Relief after Burma’s Cyclone Nargis

Learn about efforts to help victims of the devastating cyclone in Myanmar and find out what you can do.

On May 3, Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar’s southwest coast. UNICEF estimates the death toll at 100,000, making the storm the worst natural disaster since south Asia’s 2004 tsunami.

According to the United Nations, about 1 million of the 2.4 million people affected still need help in Myanmar (the country’s name was changed from Burma to Myanmar in 1989).

The Myanmar government has imposed complicated guidelines that relief workers must follow before they’re allowed in the country to help victims, slowing the relief efforts. The government was also slow to grant visas to relief workers immediately after the cyclone hit, further hindering the process.

Despite these limitations, large agencies like the Red Cross and UNICEF have been providing relief. Food, clean water, shelter and medical supplies are still desperately needed. Relief workers are working to address the immediate needs of cyclone victims, while also looking to the future to determine what it will take to rebuild homes, schools and crops. The cyclone tore through the country’s capital city of Rangoon and destroyed some of the country’s most important rice crops in the Irrawaddy Delta, so identifying how to revitalize this supply is key to rebuilding the region.

What you can do to help? Learn more below with this list of organizations working to bring much-needed relief to the already war-torn region:

• Get the latest news on UNICEF’s relief efforts with children and in Myanmar’s schools.

• Donate to UNICEF


•Find out how Direct Relief International is airlifting essential medical supplies to cyclone-affected areas.

•Donate to Direct Relief International


•Learn about the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ relief efforts.

•Donate to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies


•Read about CARE’s emergency response Irrawaddy Delta.

•Donate to CARE


•Learn about Feed the Children’s efforts in devastated areas.

•Donate to Feed the Children 




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