Internally displaced people (IDPs) fleeing war from Kayah State (Karenni State) to Sisai Township is southern Shan State have recently been facing shortages of food and medicine, as donations have run out, according to volunteers helping the refugees.
A member of Southern Shan State IDP Committee told Shan Herald, “IDPs who have been sheltering there since July have been facing food and medical shortages after donations become sparse after more than a year after their displacement.”
He also said that some IDPs could not even eat rice and had to drink only porridge during the period when there were no donors and no jobs.
Now it’s been 4 months since the donors have stopped coming, said a man from the town of Demoso, who is taking refuge in an IDP camp on the border of Karenni and Shan States.
“It’s corn harvest time, so there’s still a day-labor job. Donors have not come for 4 months. If there are no more day-labor workplaces, we will surely be in harsh conditions. If we go to work in a corn field, we can earn 6000 kyats a day. When there is no donor, we have to wait for someone who will call us for day- labor jobs”, he explained.
Due to the nature of day-labor jobs, there is no guarantee that a regular employer will hire a worker every day. He said that he got a job because November is the corn harvest season, but will be unemployed for after November.
IDPs in southern Shan State rely mainly on local donors, but since August of this year, the number of donors has declined significantly.
“There were many donors in the past. I also got a lot of help from my friends. But as time passed, donors became less and less. My friends also have difficulties after I have to ask for help frequently. If possible I would like the United Nations to aid IDPs with emergency expenses”, a woman who fled war said.
Of the more than 1000 IDPs in Sisai, about 300 are chronic patients who need to receive regular treatment and medicine. Among them are people with brain tumors and blind children.
“A 14-year-old child is suffering from a brain tumor and jaundice. Normally he goes to Sao San Htun Hospital in Taunggyi City for X-rays and also takes long-term medication. The medical expenses for that child should be over a lakh kyats per month.
There is also another child who is 11 years old and is blind due to corneal damage. The cost of treating him is too high, so nothing has been done so far for him”, the woman added.
There have been 8 people who died of chronic diseases due to lack of medicine this year alone.
In November and December last year, some UN agencies collected information about the Karenni IDPs in Sisai, but to date, there has been no financial support yet.
