Rawang Youth Provide Aid to Flood Victims Neglected in Kachin State’s Far North
A youth group provides food to some 20 households displaced by flooding in Puta-O since mid-July, who have not received international aid.
An ethnic Rawang youth group provided food supplies to flood victims in Nawngmun Township, located in Puta-O District in northern Kachin State this week.
The 20 households that the Rvwàng (Rawang) New Generation Congress – Myanmar reached out to had not yet received aid from outside sources, they said. The township, located on the road to famed mountain peak Hkakabo Razi, is difficult to access due to its remote locale and underdeveloped transportation infrastructure.
“Locals people have suffered badly from the flooding. The water level hasn’t dropped back down. Therefore, our Rawang youth group went to provide assistance to them,” Mabu Sinsar, who is in charge of the Rawang New Generation Congress, told KNG.
On August 11, the group provided families in Yapbaw and Babaw villages with rice, cooking oil, soap, sugar, nutritional supplements, and basic medicines.
Nawngmun Township has been flooded since mid-July after streams in the area overflowed due to uncharacteristically heavy rainfall. Many houses reportedly collapsed.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) released its most recent Myanmar Monsoon Floods Update on August 12, reporting that throughout the country, some 80,000 people were currently seeking outside shelter due to flooding. The report stated that communities in Kachin State had been able to return home once floodwaters receded, but did not mention the continued crisis in the remote township of Nawngmun.
Members of the Rawang New Generation Congress pointed out that the affected communities in Nawngmun are still in need of further support and aid.