SINGAPORE: Walking dogs to raise funds, sending over essential supplies and setting up donation drives – these are some of the ways Singapore’s Myanmar community is helping to send aid home in the aftermath of a deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
More than 2,700 people have been confirmed dead in what was the strongest earthquake to hit the Southeast Asian country in over a century. Thousands more have been injured and the death toll is expected to surpass 3,000, said Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing.
Aid groups in the country have warned that the need for food, water and shelter is urgent, and the window for rescue efforts is quickly narrowing.
TENTS, WATER PURIFICATION TABLETS
When they received news of the earthquake, pastors Daniel Kyaw and Yamin Thiri, who are husband and wife, immediately contacted their families in Myanmar to make sure they were safe.
Even though their family members were not affected, the couple felt “broken and sad” for those who were badly hit, said Pastor Yamin, a native of Yangon. “It’s a life being shattered and broken. So that’s really heartbreaking,” she said.
Rather than act purely on emotion, they quickly shifted to action. The couple, who are with the Myanmar congregation of Cornerstone Community Church in Singapore, began mapping out the hardest-hit regions and identifying critical supply needs in collaboration with local churches and ministries on the ground.
Together with their congregation, which includes many domestic workers, they began sourcing and preparing relief items such as tents, rice, oil and water purification tablets – some of which are more accessible in Singapore than in Myanmar.
“Anything that they can’t get in Myanmar, we will send from Singapore,” said Pastor Yamin. “We are trying to see what the gaps are that we can fill as a community.”
Transportation logistics are now being arranged to deliver the supplies from Yangon to more severely affected areas like Mandalay. In the meantime, the church continues to offer emotional support to members whose families were impacted, many of whom are unable to return home due to ongoing political instability.
