Merlin is coordinating an emergency response to help the thousands of people affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. A Merlin team, made up of a doctor, two logisticians and a project coordinator, will arrive in Laputta - one of the towns worst-affected by the disaster - within hours. Their first concern will be treating trauma patients on the ground, as well as carrying out a rapid assessment which will dictate our response over the coming days.
Merlin's Myanmar team in Yangon will help coordinate our work, and Merlin's Response Team in London will be landing in Myanmar within 24 hours to provide additional vital support.
Over 15,000 people are said to have been killed by the disaster, which devastated central and south west Myanmar on Saturday. 30,000 people are feared missing and over one million have been left homeless as winds of 120mph tore through the country. Communication lines have been ripped up, towns flattened and roads flooded. As a result, accessing people made homeless, vulnerable or sick is proving incredibly difficult.
Cyclone Nargis has claimed more lives than the tsunami when it hit the country in 2004. Merlin's been working in Myanmar for over three years and we have projects based in Aye-yar-waddy District, where much of the devastation occurred. Our teams are on the ground now, ready to save lives and start rebuilding Myanmar's health system.
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