Aid distribution: Challenges

We are currently auditing all our accounts. To date, we have remitted:
Main fund: Ks 5,128,850.00
Reserve Fund: Ks 413,400.00

Once we have closed accounts for Project 4 (pending), we will have about 1.8 Million Kyats left for Project 5.

As we only use Main Fund for purchase of aid distribution items, where receipts are issued, it is easily accounted for. However, for Reserve Fund, many hidden costs (e.g. toll charges, extra charges for rental cars etc) have to be accounted for, and it takes a lot of effort on the part of the team to keep accounts. Project 4, being a bigger project, in terms of logistics, it is taking us some time to close the accounts, and we ask for your understanding.

Below are a list of other issues faced by our team (and other private donors):

1. Unstable pricing
The price for lentils have gone up since Project 1, and you will see that for Projects 3 and 4, we have had to pay a higher price. Also, for Project 4, we managed to source for rice of better quality, and it costs about 20,000 more for each 50kg pack.

2. Hidden charges
In Burma, there are many uncertainties. There did not used to be any toll charges for the road into the delta. But on the 26th, the team had to pay not only road tax but also toll charges for passing a bridge.

3. Changing regulations
From 22nd to 25th of May, many private donors and their cars were detained on their way back from the delta. Car licenses were confiscated and drivers faced one year ban. However, on the 28th of May, the national newspaper published an article that said that the government has decided to allow all forms of aid to be freely distributed. Yet, yesterday's paper said that the people of the delta could live off the land and did not need any aid. This means that we have to be constantly on our toes to make sure that we do not breach any regulations.

4. Internet access (or the lack of)
It is extremely difficult to get data out of Burma as connections are very slow. The public have to rely on dial-up or broadband connection at the Internet cafes. For each project, it takes us at least 10 hours (2 nights with 5 hours spent on the Internet; day time access is even slower) to receive the photos from the team. There are times when the team is unable to log in at all, or the connection may get cut off and the file transfer aborted.

Free emails such as gmail and yahoo are blocked in Burma, and bypasses do not always work. The team usually uses websites such as Send6 to file zipped files of photos in batches. However, access to Send6 is no longer possible as of 27th of May. For Project 4, the team in Yangon somehow managed to access another photo page and upload the photos there. But when we downloaded these photos for editing, the dates reflected are that of the download date, and did not match the project date. We are still unable to solve the problem at the moment as the only way is to resend all the pictures again, and the team in Yangon is busy preparing for Project 5.

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We would like to seek your understanding on the constraints that we have; we are doing what we do out of goodwill and compassion for the cyclone victims, and while we try our best to keep everything in order, delays may be inevitable.

Thank you very much for your continued support. Should you have any questions, please direct them to cyclone.aid@gmail.com