Baptist Christians in Myanmar were among those hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country on May 2 and 3, packing winds of 200 kilometers per hour and causing widespread flooding.

The Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) lost more than 10,000 members who died as a result of the cyclone. More than 94,000 other members have suffered loss of home and other property. Many church buildings were destroyed, and the headquarters of the MBC was badly damaged. The estimated cost of repairing the headquarters building is US$100,000.

A leader of the MBC, whose family narrowly escaped death and injury when a tree fell on their home during the storm, reported to the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) that Myanmar Baptists have put plans in place to assist those affected by the natural disaster.

The “Myanmar Baptist Convention organized the Nargis Relief and Rehabilitation Central Committee, including the leaders of MBC, and the Nargis-struck areas of Kayin, Pwo Kayin, MBCU and Asho Chin conventions,” he said. The MBC is divided into more than 20 other smaller conventions and those the MBC leader named are in the hardest hit areas.

The leader informed the BWA that “at present the basic needs of the people are foodstuffs, clothes and tents or construction materials,” but stated that “it is advised to assist in cash instead of in kind.”

BWAid Rescue24, a search, rescue and relief effort of Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the BWA, sent a team to Myanmar to do assessment of the damage and needs and to offer aid.

BWAid Rescue24 registered with the United Nations Development Program and opened an office in the damaged MBC building in Yangon, the largest city in the Southeast Asian country. The team is working through MBC and the Karen Baptist Convention, one of MBC’s smaller conventions, to offer aid to six camps where internally displaced persons (IDPs) are housed.

The team reported that “the assistance is literally saving lives at this point, with situations of widespread diarrhea, and serious electricity and water shortages.” They further informed the BWA that “the IDPs are desperately seeking shelter; the more fortunate get plastic sheeting while others are trying to fabricate huts from palm trees and bamboo.”

Reporting that the total death toll is now at 134,000, they said, "Cyclone Nargis destroyed the greatest rice productive fields and the animals used in agricultural work, leaving thousands with no hope for food for the next year." Furthermore, fishing, a major source of food, is not being done, "due to the fact that the masses of dead bodies could not be buried, local officials had to throw them into the rivers… Locals refuse to continue fishery from the contaminated water."