Burma

Global Community Service Foundation has been providing humanitarian assistance to Burma for several years. Its programs focus on education, health care and essential needs.

As one of the few humanitarian assistance organizations already established in Burma, Global Community Service Foundation was well positioned in May 2008 to immediately respond to the widespread human needs caused by Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy Delta region.

Cyclone Nargis, a powerful tropical cyclone, caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Burma. The cyclone made landfall in the country and caused catastrophic destruction, killed at least 146,000 fatalities and let thousands more people unaccounted for still today.

Emergency Relief:

Within days of the disaster, GCSF launched an emergency appeal that ultimate collected nearly $200,000 for victims of the deadly storm. The critical funding enabled GCSF to purchase large quantities of food, medicine, drinking water and clothing. We used our established channels and our local staff to expeditiously move these life-saving resources into Burma and to deliver it to underserved communities and a GCSF-supported orphanage in Dala that was leveled. With our help the orphanage has been rebuilt with brick structures.

GCSF’s in-country staff also worked with a group of tour guides and local monks to deliver the immediate emergency assistance and building materials to several monasteries that were harboring storm refugees. We also paid for fertilizer that was provided to several delta villages so the farmers could cultivate their fields. In some areas, we also helped villagers rebuild homes and began working with villages to rebuild schools and other community structures.

Today, GCSF has returned to its traditional role of concentrating on selected communities by focusing on four villages where it is rebuilding schools, homes and community buildings; assisting farmers with cultivating and fertilizing their crops; installing water wells and pumps; cleaning and rebuilding water reservoirs; and building jetties and bridges.