Relief in Myanmar

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a major natural disaster.

A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Myanmar last week, toppling buildings and trapping thousands beneath the rubble. As of Sunday, more than 3,500 people were confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Myanmar is one of the world’s poorest countries, also caught in civil war while facing the worst natural disaster in years. This comes amid a debate over foreign aid and the best way to deliver it.

Here’s WORLD’s Mary Muncy.

MARY MUNCY: An aid worker walks through a hospital tent in Myanmar. He shares a video of one woman’s story with WORLD.

She talks about her house falling and her injuries. The earthquake damaged the main hospital in the city, so she sits outside under a makeshift tent, next to rows of other injured people.

The aid worker gives her enough cash to pay for her medical bills and moves on to the next injured person.

DANIEL: The smell of death is, in some areas, is very pungent. And who knows when those buildings will be cleared?

Daniel lives in the U.S. but has been helping run a Christian aid mission in Myanmar since 2007. WORLD is using a pseudonym for him to protect his organization from security threats.

Daniel says the civil war means there’s no infrastructure in place to help people.

DANIEL: They're still uncovering bodies in in the rubble, and there's still thousands of houses that have been collapsed, and there's nothing. There's no equipment there, no teams there, no dog, you know, dogs to sniff out bodies.

In other words, things that the government would normally provide or coordinate. And there are very few people in the country who are in a position to donate to relief efforts.

DANIEL: There's no such thing as insurance like that over there, they don't have government programs like Social Security or Medicare, Medicaid or welfare or anything like that. So if people need help, they get it from their family.

The day after the earthquake hit, the military invited foreign nations to bring in aid, something Daniel didn’t expect. When Cyclone Nargis hit in 2008, it took weeks for the government at the time to ask for international assistance.

DANIEL: They basically said ‘we don't need any help. We can handle it ourselves.’

Daniel and others believe the junta asked for help this time because it’s weaker… and the earthquake hit some of its main military bases.

So far, China, Russia, India, and private aid organizations that were already in the country have started helping people, and more are now pitching in.

Three USAID workers deployed to the area a few days after the earthquake to assess the need, but according to an ex-USAID official, they received layoff notices while in the country.

Even so, the U.S. has committed $2 million dollars through the State Department to aid efforts, though some Congress members say if USAID had not been shrunk, the U.S. would’ve had rescue teams on the ground.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio rebutted those claims last week.

MARCO RUBIO: It’s not the easiest place to work, okay? They have a military junta that doesn’t like us, doesn’t necessarily allow us to operate in that country the way we wanted to. That would have impeded our response no matter what.

Other countries confirmed to have teams on the ground in Myanmar are friendly to the military junta.

Rubio says the U.S. is committed to helping relief efforts around the world, but that the Trump administration is trying to do it more efficiently.

RUBIO: We're not going to fund these global NGOs all over the world that are living off of this. We're not doing it. We are prepared to help them work with governments and appropriate NGOs on the ground that are delivering assistance.

Globally, the U.S. government gives more foreign aid than any country in the world…some of those funds have traditionally flowed through USAID.

RUBIO: There are a lot of other rich countries in the world, they should all be pitching in. We’re going to do our part. We already have people there, we’ll have more people there. We’ll help as much as we can.

In 2023, USAID reported in its yearly report that it spent about 25 percent of its funds on disaster relief. Expenditures totaling about $900 million dollars around the world. It says that money went to things like rapid response teams, food, water, and hygiene. Some worry that without the agency on the ground, those things won’t happen.

But often USAID worked through large non-profits like the Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse. And so far, it seems those other organizations are filling the gap.

BROCK KREITZBURG: They've done a lot of great work around-around the world.

Brock Kreitzburg is the senior director of Water Mission, which has teams on the ground in Myanmar.

KREITZBURG: We've always shared communication, shared information with with USAID and so you know that piece of coordination and information isn't there, but that is made up by other relationships that we have with organizations.

Kreitzburg says USAID’s absence hasn’t affected them so far, but he’s not sure if that will continue.

Aid director Daniel says back in Myanmar the need may be much greater than what’s being reported. Right now, journalists are not allowed into the country, and Daniel says there’s no accountability.

DANIEL: I mean, they're, they're making a show of, you know, some of the bigger buildings, the bigger high rises and stuff in Mandalay. If you look at what they're doing and not what they're saying, you know, they're putting a lot of effort into finding the any monks that were, you know, covered in the rubble after the earthquake, and they're putting a lot of effort into cleaning and clearing out the temples of the monasteries and the pagodas.

Marte Nilsen with Peace Research Institute Oslo told WORLD in an email that she’s heard the same reports. She says in Theravada Buddhism, there’s a lot of merit in restoring a temple, meaning those people get good karma, and thus power.

The junta and monks are also closely aligned.

DANIEL: Military families, government families, religious families, you know, people that have connections to the more powerful monks. Those are the people that are going to get help. Those are the buildings that are going to get rebuilt.

The warring parties declared a ceasefire, but Nilsen and Daniel say both sides are still been dropping bombs.

Right now, people are sleeping in the street because their homes are unsafe, but as more bodies are retrieved, and people become desperate, many will move to relief camps. Daniel says no one is thinking about rebuilding, at least not right now.

DANIEL: I can imagine five years from now, walking through Mandalay and most of those houses will still be damaged from this earthquake, the ones that haven't fallen down by then.

For now, Daniel and his organization are praying for peace.

DANIEL: He can bring Beauty from Ashes. That's my prayer that the Lord would use this tragedy to bring out some good for the country.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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