What would you do if you lost everything? Imagine a 20 foot wall of water rushing through your home while you slept and somehow you survive by clinging to a tree. What would you do? Who would you turn to? A neighbor? Family? Your local place of worship? Well, what if everyone in a 80 to 100 mile radius was in the same situation as you? Imagine if it were you?
“Her mother died in her arms in the boat,” said Davis, a Martinez native. “She’s in her 50s. She lost her two children, her mother, her grandchildren. She’s the only one left. And there’s a lot of people in these kinds of situations.”
Or…
“In my entire life, I have never seen a hospital. I don’t know where the government office is. I can’t buy anything in the market because I lost everything to the cyclone,” said Thi Dar. “So I came to the monk.”
With tears welling in her eyes, the 45-year-old woman pressed her hands together in respect before the first monk she saw at Sitagu’s clinic and told her story. The other eight members of her family were killed in the cyclone. She now felt suicidal but no longer had anyone to talk with.
That’s the reality on the ground in Myanmar (Burma) today. People are struggling to survive and at the same time looking at what they can do to rebuild their lives. But, when you start from having nothing, you need everything: clothes, shelter, farming implements, animals to pull a plow (and fertilize your land), seeds. When a police official or soldier might make $15 a month and someone with a Masters degree might make $50, the future can seem awfully daunting. What would you do?
For the surviving children, ideas for the future might be to work hard in studies and get a good job so they can take care of their families and build a better life in the future. Today (June 2nd) is the first day of the new school year in Myanmar. No one knows how many schools have been destroyed in the storm. But even when they are rebuilt, many families will not have enough money to send their children to school. That’s the reality of the future for many children in Myanmar, unless enough people reach out and help.
Tags: Burma, children, education, Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar
