By D. Arul Rajoo, Bernama,
Bangkok : Amidst the slow delivery of aid and continued prevention of international aid workers from entering cyclone-hit areas, many of the survivors of the May 2 cyclone are calm and working towards returning to normal life, Mercy Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood said today.
Dr Jemilah, who was taken on a tour of the affected areas in the Irrawaddy delta, said people were helping out one another although government assistance was visible in some places.
“I admire their sense of calm. I have never seen such a situation in disaster zones in other countries. People are going ahead with their lives, mending fences. They look like they have accepted what has happened,” she told a press conference here.
Dr Jemilah, who is a member of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team, said that despite obvious challenges faced by the international aid agencies struggling to get their experts visa to enter the country or set foot on the delta, aid is going through but slowly.
Three weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit the military-ruled country, less than 30 per cent of the affected 2.4 million people had received aid from international agencies, she said but praised local communities and monasteries which had taken the lead in assisting the people, with at least 65 civil society groups involved actively.