8 May 2008

27,000 Red Cross volunteers in Myanmar and millions around the world are the first to provide vital assistance when disasters strike

Today, on World Red Cross Red Crescent day, thousands of Myanmar Red Cross volunteers are working around the clock to help people affected by the cyclone. The Red Cross and Red Crescent community commends their valiant efforts in the wake of such a terrible tragedy.

“As with similar disasters local Red Cross staff and volunteers are also affected,” said Bridget Gardner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ head of delegation in Myanmar.

Local volunteers – fluent in the local language, culture, and landscape – can often be overlooked and considered dispensable. Time and time again, however, they are the ones on the front lines, saving lives, preventing diseases, and rebuilding communities after the wake of tragedy.

“In Yangon many [Red Cross volunteers] lost their roofs, have no access to running water and nobody in Yangon has electricity unless they have a functioning generator and can afford the high price of fuel. The situation in the delta is of course much more tragic with thousands of people still missing,” she added.

According to latest reports from state media as many as 22,500 people have died, with an additional 41,000 reported missing.

Estimates show that 95 per cent of houses in the affected delta region are destroyed, and more than one million people are homeless.

The International Federation has a small delegation based in Yangon and has relief workers arriving in country, with the first arriving on 6 May and two more expected to arrive this week.

As more international aid groups arrive in Myanmar, it is important to remember the accomplishments by the thousands of local volunteers who have been there since the storm hit and who will be there as the long road to recovery begins.

For further information, please contact:
Allison Ali, Information Officer
– 1-868-624-1557/627-2665;
e-mail: allison.ali@ifrc.org