'Eating rats': Myanmar's second lockdown drives hunger in city slums | Halifax Chronical Herald - Shoon Naing:
October 23, 2020 - "After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewelry and gold to buy food to eat During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots. With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction labourer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city.
"'People are eating rats and snakes,' Ma Suu said through tears. 'Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.' They live in Hlaing Thar Yar, one of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods, where residents shine flashlights in the undergrowth behind their homes, looking for some night creature to stave off their hunger.
"With more than 40,000 cases and 1,000 deaths, Myanmar is facing one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, and the lockdown in Yangon has left hundreds of thousands of people, like Ma Suu, without work and precious little support. Local administrator Nay Min Tun said in his part of Hlaing Thar Yar 40% of households had received aid but many workplaces are shut and people had become more desperate. Myat Min Thu, the ruling party lawmaker for the area, said government aid and private donations was being distributed but acknowledged not everyone could be covered....
"Even before the pandemic, a third of Myanmar’s 53 million people were considered 'highly vulnerable' to falling into poverty, despite recent gains following the country’s emergence from decades of ruinous isolation under the military junta. The financial squeeze now threatens to plunge many back into poverty or squash their chances of getting out.
"Poverty in the developing East Asia and Pacific region is set to rise for the first time in 20 years ... the World Bank said in September, with about 38 million expected to remain in or be pushed back into poverty."
No comments:
Post a Comment