has also shifted from disaster relief to development work.

World Vision puts much more money and effort into development work than relief, said Toycen, which is one of the other reasons why World Vision works with local development committees, composed of equal numbers of men and women.

World Vision's goal is to stay in an area for only 15 to 20 years and then move on, leaving the local community to carry on the work. This is achieved not only through encouraging the development of education, health care and local business but through giving poor people hope that they can make a difference on their own. The goal is "a changed community."

Toycen said World Vision is especially concerned about children, because they are often the first to get sick, and they dehydrate quickly. Even without more serious diseases such as cholera, in a tropical climate, they can die quickly of simple diarrhea. This makes the provision of water purification crucial.

In Myanmar and China, World Vision has also set up child-safe "friendly spaces" where children can just be children. Like "Nyo Mynt", a Myanmar teenager whose story is profiled on the World Vision website, many have lost their parents and other family members.

In the name of Christ

Another change is that relief and development aid is not as closely tied to evangelism efforts. The goal is of World Vision's aid is not to convert people but "to love the people unconditionally because God loves them," said Toycen.

On the other hand, World Vision does not hide the fact that it is a Christian agency and registers with local governments that way. He noted that some countries World Vision works in are less Christian than Canada, but some are more Christian.

MCC also makes its Christian basis "as clear up front as we can," said Reimer. He noted that in China MCC is distributing aid through Christian churches. The Christian church there is much more vigorous and accepted than the Christian church in Myanmar.

There has been a marked difference in how the governments of China and Myanmar have responded to their disasters. Toycen and Reimer noted that the Chinese government has been "very open," quickly asking for outside aid and allowing foreign media and relief agencies into the disaster area. This is much different than the way the Chinese government responded to similar disasters some decades ago.

On the other hand, the government of Myanmar has been much more suspicious of foreign assistance. While the mainstream media have been quite critical of the Myanmar government, the relief agencies merely say they hope the Myanmar government will also be open to aid.

World Vision called for 15 minutes of global prayer for the disaster areas on May 15, and on May 19, World Vision was allowed to deliver its first aid shipment and five foreign relief experts into Myanmar. "The pipeline is open, and we're very encouraged," said Toycen.

A time of tribulation

Toycen said there is no doubt that the number of environmental disasters is increasing. "Ten years ago, we averaged about 100 a year. In the last few years, the number is about 500," he said.

Reimer agreed that weather-related disasters are more severe and that droughts are more frequent and last longer.

Both related the increase to climate change and global warming. Toycen was cautious about suggestions that these disasters might be signs of the end times. "There have been great climate changes in history before, and Jesus didn't come back," he said.

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Beginning May 15, the Canadian government has promised to match all donations for disaster relief in Myanmar and China. World Vision and MCC are just two of many Canadian Christian agencies accepting donations. Others include:

1. The Anglican Relief & Development Fund
2. Power to Change's Global Aid Network
3. The Salvation Army
4. The United Church of Canada
5. Canadian Food for the Hungry International
6. Orphan's Hope
7. Intercede International
8. Christian Reformed World Relief Committee Canada
9. Christian Blind Mission Canada
10. Partners International

    May 22/2008