Sayadaw Kawvida, the abbot of Sankyaung Monastery in Bogalay, sighs and shakes his head as he ponders the uncertainties that lie ahead for the more than 100 refugees who have been staying at his monastery since Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3.
“I’m afraid their main source of food has almost disappeared,” he says sadly. “There are fewer and fewer private donors coming these days.”
The abbot is not alone in his concern about the declining number of private donors. Other shelters for displaced storm victims are also facing an increasingly precarious situation, now that the flow of food and other necessities that has sustained them for the past month has slowed to a trickle.
The vast majority of refugees interviewed said that they hoped to continue receiving aid from private donors, as they felt they had been completely neglected by the country’s ruling military regime.
There are already several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the area, but refugees say they fear that the junta’s inflexibility will force them to leave, too.
For many cyclone survivors, the private donors who came to help them deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis did more than just provide food and clothing.
By coming and sharing what they had, they were more like caring relatives than aid workers. By speaking with the cyclone victims and listening to their stories, they also provided much-needed counseling to help them deal with the shock of their loss.
“It’s not only food that they need,” said one monk who has cared for thousands of refugees at Kyaikhamwan Pagoda in Pyapon. “They also need smiling faces that can heal their pain to some extent.”
Khin San Myint, a Pyapon resident who lost her five-year-old son and all of her property in the cyclone, said she would have gone mad if not for the words of consolation she received from donors.
“When they asked me, ‘How are you, Ama [madam]?’ I felt some relief from the pain of my loss,” the forty-two year old woman said.
But now the storm victims are seeing fewer private donors, and they are not sure if local NGOs will be able to do much to help them.
Observers say that many private donors have been discouraged from continuing with their relief efforts by obstacles created by local authorities.
Donors say that they have to pay unfair fees to use roads and bridges to transport goods to the delta. They also complain of being subjected to interrogation at checkpoints along the way.
In some cases, donors’ vehicles have been turned back or seized by local authorities, while other donors have been forced to exchange their goods for products of inferior quality.
A volunteer for the local NGO Myanmar Egress reported that last week, en route to Laputta, the group was stopped at a checkpoint and forced to hand over sacks of high-quality rice in exchange for low-quality rice.
“They [local authorities] told us that if we did not obey their order, we would have to go back right away,” the volunteer said. “We had no alternative.”
Some private donors have also complained that their goods were confiscated after they tried to bypass the checkpoints.
Even some popular monks, including Sitagu Sayadaw U Nyanissara, have had to deal with harassment by local authorities.
In the third week of May, two trucks loaded with sacks of rice donated to the revered monk for distribution to cyclone victims were stopped for inspection at the checkpoint near Panhlaing Bridge, which links Rangoon to the delta. Police said that only one truck would be permitted to pass, and the other would have to be impounded.
While many observers attribute the sudden decline in the number of private donors in the delta to official obstruction, others note that there are also economic reasons for the change.
One economic analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that middle-class donors have probably done as much as they can afford to do.
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