A Sikh relief worker yesterday asked Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein to cut through his regime’s red-tape and allow international relief workers to send aid to the worst cyclone-devastated areas of his country, a news release said.

Sunil Shukvir Singh, a United Sikhs volunteer from Malaysia, was among several aid workers who, along with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, attended a briefing by Sein on the state of his country’s humanitarian crisis.

That a Sikh organization has been allowed to provide relief in Myanmar is no small feet.

Myanmar authorities, suspicious of foreign, especially Western countries, had shut out the U.N. and other foreign aid workers in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which ripped through the South Asian country on May 3 and killed more than 130,000 and displaced millions more, according to U.N. estimates.

United Sikhs, which had provided humanitarian aid to victims of the Asian tsunami in 2004, had the experience and the network in place in that part of the world to address a similar natural disaster.

While it took more than two weeks for Myanmar to allow Ki-moon to come and talk about relief efforts, supplies were being channeled about a week after the cyclone through United Sikhs’ India, Thailand and Malaysia locations, countries that Myanmar is friendly with. But most of the volunteers are local Sikhs who know the culture and speak the language, a more comfortable arrangement for the regime.

The relief operation is managed and largely funded by United Sikhs in America. The effort took off with the help of Jasjit Singh Kochar of New York, who was born and raised in Myanmar and still has family there.

Singh was able to convey the situation on the ground when other non-governmental organizations were finding it difficult to get any communication from Myanmar.

“They have nothing to do there,” he said of his family. They own a business, but since the cyclone, they have been busy trying to help the survivors.

The Myanmar Sikh community, which escaped the tragedy, has hired a cook to make langar at the Kampung Pandan Gurdwara and is distributing the food within a 40 km radius.

Rice, noodles and legumes, their main staple, has risen to seven times the price, and is available mostly on the black market. But it is easier to buy the goods locally than to wait for a shipment, which the Myanmar regime is reluctant to allow.

As a doctor, Jasjit Singh said he is worried about the unsanitary conditions and the likelihood of a Cholera outbreak.

United Sikhs is expected to charter a ship to bring medical supplies from Malaysia within the next week or so, said Kuldip Singh, its Sikh aid director in the United States. In some places there are a thousand people using only three toilets.

“The situation is there, if you see the way it is, they are in crisis and need help,” he said, relaying what volunteers there have told him. “They need clothes, slippers, but mostly they are hungry.”

On one day, when volunteers were leaving the gurdwara by truck to distribute food packets, they saw many kids on the road and stopped to give them food. The kids did not say anything. They just sat down and began eating, and eating.

“They were looking for food,” he said. "They (Myanmar) should have allowed (aid workers) in sooner."

Many of the survivors are living in a Buddhist temple, driving distance from the gurdwara, where the volunteers also serve food. More than 12,000 people have been served so far, Singh said.

Sunil Shukvir Singh, who is coordinating the United Sikhs’ disaster relief effort from Malaysia, was given permission by Myanmar authorities to fly to Yangon yesterday to help assess the extent of the devastation and recommend plans to provide relief and rehabilitation.

He took the opportunity to bring with him a half-ton cargo of infant formula, infant cereal and medical supplies. Malaysian Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu groups donated the supplies. Air Asia, Malaysia’s budget airline, provided free air travel and cargo.

"During the course of the meeting, we were informed that while food and medical supplies are essential to feed and aid victims of the cyclone, what is also required urgently are plastic roofing sheets to provide shelter to the people left homeless in the aftermath of the devastation," Singh said in the news release.

Another batch of supplies left yesterday with Harbinder Singh, United Sikhs project director, who was also invited by the Myanmar regime.

United Sikhs began the relief effort on May 12 and is expected to stay at least two more months, as long as donations keep coming.

Note: For more information, go to www.unitedsikhs.org.

By Anju Kaur
Sikh News Network staff journalist
anjukaur@sikhnn.com