Esther Suchanek is working as a project assistant for Malteser International and currently writes a travel diary from the disaster region.

We are now in Labutta, with around 20,000 inhabitants the biggest city in the Irrawaddy Delta. From here, the assistance after the cyclone started, this is where the people came from their destroyed villages and found refuge in the monasteries of the city. During the phase of emergency assistance directly after the storm, Malteser International distributed relief items like mosquito nets, blankets and hygiene articles to the affected people. Now, almost three months after the cyclone, the monasteries are empty again. But the people didn’t all go back to their villages. About 5,000 of them still live in three camps for internally displaced people around Labutta.

Today, we visit two of these camps where Malteser International is operating a health center. The first camp is quiet when we arrive. About 2,000 people who fled from the floods and the destruction live here. In no time, a crowd of children has gathered around us, they laugh, giggle, hide, wave. They do what children usually do. It is good to see this after the horrible experiences they went through. On the adults’ faces I can see the traces of the memories and the worries. At the end of July, they have to leave the camps and go back home. But for many of them, there is no home to go to; their huts and houses have been destroyed. They have lost everything and have no resources to start over again. They are scared that another storm might come soon. The memories of May 2nd are burnt in their memories.

A little boy comes to the health center, crying. He hurt is knee and is being taken care of. The doctor and the nurse of Malteser International tell us that in the beginning there were around 200 patients every day. Most of them came with diarrhea and respiratory infections or because of general weakness. There are way less patients now, about 60 each day. From the tent where the provisional health center is located, you can see the water tanks that Malteser International has constructed to provide clean drinking water for the people in the camp. This probably prevented and still prevents at least some diseases. Clean water is scarce in camps like this.

At our next stop, the atmosphere is different. This tent-city is bigger than the first one, about 3,000 people live here. In the entrance aisle of the camp, the tents of various relief organizations are located; one of them is the health center of Malteser International. When the people will leave the camp and the health center therefore will be closed, the medical staff of Malteser International will follow the people and provide medial assistance in their villages.

The doctors and nurses are all young, happy and motivated – this makes the depressing and hopeless atmosphere a little better. You can see the suffering in people’s faces. It’s impossible to take their horrible experiences away, but it’s possible to treat their physical wounds and to help them to be strong for the future. And this is what Malteser International is doing.

Esther Suchanek