PRESS RELEASE

May 23, 2008

$250,000 raised for Myanmar reaching remote areas

TEAR Fund NZ has raised more than $250,000 and through its partner based in Myanmar, has assisted more than 40,000 children men and women in Yangon and Ayerayawaddy regions.

Despite the difficulties of getting aid into Myanmar, TEAR Fund’s aid partner helped to distribute 80 tonnes of rice as well as other commodities such as beans oil, salt fish and instant noodles in the fist week of the disaster, in Bogale Township, Yangon Division and Ayerayawaddy Division.

“The fact that aid was being delivered immediately is a testament to the resourcefulness of aid agencies working inside Myanmar and to the generosity of TEAR Fund supporters who continued to give despite negative reports that aid wasn’t getting through,” said TEAR Fund NZ executive director Stephen Tollestrup

TEAR Fund’s partner has been involved in supplying emergency shelter, essential non-food items such as distilled water, candles, tarpaulins, oral rehydration salts and mosquito nets, chlorine-based household water purification treatments and providing generators to provide electricity for pumping of water from safe wells. In Bogale Township, Yangon Division, TEAR Fund’s partner also worked alongside mobile medical teams providing first aid and surgical care.

Reports from the field show that despite the tragedy the people are resilient and in many of the remote village areas TEAR Fund’s partner has visited, the villagers didn’t imagine they would get help from outside, said Mr Tollestrup.

In addition to the emergency response, TEAR Fund’s partner is taking a long-term approach to the tragedy and has begun to use money to help the Burmese people buy building materials, salt resistant rice seed, fertiliser and other essential agricultural tools to aid the recovery of Myanmar.

ENDS

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