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SINGAPORE: The Singapore Red Cross (SRC) has sent an additional tranche of humanitarian aid to provide urgent relief to the communities affected by last month’s earthquake in Myanmar, the organisation said in a news release on Thursday (Apr 10).
The latest tranche includes supplies like hygiene kits for families, women’s hygiene kits, jerrycans for the collection and storage of clean water, plastic mats, mosquito nets and tarpaulins.
The supplies are expected to support about 8,000 households across the regions affected by the quake, SRC said.
The organisation also dispatched about 300 water filters to regions such as Mandalay and Sagaing to improve access to clean drinking water, as well as nearly 900 solar-powered lights to support communities without power.
“Together, these contributions are worth an estimated S$550,000 (US$410,000), and are expected to benefit around 80,000 persons,” SRC said.
More than 3,000 people were killed in Myanmar after the powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the country on Mar 28, with tremors felt hundreds of kilometres away in the Thai capital Bangkok.
Thousands more were injured while hundreds are still missing. Strong rains, destroyed infrastructure and an ongoing civil war have complicated relief efforts.
SRC said a three-person team – comprising two SRC staff members and one volunteer – is now in Yangon to assess the situation and to coordinate further relief efforts.
The team is also working closely with the Myanmar Red Cross (MRC), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to identify urgent needs and determine how SRC can best support the affected communities.
To support the Singapore Emergency Medical Team (SGEMT) deployed last week, SRC worked with their Myanmar counterparts to deploy local volunteers and two ambulances to transfer patients between the SGEMT field hospital near Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw and Mandalay General Hospital.
SRC has also been working with the Changi Regional HADR Coordination Centre (Changi RHCC) and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) as well as non-governmental organisations such as MRC, Mercy Relief and Relief Singapore to consolidate humanitarian aid from Singapore and send it to Myanmar.
Since the earthquake, two shipments of aid have been sent to Myanmar – one on a Changi RHCC flight, which included the SRC water filters, and another on an AHA Centre flight that included more water filters and solar-powered lights – SRC said.
The latest tranche follows an earlier contribution of S$150,000 towards quake relief efforts, which addressed immediate needs in the aftermath of the disaster.
A total of 90 water filters already pre-positioned in Myanmar were also deployed to quake-affected areas.
Besides humanitarian aid, SRC also supported affected communities by setting up two walk-in “safe spaces” at Red Cross House to provide psychosocial and mental health support to Myanmar and Thai nationals residing in Singapore whose families were affected by the disaster.
“Trained SRC volunteers were also on standby to share about ‘Restoring Family Links’, a tracing service to assist Singapore residents to locate their immediate family members who may have been affected by the disaster with whom they have difficulty in contacting,” said the organisation.
The SRC’s public fundraising appeal for those affected by the quake has so far raised more than S$2.7 million, with contributions from both the Singapore government and members of the public, the organisation added.
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