THE Scotsman has joined up with the UK's Disaster Emergency Committee which is channelling public donations to fund food, clean water, medicines and shelter to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.
The DEC is made up of 13 major charities, including Save The Children, all aiming to save lives in the country's flood-stricken Irrawaddy delta region.
Andrew Kirkwood, Save The Children's programme director, who is co-ordinating the charity's re
lief efforts in Rangoon,
said: "It's incredibly urgent – we need to get out and feed these people.
"I expect that we are going to need between £5 million and £10 million to fund this response and we will need help with rebuilding homes and communities over the next few years.
"It is very important that people realise we need to sustain this relief effort over a period of years, rather than months.
"After the immediate needs of people are met we are going to have to get the schools up and running again.
"We have to remind readers that this is not going to go away. The Burma cyclone is as serious as the Boxing Day tsunami."
Teams from DEC member agencies alongside plane-loads of emergency relief items, including tarpaulins and jerry cans, are now arriving in Burma.
Other vital items starting to trickle through to the stricken country are essential drugs, mosquito nets and water purification tablets.
But more aid is desperately needed and the DEC is calling on people to donate to the Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Appeal.
Calls to support the appeal have also been made by the Church of Scotland and the United Reformed Church.
Country music legend and humanitarian campaigner Willie Nelson also asked people attending his sell-out show at Glasgow's Armadillo last night to donate what they can to the appeal.
Brendan Gormley, chief executive of DEC, said: "Our members are there (in Burma] and need the UK public to show huge generosity to help them reach those thousands of people who have seen their lives and livelihoods uprooted by this disaster."
The Disasters Emergency Committee member agencies are: Action Aid, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.
The full article contains 382 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
