Experience shared by a MSF volunteer in Myanmar

Since cyclone Nargis hit the delta region in Myanmar on May 3, over 250 MSF staff has been working round the clock to provide medical aid and distribute food and shelter to the survivors. On May 21, a senior MSF doctor who has just returned to Yangon from working in the Delta gave an account of his experiences.

On the 6th of May I left Yangon and a day later I arrived on the west bank of the delta region.

When we arrived at the main island, the first thing I saw was that the jetty, where we would normally land our boat, was totally destroyed, so we had to get out of our boat and carry all our medical kits, equipment, bags of rice etc through around a meter and a half of water. There were people standing around the destroyed jetty and waiting in their houses, with no roofs.

One day in particular has stuck in my mind. Our team (made up of 22 people) got up at 4:30 in the morning and we loaded everything onto the boat. That day there was a lot of rain and it was very difficult for us to reach the village. We got there at 6:00am and I could see dead bodies around the river and nearly all the trees, including the very strong coconut trees, were on the ground. The trees that were still standing didn't have any branches left - they looked like skeletons. And the houses, they also looked like skeletons.

When we arrived there we unloaded everything and set up our clinic. Some of us went round doing an assessment of what people needed most and we talked to the village leader and the monks at the monastery. We collected the numbers of families that had survived and then we started a distribution of food (rice, cooking oil, cans of fish, beans) and shelter (plastic sheeting, buckets, soap and cooking equipment). We eventually covered around 600-700 households. At about 7:00 in the evening we finished for the day and went back to our clinic.

In the first two days after the cyclone, the people here who had survived took shelter in the monastery. They tried to repair their houses and they built roofs with coconut leaves, but it's not enough. All they had to eat during those first few days were some coconuts and wood from the coconut trees.

Throughout the delta region all the MSF teams are working really hard. After two weeks, some of them are getting tired - physically and also mentally of course. For many of our Burmese staff, it is the first time they see so many dead bodies, their first time in a post-disaster scenario like this. So some of them feel a bit shocked. But during their work, they forget to be sad - they just work and work and work. They are very motivated. 

Personally, when I saw people who didn't have medical care or food or shelter I felt sad. But then, sometimes I felt like, OK, we're working for them and I feel happy because we can help.

Most of the health problems that we are seeing are infected wounds, fevers and diarrhoea. Most of the wounds are from cuts; people were cut by wood and bamboo and also by the nails that have come out of housing materials.

I particularly remember one man and his wife. I consulted them for their small cut wounds and as I talked to them they told me their story. They survived the disaster, but unfortunately their three year old baby died. When the storm hit and the water level came up they were still all three together and they tried to survive themselves. The storm lasted 6 to 8 hours. In the middle of the storm, after 3 or 4 hours, the man said to his wife, "I cannot save you because I have to save the baby". The mother said, "OK, take the child and save her". The man said that he carried the girl on his shoulders and he swam and swam and swam and after three hours he told his child, " I cannot save you any more because otherwise we both will die". So he lost his child… he had to leave his child. The mother found a piece of wood or something and she stayed alive. And they saw each other again in the refugee camp. They cried in front of me - we all cried. There are many people like this."