The aftermath of the powerful cyclone Nargis that had slammed the Irrawaddy Delta region on 2 May 2008 could not have been anymore dire than the original cyclone itself. Almost 1.5 million people were displaced and the unofficial death toll was at 128,000 though the government media reported the deaths at 26,000 and another 40,000 missing. Myanmar ( Burma ) had never been challenged by a disaster of this magnitude and the subsequent relief efforts by the ruling military government had been disappointing to say the least. Experienced disaster relief teams and members of many overseas NGOs were not allowed to enter the country by the reclusive government. Aid deliveries had been delayed and were selective if they ever happened.

Overwhelmed by these tragic events, Alumni Myanmar Institutes of Medicines Association (AMIMA), supported by all the members globally had decided to step up to the plate and participate in the relief efforts. The strength of the AMIMA lies in the fact that it has already established an immense global network of expatriate Burmese doctors.

Big NGOs, UN organizations and Red Cross have many difficulties operating in Burma despite their enormous logistic, experience and resource advantages simply because Myanmar government doesn't allow them to operate freely inside the country. Moreover they have large overhead costs. We decided to go for the more reliable grass root level movements lead by the competent Myanmar citizen volunteers and hence with more freedom of movement to get access to the hard hit remote areas.

With that in mind, during the first week after the disaster, we concentrated on the fund raising efforts as the first phase. The principal coordinator for the fund drive in United Kingdom is Dr Shwe Zin Tun (szintun@aol.com ) whose team raised about £ 5000 at this present time. The contact person in Australia is Dr Christine Tan (Christine.tan@bigpond.com ) and the Burmese Medical Association Australia (BMAA) which had raised close to AS$ 20,000. Those in Canada can contact Dr Nyi Nyi Han ( r_nnhan@yahoo.ca ). In USA , Dr Jennifer Chu ( etoims@yahoo.com ) and Dr Zaw Myint ( zmyint51@hotmail.com ), the president and the secretary respectively of AMIMA, led the fund raising drive. Dr Jennifer Chu tirelessly spoke to the TV and the radio media raising the awareness of this humanitarian crisis to the general public. Her op-ed article was published in multiple local newspapers. At the same time AMIMA web site (www.amima.net ) was revamped. For ease of donation, a Paypal account was opened and a Papal button was installed at the web site enabling anybody from any part of the world to donate through it. Altogether USA had raised about US$ 20,000 thus far.

As for the phase two we tried to identify the right teams and individuals who will conduct the actual relief efforts in the disaster zones based on our above set criteria. The bulk of the funds will go to the traveling medical team led by Dr U Hla Myint, a well renowned retired professor of Medicine and the Chairman of the Myanmar Medical Council, a local well respected non-governmental organization. For the past 2-3 years he and a group of retired Myanmar consultant Physicians had been providing free medical care to the poor in the rural areas through the mobile teams. Therefore, he had already established a volunteer crew, local contacts and resources. More importantly, he happened to be in Australia during the early phase of the storm and AMIMA team members were able to sit down with him, planned out the strategy and agreed upon the execution methods. He is fully aware of the expectations of the donors. He had been back in Myanmar since 10 May 2008 . Dr Kyi Min, a regional advisor for World Vision, a global humanitarian organization, is liaising between Dr U Hla Myint, the Australia BMA and the AMIMA.

Additionally, we had two more teams made up of young and motivated individuals and decided to financially support some of their works. The first one is lead by Dr Sama Jalin, a New York based Myanmar physician and founder of the NPO Better Burmese Health Care (www.betterburmesehealthcare.com ). In the last few years she had set up and was supervising three free clinics around the impoverished neighborhoods of Yangon suburbs. She raises funds abroad to support those clinics. Again she is leaving now for Burma to participate and lead the disaster relief work which had already been initiated by her clinic staff members and her classmates ( class of 86, IM-1) such as Drs Khine Than, Sid Naing, Khin Maung Htwe etc. AMIMA will be supporting her.

The second team (Myanmar/Burma Emergency Aid Network - MBEAN) is lead by a group of young volunteers made up of Myanmar graduate students from the Universities in UK , USA and Singapore . Quite a few had gone back to Burma to land a hand in the relief efforts. The coordinators are Dr Yemon Myint (USA) and Ma Tharaphi Than (UK). Ko Yemon Myint (yforyemon@yahoo.com) is currently a PhD student at the John Hopkins School of Public Health and Ma Tharaphi Than is also a PhD student at SOAS, London University . She is currently doing the relief work in Burma. They have set up a blog site (http://report.burmarelief.org/ ) where the daily activities and situation reports together with the pictures of the relief work from Myanmar are uploaded. Most recent pictures can be seen at, http://picasaweb.google.com/yforyemon/MBEANMay12?authkey=TwTy04f9M0Q.

AMIMA requests financial contributions only and promises one hundred percent delivery as all of us are volunteers using our own time and resources. The financial needs to continue working with the relief teams are going to be daunting in this severely impoverished nation. Though we are concentrating on delivery of food, shelter and the first aid materials presently, the possibility of subsequent disease outbreaks is pretty high as predicted by the United Nations. We are currently planning for the long term rebuilding and identifying local partnerships at ground zero. As the circumstances changes, we are open to and willing to consider collaboration with Red Cross and the other NGOs including the UN organizations. Once the media attention falters, we at AMIMA will not fade away and plan to continue supporting the needy and the displaced.

We need all the support you can give. Please feel free to forward this message to your friends, colleagues, neighbors, patients or anybody who you might find interested. At the same time we sincerely wish to thank the recent donors who had made the relief mission to get off the ground. Donors will be acknowledged at the www.amima.net site, AMIM Yahoo group/blog site and through the e mail receipts for the donors who had used Paypal. Additionally a paper receipt can be mailed for the US residents. Donations received and account balances will be updated time and again in a transparent manner at the above sites. In the USA , AMIMA is an incorporated non profit; tax exempt 501(c)(3) organizations.

Checks may be mailed to PO Box 30157, Elkins Park, PA 19027.
Please make payable to AMIMA. Alternatively you may donate through Paypal at www.amima.net. Should you prefer a wire transfer, the information is:

Wachovia Bank
ABA 031201467
Account Number -- 2000030381315

Thank you all very much.