The presence of Israeli relief teams is still being felt in Burma, as IsraAID recently dispatched a third team of medical and relief professionals to offer aid to the victims of the May 3 cyclone.

Locals and IsraAID volunteers load the boat that takes them to remote affected areas with relief items.

Cyclone Nargis devastated the Delta region of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. It killed some 78,000 to 130,000 people and left hundreds of thousands vulnerable to disease and starvation.

This prompted the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid (IsraAID) – an organization that represents 15 NGOs in Israel – to send a small team of doctors, nurses and water specialists to Myanmar just four days after the cyclone hit.

One month later, Israelis are still working in the field to try to help survivors bounce back from the disaster.

In a phone interview from Israel, Shachar Zahavi, the director of IsraAID, said Israeli doctors are in Yangon – Burma’s largest city and former capital, also known as Rangoon – and relief professionals are in a small village called Tar Tipe, which is a four-hour boat ride down the river from Yangon.

IsraAID has already shipped 10 tons of relief supplies, including food, water, mattresses, buckets and clothes to distribute to the survivors.

Zahavi said that many who were left homeless fled from the Delta region to the outskirts of Yangon and built makeshift refugee camps. IsraAID volunteers were able to reach them to distribute basic supplies to them as well.

They have also dispatched medical specialists to train 500 local doctors to deal with large-scale disasters.

“They are not used to dealing with massive natural disasters, so our teams went into a couple of hospitals in Yangon and trained them on how to deal with massive casualties, [sharing] the expertise that our doctors gain in Israel because of suicide bombings,” Zahavi said.

Israeli medical professionals who volunteered with IsraAID in Myanmar led a class to train local doctors and nurses how to deal with large-scale disasters.

IsraAID has been gaining recognition and respect in the region because of the success of its efforts.

Last month, Israel was one of about 50 countries invited to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference, which was held to raise funds for disaster relief.

Dr. Ephraim Laor, an IsraAID representative, was asked by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join Israel’s ambassador to Yangon to attend and present an overall plan to assist the population affected by the cyclone.

Zahavi said that permits to enter villages in the Delta region were hard to get, but because of the connections IsraAID made with local officials, it was able to obtain government approval to enter them.

Speaking last Thursday, he said that members of the third Israeli relief team had been in Myanmar for the previous two weeks, and he said he hoped they would soon be replaced by another team.

He said the amount of time that IsraAID spends in Myanmar will depend on the funding it gets.

Zahavi said he is looking into establishing a long-term medical rehabilitation program and has approached some of IsraAID’s donors in Israel and North America, including UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, for funding that would allow IsraAID to remain in Myanmar from six months to a year.

“Currently, with the funding that we have from the Jewish federation of Toronto and a couple other federations and private donors, I think we’ll be able to work there for the next month or month-and-a-half,” he said.

Federation president Ted Sokolsky said he is pleased to have established a relationship with IsraAID.

“Whenever there are these kinds of disasters and relief efforts, we always think of IsraAID first, because we really trust their ability to get into troubled areas of the world effectively and efficiently,” Sokolsky said.

The $20,000 that the federation donated last month went entirely to fund IsraAID’s mission, and it has since donated another $20,000, Sokolsky added.

“There is a double benefit. Obviously, the good work that they do is really important, but we also back them because we think it’s great for these parts of the world to get another view, a positive view, of Israel and Israelis.”

Zahavi said that he is thrilled about his connection with the federation.

“I can tell you for a fact that they’re one of the few federations that really understand the basic need to respond immediately to these disasters… They also understand the concept of international aid and using Israeli expertise,” Zahavi said.

“We really see this as a fruitful partnership, and we’re overwhelmed with the support of the Jewish community there.”

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