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In the Medias:

Aid Access Granted for Burma's North Kachin State

Relief Web - 11/04/12

Kachin State, Bhamo district.

Type of intervention: NFI Distirbution, water access and sanitation, livelihoods assessment and planning.
Number of beneficiaries: Approx 4,000 people (in 15 camps)
Insitutional partners: French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (CDC), DANIDA (Denmark)

The 17 year ceasefire in the semi-autonomous area of mountainous Kachin State was broken in June 2011, and as a result, there are approximately 70,000 displaced persons (as of early 2012) in over 100 camps both in gouvernment controlled and non-gouvernment controlled areas, and also across the border in China. The fighting is still ongoing with no returnees expected through the Spring of 2012. The fighting is between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw).

Activities:

• Providing specific support for water and hygiene needs (hygiene promotion training, latrine and well construction) in 15 camps in Momauk, Mansi, and Bhamo townships.
• Providing NFI (essential non-food item) kits to approximately 4,000 people in 15 camps and also to families who are hosting displaced persons. These kits are – remarkably – specific to each household’s needs and are not a “one size fits all” package. The beneficiary selection process has been family by family and nearly every package caters specifically  to the needs of each recipient.
• Starting a comprehensive Livelihoods Assessment of the villages (and also some camps) where the people have fled. This assessment will collect a detailed understanding of the livelihoods, income, savings, and farming needs in the villages of Bhamo District (over 100) which have been affected by the conflict since June 2011. This will be implemented with a local partner, LDO.
  

Chin State

Area of intervention: Kanpetlet Township

Type of intervention: Food security and agriculture

Number of beneficiaries: 10,000 people
Institutional partners : DANIDA (Denmark), WFP

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. Since 2008, the township has been massively infested by rats in a devastating natural phenomenon related to the blossoming of a particular bamboo. This infestion has not slowed down for the past 4 years and has resulted in a crop, seed stock and food security crisis. In 2011, SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL responded with a complementary two-fold approach in these 58 villages, first providing food, then with an agriculture and rat control program, as well as conducting several assessments of the food security situation in the area.  In 2012, SI are planning a large-scale food security and livelihoods programme to respond to 73 villages across the township.

Activities:

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

• Improvement of  self-sufficient food production for 1,600 households: Rice and corn seeds distribution, rat trap distribution, planned rehabilitation of roads in isolated villages to improve access to food and markets.

• Food Security monitoring  and sharing of information with other humanitarian actors, since 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 in Myebon and Kyauk Pyu townships, which means that 1/3 of the all households were affected. The situation appears even more alarming in this remote area, as the communities' livelihoods were already 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 destruction of paddy lands and fisheries have caused lot of damage; 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 the recovery of livelihoods and of the marginal economy 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 recovery 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 nearby 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 gardening for 1,125 indirect beneficiaries.

Update : May 2012