Urgent Aid for Earthquake Victims in Mandalay, Myanmar

As many of you know, I lived in Mandalay, Myanmar in 2019/20 while working with the local government on sustainable waste management as a Fulbright Scholar (GoFundMe wants me to validate myself!). Mandalay was one of the areas hardest hit by the recent earthquake. The destruction is vast, with the quake having toppled large condo buildings and modest family homes, alike, along with countless pagodas, mosques, monasteries, schools, and businesses. People with means have been able to flee to other areas that were less affected, but in Mandalay – typically a bustling city of nearly 1.5 million – many people are now living unsheltered with no water or electricity. Most stores remain shut. No medication is available. ATMs have just started working again since the quake hit.

I finally spoke to a friend last night who I had feared dead, as he had been celebrating Ramadan in a mosque (as many were) for the mid-day call to prayer when the quake hit. He shared his horrific experience inside when it happened – bodies and injured babies and mothers all around him, the survivors with only their bare hands to try to pull people out from under the rubble. Another friend shared pictures of his destroyed family home and his buried brother-in-law being rescued. Medical care was already limited and is now even harder to come by.

My friend Ali – the one who was in the mosque – and his family of sisters, nieces, and nephews are now sleeping on the side of the road in a village on the outskirts of the city. Every day, Ali – who was already struggling as a full-time tuk-tuk driver with the loss of tourism during the pandemic and under the military regime – drives his tuk-tuk back and forth into the city daily just to get some purified drinking water, rice, and eggs, which is all they are consuming. He said the few stores that remain open have been price-gauging. People have no clean water to bathe in and are all using the same polluted water; it's a matter of time before water-borne illness proliferates. It's the middle of the hot season in Mandalay, the dry zone, which means an average daily high of about 100*F.

I could go on and on about the suffering of the Myanmar people and how cosmically awful it is that they should have to suffer this triple whammy of a pandemic (which decimated the economy); the military coup (with all of its violence, destruction, and ongoing compulsory drafts of unwilling young men); and now a devastating earthquake. People want to leave, but the options are extremely limited, in some cases even after people make it across the Thai border.

I am fundraising for my friend Ali and his affected family members (all of whom are now homeless) as well as for my friend Naing and his young wife, child, and entire family that lost their home and were injured in Mandalay. Funds raised will be split and sent via electronic transfer directly from my account to each of these two friends for their shelter, food, water, and medical needs, and a small surplus beyond that split will be made as a donation to an organization that has an existing grassroots network to deliver aid locally, including for small towns and villages that are harder to access. [See Better Burma: https://www.betterburma.org/ ]

Anyone who’s lived in or even visited Myanmar will tell you that the people are some of the kindest and most selfless in the world – it is steeped into their culture. They are just as deserving of peace and security as any of us. These natural disasters – as well as political ones – remind me that both life and society are fragile. Vulnerability is our condition on Earth, but we can choose how we treat one another and lean into our interdependence in the midst of these uncertainties.

With Love and gratitude,

Emily

မစန္ဒာဦး

(Ma Sandar Oo)