Cyclone brings devastation to Myanmar, May 2008

Click thumbnails for full-size image.

All photos courtesy of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is one of the few American social service agencies that has been able to get onto the ground in Myanmar, where Cyclone Nargis killed anywhere between 30,000, the number given by the country's military rulers, and 100,000, the estimate provided by human rights groups earlier this month.

While the military junta in Myanmar is still keeping out aid workers and organizations from Western countries, especially the United States, the JDC was able to send in several Israel-based employees to assess the situation on the ground, which is becoming more dire by the day, as clean water and food are unavailable to most of the 1.5 million people affected by the cyclone.

An operative of JDC, which is working with IsrAid: The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid, arrived in the area May 8 to assess the situation, and they along with the Israeli government have already shipped into Myanmar a ton of bananas, rice and drinking water. The groups are also arranging for medical workers and further aid.

Photos have been slow to come out of Myanmar, where the junta is a wary of the foreign press as it is of foreign aid workers, but the JDC was able to secure these photos taken along the route from Myanmar's capital, Yangon, to the most hardest hit areas in the region along the Irwaddy Delta, where entire villages were washed away.

Only today did the junta allow in Unite d Nations leaders to tour the region.

The JDC and other Jewish groups are collecting money for a relief effort.

See also: Burmese Jew going home as Jewish groups mount aid effort