Myanmar  >  Our action · Humanitarian situation · Photos · Viewpoints· Previous actions

Our humanitarian action

Far South Delta

Type of intervention: Livelihoods

Number of beneficiaries: 3,200 households (15,000 people in 25 villages)

The Irrawady Delta is a relatively hostile natural environment, with limited opportunities for livelihood development. It suffered one of the largest natural disasters in world history in 2008 when cyclone Nargis killed approximately 140,000 people, thus fully exacerbating the pre-existing conditions of the area.
Solidarités International has developed 17 projects in the past three years with either donors, and has recently completed our flagship project aiming at strengthening the livelihoods of resource-poor households in this remote area.

Activities:

• Increasing 1.000 farmer households rice-self provisioning ability by at least one month

Provision of 100 buffalos, tillage tool sets, power tillers, training on improved cultivation techniques, rat control campaign, setting up of demonstration plots, construction of 6 storm resistant storage facilities for paddy seeds

• Developing at least one supplementary source of food and income for 1.000 vulnerable households whose main livelihood was not farming

On-the-job training, workshops, start up kits, training on pig, duck raising as well as provision of piglets and ducklings, training on crab farming, support small-scale fishery and employment of local boat builders and provision of sets of fishing gear

• Receiving immediate cash-earning opportunities for 1.200 vulnerable households for minimum 15 days

Cash for work to build new ponds, rehabilitate village roads and support monsoon paddy cultivation

Chin State

Area of intervention: Kanpetlet Township

Type of intervention: Food security and agriculture

Number of beneficiaries: 10.000 people

Chin State is one of the poorest and most isolated areas of Myanmar, and Kanpetlet Township is the most remote and poor of Chin State's eight Townships. The population of Kanpetlet gets the majority of its income from slash-and-burn agriculture, still practice archery hunting, and have minimal external trade of any sort.  They earn barely enough to survive with most families never having more than 5kg of rice in personal reserves. Since 2008, the Township has been massively infested by rats in a devastating natural phenomena which occurs every 48 years called the Mautam. This phenomena is related to the blossoming of a particular bamboo which attracts scores of rats -however this usually only lasts one season. Due to a plethora of natural and man-made reasons, this infestion has not slowed down for the past 4 years and has resulted in a crop, seed stock and food disaster leading to a food security crisis. SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL is responding with a complementary two-fold approach in these 58 villages, first providing food through WFP (donated by Canada), and then with an agriculture and rat control program funded by France’s CIAA assistance.

Activities:

• Food distribution for 1,800 vulnerable households during lean period/hunger gap: Distribution of basic food rations during 3 months for the most affected households (In many cases, villagers walk up to 3 days to the nearest distribution points).

• Improvement of  self food production for 1.600 households: Rice and corn seeds distribution, rat trap distribution, rehabilitation of roads in isolated villages to improve acces to food and markets is planned.

• Food Security monitoring  and sharing of the infos with other humanitarian actors as SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL is the only INGO in the remote Township.
• "Food for work" - initially targeting 400 households, to help control the rat population
  
  

Rakhine State, Myebon Township

Intervention area: Myebon Township
Number of beneficiaries: 10.200 people

Reconstruction and refurbishment of Shelters for Cyclone Giri affected communities.

Cyclone Giri hit Rakhine State on October 22nd  2010 affecting 260.000 people.
In January 2011, SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL led a joint assessment to determine that approximately 20.000 houses were destroyed and 31.000 damaged, primarily affecting Myebon and Kyauk Pyu Townships, for a total of 1/3 of the total households being affected. The situation appears even more alarming in this remote area, as the communities' livelihoods were already traditionally fragile.

The main objective of this program is to support cyclone affected communities in the coastal areas to recover the means to shelter and protect themselves during the upcoming monsoon, while raising awareness and knowledge of shelter related Disaster Risk Reduction (“DRR”).

• Provision of 475 shelter retrofitting packages to the most vulnerable households (materials and tools).
• Construction of 300 bamboo shelters
  

• Construction of 120 timber houses for the vulnerable families who couldn’t otherwise rebuild themselves. Identification, training and provision of toolkits and construction materials to 20 carpenters identified in target villages, including self-retrofitting by beneficiaries with technical support from DRR skilled carpenters.
  

• Provision of 600 cash grants to provide families with capital to self repair their homes.

• Disaster resilient shelter construction awareness training (3 sessions per village for 8 villages)
  

Type of intervention: Livelihoods (Agriculture and Fisheries)
Number of beneficiaries: 4.000 households
Intervention area: Myebon Township

Cyclone Giri hit Rakhine State on 22 October 2010 with total damage affecting 260.000 people. In terms of food security, substantial destructions of paddy lands and fisheries have caused lot of damages; especially because last October’s harvest was wiped out due to the cyclone just as the harvest was ready to provide enough food for the year to come. The food-producing gap is therefore very important in this area.
To assist the situation, Solidarites International is supporting livelihoods recovery of the marginal economies for one full seasonal cycle.

• “Cash for work program” - restructuring projects such as embankment repairs works -for 3,000 workers in 14 villages so they receive financial resources
• Distribution of rice seeds for 1,265 farmers (through a voucher system), to be able to grow paddies by the next rainy season
• Distribution of nets and boats for fishery recover for 740 beneficiaries so they are able to resume their activities by August 2011
• "Food for work" - More than 2,560 people working on embankment repair.

Dry Zone

WASH - Social Water Management

Number of beneficiaries: 1.400 people
Intervention area: Dry zone

The Dry Zone area is one of the more critical areas in Myanmar where the fragile ecosystem (a result of natural and human behavior) has had adverse effects on household food security. The government are underlining the need for INGOs and donors to focus on this area, and the rearby areas surrounding their new capital of Naypyidaw.
Along with the problem of insufficient water for crop production, scarcity of water endangers the health and welfare of the population. Water resources in the villages cannot support the whole population during the dry season. The lack of safe water for both domestic use and livelihoods development is one of the most important factors behind seasonal migration.
The most common consequences are households travelling long distances during hours to fetch water, as well as the economic migrations outside of the area during the dry season.

This project is in a consortium with GRET (a technical French NGO) with individual programs but under a complementary approach. The main objective of the SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL portion of the program is to support livelihoods in 2 townships in the Dry Zone throught sustainable exploitation and management of natural resources.

Activities:

• Creation and training of 10 Water User Groups, indirectly reaching 3,000 people.

• Soil and water conservation activities, rehab of village tracks, and rehab of community rainwater catchment facilities for approximately 4,005 indirect beneficiaries.

• Domestic rainwater collection systems and home gardeningfor 1,125 indirect beneficiaries.

Update : June 2011