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KUNGYANGON TOWNSHIP, Myanmar : A village on the outskirts of Yangon city is being held up as a model for Myanmar's post-disaster recovery efforts.
It is hoped that the results from Seik Gyi village in Kungyangon township can be replicated in other communities devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May. The cyclone killed 67 people in the village.
A bird's eye view from the UN Aid Helicopter shows how floodwaters have receded in Seik Gyi village since June. From afar, it is easy to spot the problems, but on the ground, they are harder to solve.
The monsoon season brings rain, but not enough to dampen the resilience of a community coming back to life.
The pace of recovery in the village has picked up over the past few weeks, thanks to a pilot rehabilitation project led by ASEAN volunteers - called the Community-Based Early Recovery Pilot Project. The goal is to help villagers help themselves, by identifying their urgent priorities.
Thanapon Songput, Seik Gyi project manager, said: "(For) every problem, (we) should (involve) the community, village community. And the villagers also have to share their ideas, and their way of managing (and fixing) the problem."
The project kicked off at the end of July, and has been adopted by the ASEAN-UN-Myanmar Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which has just marked its 100-day establishment. It has successfully bridged trust and cooperation between Myanmar and the international community.
US$170,000 has been poured into Seik Gyi, funded by the ASEAN Cooperation Fund for Disaster Assistance. This will support the reconstruction of their damaged monastery and decontamination of some 30 community wells.
Bishow Parajuli, UN resident coordinator, said: "They need to rebuild their houses, they need to rebuild their lives, the schools have to be rebuilt, the village community needs to be rebuilt."
According to Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu, the most pressing need is to help villagers regain their livelihood as the next stage of recovery transitions from relief to rehabilitation.
Fishermen have received new nets and built new boats, while farmers have been given betel leaf saplings to revive their crops. But the project will only last about three months, as the TCG hopes to adopt more villages.
Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary-General, said: "We are not going to be here forever. I understand that Minister Kyaw Thu has made that very clear to them too, that they should use this opportunity to gather as much goodwill and prepare themselves for the next stage. But ASEAN and the international community will be here only temporarily."
Thanapon Songput said: "Villagers are happy now, they are willing to help us. Before we came here, they were thinking about how they can get back to (their normal lives), who will support them."
Elsewhere near the Irrawaddy Delta, places like the Toe Village are getting back on their feet with the help of the Myanmar government. But there are millions deeper inland, who need help.
Dr Surin said: "These victims, 2.4 million of them, will need to survive into the the next crop year... we have to help them to survive."
The whole aim is to replicate the Seik Gyi model in other affected areas, but it is something that is easier said than done. For instance, Seik Gyi's population of 1,000 is modest compared to other bigger villages.
Making sure funds flow in to the tune of US$1 billion over the next three years is another issue. But perhaps the biggest challenge is sustaining the relief, so that the people in such villages do not lose what they have worked so hard to regain. - CNA/ms
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