« Assistance for Self-reliance Part 1 | Main | Assistance for Self-Reliance, Part 2 »

2010.04.28

Unity

It will soon be two years since the cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar. In the villages that are suffering from its aftermath, the local people are helping each other to restore their pre-Nargis condition. In the village where we are working, with the town leader as the center of our work, we have restored vivacity in people who carry diseases or have lost their families.

Img_0060_4 I would like to tell a story of what happened when JEN’s staff went surveying the village. A staff’s sandal all of a sudden broke while he was walking on a road, so he had to walk in a wobbly sandal. The local people who saw that, then, would offer their own sandals, one after another. Despite our refusals, they wouldn’t take them back.

Img_0079_2  These people are equipped with such a cooperating spirit. Nobody indulges in his or her own self-interest.  It must be this kindness that had allowed the town to revive. Although the town has not fully restored its pre-disaster state, we believe that they will continue to exude their marvelous sense of unity that had been fortified by the cyclone experience.

April 28, 2010 in Myanmar |