Dear Friends,
After over 72 hours of pouring rain, large areas of Yangon are left sitting under two feet of water. The 2008 Myanmar monsoons have begun, which means that by next week all will be tinged with the hint of mold. We are probably swamped into our little office for the night—so with the smell of left-over samosas and the sounds of the electric generator drowning out the rain, this is a good time to write an update on what we have been up to.
I am still attending the UN cluster meetings, but each time I am learning less and yawning more. It takes a minimum of four meetings to get a consensus on whether or not there should be a meeting at all. It is amazing to see how much of the world’s money can be wasted by people with such good intentions.
You have probably been reading much on the cyclone’s destruction of life, land and communities, as well as the sub-par response of international relief efforts—and it is all true and worse. It takes all my scheming skills to get our funds directly to the ones who need it most.
I have written up four more proposals for small local organizations looking for funds to continue their relief work. I funded with our money two of these groups because they had realistic proposals and budgets, direct delivery, follow up, accounting records, and they work in close partnership with under-served villagers.
Fresh water pond recovery : $5000
- 40 more one-acre ponds; more pumps; gasoline; lime; water-quality testing. Included will be an educational course for villagers on fresh water pond quality maintenance.
- Salt-resistant rice seeds and hand plows for 2 small villages given directly to small rice farmers.
- School readers and school supplies for 3 schools serving a total of 325 children.
To date a total of $30,000 of our money directly funded cyclone-affected people and communities in need. This week I will be going into the delta and will fund direct medical services targeted to 3 village tracts, whose population post-cyclone is 90,000.
Many of the NGOs are giving away poor quality, nonfunctional bed netting. I would like to take a portion of our funds and start a “social business” in a cyclone-affected area producing functional, affordable insecticide-impregnated bed netting. Waiting for the Gates Global Malaria Fund nets to float down from the sky for free is like waiting to win the California lotto.
The product’s name is “Good Sleep.” It will be a community-based business, producing, marketing and selling the nets locally. All employees will be from the community. I have already bought ten trettle sewing machines (at half-price from a local donor) and good-quality Japanese netting to make the first 1000 nets, and have worked out a functional design for a family bed net based on consumer feedback. I will be interviewing for a country manager over the next few days. Malaria prevention will be integrated at the sales site. I am hoping by next year that “Good Sleep” will cover its running costs; thereafter, any profits will be reinvested into the business. I will write in more detail about “Good Sleep” in my next update.
If anyone is interested in developing “Good Sleep” into a successful, small community-based social business, I need your help.
Dave tells me that your generous donations are still coming in. Sam, our son, will be coming on June 16th, and will hand carry the second load. Many thanks to all of you. I would like to particularly thank Jill Hanna for accounting help, Kathleen Jordan for doing double duty, Susan Comstock at the Foundation for processing your checks, friends who are taking care of Dave, and, of course, Dave, Charlie and Sam who are doing all the things at home that I should be doing!
All my best, Helen
