The Inter Agency Working Group (IAWG) for Chin famine victims will hold a meeting to discuss the Chin famine issue in Rangoon , the former capital of Burma , on March 27, 2009 . The meeting would be held under the aegis of the World Food Program (WFP).
“This meeting is being facilitated by the WFP. Indeed, the agency adopted an Inter Agency Steering Committee (IASC) and IASC, under UNO, has passed a USD 300 million budget for Burma this year. Therefore, they asked us to form the IAWG so that they could support Chin State ’s development,” Kung Za Hmung, Director of Country Agency for Rural Development, said.
He added that the coming meeting would be dominated by the issue of Chin famine victims. “We have to submit our work reports on the Famine Aid that we are providing to Chin State , since the Department for International Development (DFID) had granted us USD 1 million, in the winter of 2008,” he said.
According to the CAD Director’s notes, we heard that DFID had agreed with IAWGS to help with another financial grant for Chin famine victims.
“At the moment, we are working with DFID’s donation of USD 1 million for relief for the Chin famine.” said a IAWGS member.
There are three main NGOs working for Chin famine victims, with the project of DFID grant of USD 1 million, WFP, CAD and UNDP. Under the WFP, there are umbrella organizations of NGOs such as CARE, World Vision and, GRET.
“Under this project, CAD is providing 72,000 bags of Ration (360 tons) to famine-hit villages such as, Tinam, Malsawm, Phaipha, Surkhua, Lungtar, Dongva, Hakha Township , in Chin state. We use “Food for Work” system,” said the CAD Director.
Under this system, local people are encouraged to construct roads, and charge ‘one hundred ration bags per mile rate’. It is believed that 75 miles of roads have been constructed since the work began.
On the other hand, one of their partners, the UNDP uses another system in which, they complete their target area of famine victims by giving ‘Money’ – Ks. 20,000/- every month of every family within three months.
“As soon as we finish this USD 1 million project, we, IAWGC will continue this famine aid program with other projects, with the help of DFID and IASC,” said the CAD director.
“UNDP has finished their project, but we, CAD and WFP have finished only 40% of the project. So, I cannot tell in detail about this project at the moment. Hopefully it will be over by the end of this summer,” he added.
IAWG was founded in August 2008. Under this agency, there are eight NGOs and International Non-governmental Organizations working in Chin state, called WFP, CAD, UNDP, CARS, World Vision, GRET, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the more recent, I Love Myanmar, organization.
