Local relief effort underway for Myanmar

Water-borne diseases may multiply the 100,000-plus Myanmar cyclone deaths by 10 to 20 times, according to a coalition of American-Burmese seeking to raise more than $100,000 in funds — to be matched by a foundation grant.

The main fundraising effort is under the Charitable Alliance of Burmese Americans (CABA), with matching funds from the B.K. Kee Foundation, both based in Burlingame.

“This was the saddest thing,” CABA President Benny Tan said of the May 2 cyclone during an interview with the Weekly, in a swing through Palo Alto Wednesday.

He said while it was initially difficult to get in with aid avenues are now opening.

“But more disasters are coming,” he warned, because of exposure to polluted water that gives rise to cholera — and with the loss of shelter from the cyclone, many Burmese are living in the open, where they are prey to mosquito-borne malaria and dengue fever.

In addition, huge areas of rice paddies have been inundated with seawater, destroying this year’s rice crop in its infancy and likely taking years to restore, Tan said.

Because farming in Burma is not mechanized and depends on domestic animal labor, animal deaths due to the cyclone present a challenge for future farming and increase the likelihood of food shortages and famine, Tan said.

Some human and animal bodies remain floating in river water used by Burmese for their daily needs, Tan said, emphasizing that the water pollution poses grave health risks for cyclone survivors.

Increasing access to clean water and distributing chlorine tablets, food, tarps, plastic sheeting, ropes, buckets, mosquito nets and medicine are CABA’s main goals in the cyclone’s aftermath, according to a document from CABA to the Weekly.

“We try to be on the ground and do whatever we can with the limits of what we can do,” Tan said. A mechanical engineer from University of California at Berkeley, he has devoted his retirement to Burmese aid.

“This is the window of opportunity for Burmese to raise funds for our own people, and CABA is set up to do that,” he said.

CABA’s allies in the aid effort include the Burmese American Professionals Society, whose president, Daniel Maung, was present in the Wednesday meeting with the Palo Alto Weekly.

A third member of the coalition, Ashin Nanikabhivamsa, a monk clad in a long, rust-colored robe from the Mettandanda Vihara Buddhist Monastery in Fremont, said the International Burmese Monks Organization is accepting funds to help cyclone victims.

Buddhist temples in Myanmar are a chief source of aid in the disaster’s aftermath, Maung, Tan and Nanikabhivamsa agreed.

Maung is focusing his immediate efforts on a Peninsula fair to raise money for cyclone relief — the Myanmar Cyclone Relief Food Fair and Charity Drive — will be held Saturday, May 31, 3 to 8 p.m. at Serramonte Del Ray, 699 Serramonte Blvd., Daly City. Traditional Burmese foods, including crispy gourd fritters, onion fritters, curry chicken noodle salad, donuts, samosa salad and coconut soup, will be served.

All proceeds will be donated to cyclone disaster victims, according to Maung.

To donate to the Charitable Alliance of Burmese Americans and have the donation matched by the B.K. Kee Foundation, send a check noting the “B.K. Kee Foundation” in the memo line to Charitable Alliance of Burmese Americans, P.O. Box 1786, Burlingame, CA 94011-1786.

The International Burmese Monks Organization Web site is at http://www.burmesemonks.org .