Updated Friday, May 23, 2008

BWA, Samaritan's Purse make inroads to assist storm survivors

Associated Baptist Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, is working through six relief camps in cyclone-devastated Burma (also known as Myanmar), while a United States-based organization readies an airlift to earthquake-shocked China.

BWAid Rescue24, a search, rescue and relief effort, is working through the Myanmar Baptist Convention and one of its smaller entities, the Karen Baptist Convention, to minister to displaced individuals in camps near Yangon, Burma's largest city and former capital.

The team reported that "the assistance is literally saving lives at this point, with situations of widespread diarrhea, and serious electricity and water shortages."

With the total death toll at 134,000, team members noted the cyclone had devastated rice fields and agricultural animals, virtually wiping out future food sources.

Fishing, another major food source in the stricken Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma, also has been **brought to a standstill.

The high death toll has hindered burial efforts. As a result, many bodies have been thrown into rivers. Locals are reluctant to fish in contaminated waters.

Baptists in Myanmar were among those hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country May 2-3. More than 10,000 Myanmar Baptists died, according to BWA, with some 94,000 additional members suffering property loss. Many church buildings were destroyed, and the convention's headquarters in Yangon was badly damaged.

The Myanmar Baptist Convention organized a cyclone relief committee to assist with relief efforts.

Meanwhile, U.S.-based Samaritan's Purse has chartered a plane to take supplies to Chengdu, China. That city is the largest in the Sichuan region, devastated by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck May 12. As of May 22, according to official statistics, it had killed 51,151 people and injured 288,431. Nearly 30,000 remained missing.

The organization, founded by evangelist Billy Graham's son, Franklin, plans to airlift 90 tons of supplies, including temporary shelter material and water filtration systems, from Charlotte on Friday.

It already has sent 45 tons of supplies to Burma.

Contributions for Myanmar and China relief efforts can be made online at www.thefellowship.info/give (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship); www.abc-oghs.org/give (American Baptist Churches, USA); www.bwanet.org/bwaid (Baptist World Alliance); www.baptistglobalresponse.com (Southern Baptist Convention); and www.samaritanspurse.org (Samaritan's Purse).