We're partnering with church and village leaders to distribute thousands of rice bags and food buckets
Samaritan’s Purse is partnering with local churches and community leaders in the low-lying delta region of southern Myanmar to distribute rice bags and food buckets to more than 40 villages affected by recent flooding. A couple of weeks of emergency supplies can enable a family to concentrate on recovery efforts instead of searching daily for food.
Our goal is to distribute a total of 6,000 rice bags and 6,000 food buckets to the hardest-hit areas. So far, 4,000 of each have been given out.
Torrential rains from this year’s monsoon season have compounded the flood damage caused by last year’s monsoon rains and Cyclone Komen, which submerged homes and farmland. In 2015, floodwaters affected more than 1.6 million people in Myanmar and damaged more than 970,000 acres of rice fields. This year, some of the same areas flooded again, affecting more than 400,000 people and 40,000 acres of fields in the country’s leading area of rice production.
Each Samaritan’s Purse emergency food bucket distributed to families most affected by flooding in Myanmar contains beans, oil, canned meat, and salt.
Church leaders have been working shoulder to shoulder with village leaders as they unload the food items and organize the buckets and bags for distribution. These food buckets contain red beans, vegetable oil, canned meat, and salt. In addition, each food bag is filled with more than 44 pounds of rice, enough to feed a family for 15-20 days.
In some cases, families have been able to pick up the supplies from a central location. In harder-to-reach areas, the leaders have been delivering the food to families via boat.
Please pray for these families as they try to rebound from this catastrophic flooding. Pray for Samaritan’s Purse representatives as well as church partners as they identify and coordinate relief distribution efforts with local leaders. Ask God to strengthen these relationships as a demonstration of His love.
Last year, Samaritan’s Purse also worked with church partners to distribute emergency food supplies of rice and oil in the Myanmar delta.
