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On 30 April, fire ripped through Dawei District (pictured above) in south-eastern Myanmar, causing widespread damage to the area. Hundreds of children and adults were affected, with houses and infrastructure destroyed or badly damaged.

Dawei is a small town on the northern bank of the Dawei River. The district was only recently connected to the rest of Myanmar by road and rail. There are significant numbers of people living with HIV in the region as a consequence of high migration levels to neighbouring Thailand for work.

ChildFund Myanmar is working in partnership with local organisation, Future Light, to support children living with or affected by HIV and AIDS in the district. Future Light has been working in this area since 2009.

Following the fire, ChildFund and other aid agencies, including World Vision, have begun providing emergency relief for children and families impacted by the fire. More than 70 homes were destroyed, leaving over 400 people without shelter and in need of food and water.

Among the families whose homes and belongings have been destroyed are 50 school pupils and 10 university students.  Unable to return to their studies without educational supplies, ChildFund Myanmar is providing school uniforms and other educational resources including school books and bags.

Nini Htwe, ChildFund Myanmar’s Country Representative, says: “We are saddened by the news that this fire has broken out in our project area and affected 78 families. ChildFund is working closely with Future Light, district officials and local people to respond to this emergency.”

ChildFund`s emergency response in Dawei, which is helping over 400 people get back on their feet, is thanks to the generous support of our Project Humanity partners.

ChildFund is responding to Nepal`s devastating earthquake in Sindhupalchok, one of the nation`s worst-hit districts.

Starting on Friday, ChildFund was the first organisation to distribute urgently needed food supplies to more than 2,600 families (benefitting 10,240 people) in four remote villages in Sindhupalchok. Each family received 12kg rice, 1.5kg dhal (lentils) and 500g of salt.

With earlier efforts to deliver aid to Sindhupalchok hindered by a lack of supplies, blocked roads and security concerns, emotions ran high for the children and families living in these devastated villages, and for ChildFund staff at the food distributions who know these communities well.

Pictured below is Aileen Santiago, from ChildFund`s emergency team, embracing a woman from one of the villages, whom she hadn`t seen since before the earthquake hit.

Photographer Jake Lyell was with the emergency team as they distributed relief supplies. He describes the devastation:

“On my third day in the field I can say that the area around where ChildFund works is the worst I’ve seen. It’s more remote and the damage was very severe. When you drove through the areas you could smell the stench of bodies coming from the dilapidated houses. It made our hearts sink.”

ChildFund will continue with relief efforts to support the people of Sindhupalchok, most of whom are living out in the open without adequate food and shelter. A second emergency relief distribution is planned for these remote villages, which will include tents and ground sheets for the hundreds of families who have been left homeless, and more food and water.

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