What are you doing Unicef ????

Finally I can call Yangon this morning, 5 pm their time yesterday.

" We are trying to fix the roof of grandma's house but there is no tin sheets to be found in the market, the merchants may be hoarding the goods or it may be really depleted. It is raining heavily today. "

" Please put something meanwhile , either a tarp or thatched roof, anything and keep the 90 year old grandma at other place."

" We went to bring her to our place but she would not follow us, she stayed at another room where there is no leak."


Well what to do , where are the tarps and tin sheets gone? where are the relief supplies from the international agencies? I am frustrated.

Voila, the following news said Unicef is buying up all the local supplies. WHAT?????

Can't they IMPORT ? FLOWN In from Thailand or China or India???? anywhere except from local market????

Leave the goods for local people....


With dollar rate of 1100 kyats to a dollar in black market, they spent half a million dollars to buy from local market.

WHY DO THEY DISTURB THE LOCAL SUPPLIES???

WHY cant they bring IN the GOODS???

Grandma has the money but cannot buy any tin sheets in Yangon.

Many roofs in Yangon need to be covered.


HELP HELP HELP tell Unicef to release the goods immediately

distribute back.

import from outside instead of hoarding goods and making prices high!



Following news from NY Times:

Shantha Bloemen, a spokeswoman for Unicef, said the priorities for
agencies on the ground was “consolidation and assessment.”

She said the agencies met daily in an attempt to avoid overlap in their
work. Teams from the different agencies, with a coordinated checklist,
travel through the countryside assessing the conditions of schools,
hospitals, shelters and the infrastructure.

“Another priority in the country is trying to get our hands on the
supplies in-country and then send them where they are needed,” she
said.

“A lot of things we have bought locally like tarps, pans, plates, and
buckets,” she said. “We’ve spent nearly half a million dollars on
buying
these supplies. Local markets are probably now depleted.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization is looking ahead to the second
stage
of the disaster, the rebuilding of lives and livelihoods, said a
spokesman, Diderik Devleeschauwer.