Updated Thursday, May 08, 2008

N.C. Baptists on way to assess needs in Myanmar

From staff reports

A North Carolina Baptist Men's assessment team of two is on its way to Thailand to seek visas to enter devastated Myanmar.

If they are able to get in, they will survey damage and assess ways North Carolina Baptists might respond, according to Richard Brunson, N.C. Baptist Men's executive director.

The N.C. Baptist team will meet with an international Baptist disaster relief team that has been organized by Hungarian Baptist Aid (HB Aid). The international team will have members from Hungary, Australia and North Carolina.

Team members are attempting to get visas to go into Myanmar from Thailand. This team has medical personnel, water purification equipment, disaster volunteers and other needed equipment and supplies.

N.C. Baptist Men have also contacted Baptist Global Response (BGR) to let that group know that N.C. Baptists want to help in Myanmar. BGR is also working to try to get aid to the country.

The international team in Thailand is seeking to assist victims of the cyclone and its resulting flooding in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and renamed in 1989. This team will assess the needs on the ground and contact Baptist World Alliance, which already has committed $50,000 in aid.

Baptists in Norway, Sweden, Canada and Britain have pledged their assistance. Baptists in Virginia also are readying teams to enter Myanmar, if permitted.

Three national conventions in the United States, American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the Baptist General Conference (BGC) are putting plans in place to respond. "We will be responding to this request. Funds will be forwarded to help," BGC said in response to the appeal put out by BWAid for contributions to its Emergency Response Fund.

His Nets, a charity that provides mosquito nets to help prevent the spread of malaria, has offered its assistance through BWAid.

Relief aid to Myanmar will be accomplished through the Myanmar Baptist Convention, the largest in Asia with more than 1.1 million believers, most of whom belong to marginalized and oppressed ethnic groups such as the Karen, Chin, and Kachin.

Nyaw Simon, a Myanmar refugee living in Canada, appealed for assistance for her country. "Please help Burma in anyway you can... Burmese people are strong and courageous in the midst of many hardships," said the daughter of Saw Simon, founder and principal for the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College in the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border. Saw Simon received the BWA Human Rights Award in 2000, for his work among refugees from Myanmar who fled their country due to oppression by the military government. "I hope Burma will rise up again someday," Nyaw Simon said.

Myanmar experienced a destructive cyclone that hit the Southeast Asian country May 3, killing an estimated 22,000 people, generating fears that the death toll will rise above 100,000 as tens of thousands more are missing. Large areas of the country are heavily flooded.

Among the immediate needs of those affected by the cyclone and the flooding are for clean drinking water, nonperishable food, blankets and medical kits.

Donations to the Myanmar relief effort may be made to the BWAid Emergency Response Fund at www.bwanet.org/bwaid or sent to: Emergency Response Fund, Baptist World Aid, 405 North Washington Street, Falls Church, VA 22046.

Checks designated for Myanmar disaster relief can also be sent to: NC Baptist Men, PO Box 1107, Cary, NC 27512.