ONE PLASTIC SHEET….WAS ALL SHE ASKED
14th October, 2008
Next week, I will be travelling into Burma and to the Irrawaddy Delta once again. Now, it is the start of ‘open season’ the finishing of the monsoon season. The opportunity is now here for us to start building houses for the poorest among the poor there in the Delta. I will be going to assess where the greatest need is and where we can begin to build. Each family home will cost US$400/GBP 200 to build. We would like to beginning with 50 homes. (Total: USD$20,000/GBP 10,000).
On my last visit to the area, we visited several villages. Not only had many lost their loved ones, but their homes and possessions and their means of livelihood had also been swept away. Several families were bunking together in whatever buildings and homes that managed to survive the Cyclone. The pathways were thick with mud making access through the villages difficult. Even the more solid buildings that still remained were not that secure and roofs were leaking everywhere, some were even slanting in the direction of the cyclone winds. The make-shift shelters seen here and there had been constructed of plastic sheeting, scrap metal, bits of wood and bamboo matting.
One woman ran up to me and told me how her home had been swept away with her young children inside. She pleaded with me for one plastic sheet to make a shelter for her and her surviving children on the land where their home had once stood. Her simple request broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. After all that she had lost, she could have asked for much more, but all she requested was one plastic sheet. She deserves much more than that. One plastic sheet….the words are forever etched in my mind. Her voice is ringing out in her desperation. This woman deserves a home.
I will be going back to that woman’s village on this next trip and will build a home for her in an expression of love and care from people who have given, to tell her ‘you deserve more than one plastic sheet’ and also for the many others who are experiencing a similar situation as her.
We will be working together with the church and village leaders on this project, and also with local aid agencies who are working with us and who have conducted a census of the area, selecting the families that are in most need.
Please pray for this urgent need. We need to start on the project of rebuilding homes immediately.
Thank you for your partnership with ATM in making things possible for those in desperate need.
PASTOR TIMOTHY