Hello all,

Thank you all for your good wishes. The first couple of days were just meetings after meetings to try and catch up and learn what was going on.

Met briefly with BBHC team first thing and set the organizational structure.

Had to learn quickly the logistics of NGO work which includes: attending meetings
- Myanmar Egress had a meeting with superattendance from local and international community - basically discovered that reaching the most effected victims are almost impossible especially for a small group like us. Logistics (transport, manpower,etc.) and safety issues. Sadly, there are business groups who can effectively accomplish things quickly were ordered to do repairs and reconstruction on gov. infrastructure bldgs such as schools and others. It's not a big issue to postpone starting the schools since the area children are all displaced anyway but they have other things in mind. Referendum on May 24 and use schools as poll stations is the biggest speculation. The task is delegated to the business community but of course with built-in perks. Example, one company is building pre-built wooden houses at 500$ per piece which INGO's and the UN can buy for rebuilding for which the company got permit to purchase wood from the gov. at discount prices, etc.

- having to meet with local NGO's who have MOU's to partner with them so that we can get supplies from the official ppl like UNICEF, Merlin, Americare, etc. Was treated very rudely by this frog from Merlin today for wasting his time because we don't have an MOU.

-there are 8 sites that BBHC is covering in SOuth and North Dagon Townships. Initially, there were true victims but now we're mainly seeing the usual poor. I went there today. The cost of supplies and transport for this is about 220 $ per day. BBHC team is going to those on different days of the week, 7 days a week right now. I've decided to pay the main/regular volunteers from BBHC budget. After seeing one site today I will wind down this activity in the next few weeks and may establish permanent BBHC clinics there instead depending on manpower.

-after the big Egress meeting, it became very clear to me that we will not be able to rehabilitate even a single village group back to normal by ourselves without involving a trustworthy local person. I sent out feelers to classmates like MMS, Aye Aye Myint, Thet Shay and got a very positive response. THere are some villages in Dedaye township that have not had any help. One of MMS's anesthetist friends' hometown is Dedaye and her brothers and family members requested help and guaranteed safety and full local support. I will go on an assessment trip in a day or so.

-one friend went to Kunchan gone township yesterday and made needs assessments and asked the locals including the monks and came up with a brilliant idea. The locals want pots and pans, tarpauline, lattrines, fishing nets and their irrigation system rebuilt. He met some Burmese donors distributing rice and other supplies. My friend wants to set up some kind of a microfinance system where the needs will be supplied but they won't be free and the local monastery will act as the treasurer and accept re-payments whenever they can, to be saved as the village fund. And the irrigation system will be rebuilt by the villagers themselves whose work will be honored by 2 square meals a day or cash or kind. The dream of helping one village up from the ground to fully independent one can be problematic if we just give out the funds because the neighboring villages will complain. There are already lootings of supply vehicles by disgruntled villagers who felt short-changed. This way the village can be a model village and if others want the same they can be helped in the same way.

- the reason for my letter being so long-winded
there are unbelievable number of local donors here going out on SUV's and trucks every day since day one that the main road now is lined by miles of ppl waiting for handouts. You may have seen the footage on CNN where small packages were thrown off the back of a truck and ppl racing after it. There is already dependency to a certain extent in the areas where most aid has gone. Yet there are many pockets where aid hasn't reached at all like parts of Dedaye twnsp. which we can provide help but need proper planning. Which we are doing even as I write.

- there are also a lot of INGO's and local NGO's who are already established in the area for years for their various projects and doing relief work. Coordination is not great but they're doing what they can. They also have some needs that we maybe able to fill in which I will come back to.

-as for medical relief work in the delta, BBHC has no manpower to go around the delta for a few days or a week at a time since most of our docs including the volunteer docs are in-service docs.

So I have the following ideas where we can put our funds and/or efforts into:

1. Dedaye area - relief and rehab work including stting up or rebuilding clinics pending further assessment.

2. Developing a model village through microfinancing involving the monastic institutions - mind you, they are the perpetual benefactors of a successful village so they have an incentive and they're also more than happy to cooperate. This friend doesn't have funding so I've told him that BBHC would be happy to earmark the initial seed money partly and a percentage of BBHC's funds to go into this. He came to Burma from the U.S with the full intention of helping the victims and also support BBHC's work.

3. There is an immediate need for tarpaulin sheets. The supplies from various internat. donors (UNHCR) are here. But red tape dictates nobody could physically get them. As advisors and donors would you advise using our funds to get supplies for those who are actually doing the job at the village level? Or procure them in Thailand from your own contacts and get them into the country knowing fully well that tarp will be coming out of the wazoo in a week or two's time form every big NGO but still willing to spend the funds for immediate needs?

4. The local donation and the volunteering are a great risk of burning out. We hope to be sustainable for the long run. I am recruiting medical and non-medical volunteers and trying my best to get this point across. Some or possibly a lot of donations and relief efforts have not been as effective as they could be.
5. We will continue our relief medical work through our temporary clinic sites until need becomes less or our work ceases to be relief in nature.

I wish I was able to say I have sent so many bags of rice or bottles of medicine or water, etc., to the delta. But I promise I will not come back empty handed. I will have established some or all of the above or any other feasible work by the time I leave. I or Robert will update you in the next day or two.

Ko Aung Gyi is coming back tomorrow from here. He went to Pantanaw area. You can hear more from him if you know his email. Ko Pyi, I made contact with Dr. Saw Ag Ngwe 2 days ago. He was going on his assessment trip to Myaungmya and due back today. Will follow up with him.

Please have faith in BBHC. We won't disappoint you.

Best,
Jalin