One of our Red Cross disaster workers – Colin Chaperon – is going into Myanmar today to support the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Myanmar Red Cross Society response operation for Cyclone Nargis.

Colin will be in Myanmar for a month to help establish reporting and monitoring systems across several sectors such as water and sanitation, logistics, emergency shelter, health and early recovery.

To date, the American Red Cross has contributed more than $2 million to the operation, including more than 160,000 relief items, such as blankets, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, and insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Here’s what he had to say just before leaving Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Yangon, Myanmar:

“I left Washington, DC on July 22nd, and arrived in Kuala Lumpur on the 23rd after a full 24-hour journey via Seoul, Korea. After just a few hours of sleep I started a full day of operational briefings at the International Federation’s hub in Asia Pacific. I fly to Myanmar today, July 24th. Communications continue to be sporadic. I will not have access to my work or personal e-mail but I will be in touch as I can. A text page from time-to-time may be all I can manage during the initial days. I plan to buy a local phone in-country. My blackberry won’t work here – perhaps that’s a GOOD thing! Stand-by for more updates…”

Filed under: Disaster Response, Flickr, International, Uncategorized