Myanmar Cyclone Nargis Pyapon Hub Update No. 2

OVERVIEW & KEY DEVELOPMENTS

- The Prime Minister of the Union of Myanmar, General Thein Sein, visited Pyapon on 28 October 2008. He held a meeting with all township stakeholders and received a briefing on the progress on the Nargis response from General Soe Naing, the Minister of Hotel and Tourism. Rehabilitation and reconstruction activities include housing, schools, religious buildings, the Pyapon-Kyon Ka Dun-Ah Mar road, cyclone shelters and paddy fields. The Minister encouraged people to work hard in order to modernise the agricultural sector. He donated 6 million Kyat to the District Medical Officer (DMO) for the renovation of Pyapon District Hospital which has since been upgraded from 100 beds to 200 beds.

- At the seventh General Coordination Meeting on 30 October in Pyapon, the ATEO (Assistant Township Education Officer) highlighted the important issues to be aware of when renovating schools, as well as the need for first aid kits and first aid training in schools. He also briefed about the Natural Disaster Reduction Management Course. The TPDC Chairman has identified school reconstruction as the major need in Maubin.

- On 1 November, Mingalar Myanmar donated 200 fishing boats and 200 fishing nets to beneficiaries from 17 villages in Dedaye and Pyapon Townships. The Minister of Hotel and Tourism, who is responsible for cyclone response in Pyapon, Dedaye and Kyaiklat Townships, presided the ceremony, which was attended by local officials, the Ambassador of Singapore and private donors from Singapore and held in Sar Oh Chaung village of Ohn Pin Village Tract, Dedaye Township.

- The TCG periodic review is proceeding well in Pyapon District. The team of enumerators arrived on 27 October and started work on 27 October. They will conduct assessment in 18 villages in 4 townships of Pyapon, Dedaye, Kyaiklat and Maubin up until mid November.

- OCHA has assessed the need for general coordination meetings for partners working in Maubin who have expressed need and support for such mechanism. OCHA is currently preparing for convening the first meeting.

SECTORAL UPDATE

- In the Pyapon hub, 8 clusters currently have active coordination mechanism at the hub level.

- In total, 28 agencies (5 UN agencies, 10 INGOs, 13 LNGOs) are present in the Pyapon hub.

EDUCATION

- In Pyapon, the Education Cluster meetings will cease along with the exit of the cluster. UNICEF's activities will be completed soon.

- In Maubin, Save the Children plans to construct 10 Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Centres in 10 villages. They have conducted a workshop on Psychosocial Support on 31 October to 2 November with the participation of 49 teachers.

FOOD

- WFP has organized a gap-analysis mapping exercise for its partners to categorise their interventions to assess whether the coverage is sufficient against the needs.

- WFP's November cycle of the general food distributions (GFD) are underway through implementing partners (ACF, AFXB, CARE, LOKA AHLINN, PACT, Samaritan's Purse, Save the Children, ICDP/UNDP and World Vision), targeting 129,600 beneficiaries. The food basket consists of: 12kg rice, 3kg beans, 0.9kg vegetable oil and 0.15kg iodized salt.

- WFP has introduced Supplementary Feeding for pregnant/lactating women and children less than 5 years by providing 4.5kg Corn Soya Blend (CSB) per beneficiary per month.

- On 11 November, an ECHO mission visited WFP Pyapon office and Chaung Twin village.