Hla Hla Aung, a 35-year-old mother-of-six and resident of Mhawbi village outside Pyapon town in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta, explains the challenges she faces one year after Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving close to 140,000 people dead and 2.4 million affected.
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"Ever since late March when food distributions to our village stopped, it's been hard for us to survive.
"He earns just 1,000 kyat [about US 90 cents] a day driving a trishaw, which he rents for 700 kyats [about 60 cents] a day.
“But that’s not enough. Our family needs around 2,000 kyat [$1.80] for our daily food purchases and there are days he comes home with nothing; unable even to pay the rent on the trishaw.
"Although sometimes I can borrow rice from neighbours in the village or buy on credit, it’s not that easy. People around me face the same problems.
"Even when we received food assistance I still needed additional rice. Whatever was provided to us would invariably run out before the next round came. Almost every month, I had to buy additional rice to last for around 10 more days.
"We’re not ready to afford food ourselves. People should understand this and that we still need help. Please, don’t forget us.
"Before the cyclone, we never worried about such things as my husband – who worked as a day labourer on some of the paddy farms in the area - earned enough to provide for us.
“But with those farmers themselves now suffering, there are no longer any job opportunities for my husband either – a common problem around here.
"I know we cannot rely on the income he now earns, but we have no choice. I can’t leave my one-year-old son at home alone to work. Besides, there is no work for me either.
“Lately when my husband becomes sick and can’t work at all I buy rice on credit. But as the days pass, and there is no improvement in his health, we find ourselves going increasingly into deeper debt – a debt I’m not sure we will ever be able to repay. Our only option is to skip a meal.
“Faced with such a huge debt, I worry about the future and can’t sleep at night. I wonder when things will ever return to normal.”
lm/ds/mw
• IRIN's in-depth on the global food crisis
"Ever since late March when food distributions to our village stopped, it's been hard for us to survive.
"He earns just 1,000 kyat [about US 90 cents] a day driving a trishaw, which he rents for 700 kyats [about 60 cents] a day.
“But that’s not enough. Our family needs around 2,000 kyat [$1.80] for our daily food purchases and there are days he comes home with nothing; unable even to pay the rent on the trishaw.
"Although sometimes I can borrow rice from neighbours in the village or buy on credit, it’s not that easy. People around me face the same problems.
"Even when we received food assistance I still needed additional rice. Whatever was provided to us would invariably run out before the next round came. Almost every month, I had to buy additional rice to last for around 10 more days.
"We’re not ready to afford food ourselves. People should understand this and that we still need help. Please, don’t forget us.
"Before the cyclone, we never worried about such things as my husband – who worked as a day labourer on some of the paddy farms in the area - earned enough to provide for us.
“But with those farmers themselves now suffering, there are no longer any job opportunities for my husband either – a common problem around here.
"I know we cannot rely on the income he now earns, but we have no choice. I can’t leave my one-year-old son at home alone to work. Besides, there is no work for me either.
“Lately when my husband becomes sick and can’t work at all I buy rice on credit. But as the days pass, and there is no improvement in his health, we find ourselves going increasingly into deeper debt – a debt I’m not sure we will ever be able to repay. Our only option is to skip a meal.
“Faced with such a huge debt, I worry about the future and can’t sleep at night. I wonder when things will ever return to normal.”
lm/ds/mw
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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