The first ever meeting to discuss the food crisis in Chin state in Burma is going to be held in the World Food Program (WFP) head-office in Rangoon , former capital of Burma on Wednesday.
"How to help the victims and the areas that have been badly affected by food crisis in Chin state is the main agenda of the meeting," Joseph Win Hlaing Oo, director of Country Agency for Rural Development (CAD) who will organize the meeting said.
Representatives from international and domestic Non Government Organizations based in Rangoon will be present in the meeting. The participants are from Oxfam GB, GRET (Groupe d' change et de recherche technologiques), KMSS (Karuna Myanmar Social Services), UNDP (United Nation Development program), CAD (Country Agency For Rural Development) and CARE, according to Joseph Win Hlaing Oo.
The famine called Mautam follows bamboo flowering and is said to have started in 2006 and plagued several parts of Chin state and caused food crisis in the region.
Rats multiply after eating bamboo flowers and damage paddy and other crops the main food of Chin people. The rats don't even spare barns where paddy stocks are kept.
According to the Chin relief group known as Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee (CFERC) based in Mizoram, northeast India , there are around 100,000 of over 500,000 people in Chin state facing shortage of food.
CRERC is the only relief group that is facilitating cross border relief aid from Mizoram to famine affected areas in Chin state. Recently the relief work of the CFERC has been hit by a lack of funds.
Despite a lot of Chin people facing hunger, The Burmese military regime has not addressed the crisis. Instead, the government is said to have confiscated and prohibited relief aid from churches in Chin state.
After repeated appeals by Chin people from inside and outside Burma , the meeting is to be held on Wednesday. It is a sign that the international and domestic NGOs based in Burma have started paying heed to the plight of western Burma facing starvation from food crisis.
The CAD was established in 2004 to combat poverty in rural areas, particularly in Chin state the most backward and isolated state in Burma .
