With 18 teams, MAM and MOCRU provided a wide range of services, including mobile clinics and two fixed clinics (in Mandalay and Sagaing), referral of severely injured individuals, mental health support, and large-scale supply of food, cash, household items, and solar lamps. April and May are high risk months for cholera. In an attempt to prevent an outbreak, MAM/MOCRU set up two large drinking water systems (each with a capacity of 5,000 litres of drinking water per hour), and toilets in camps where many people lived packed together. As of 20 May, MOCRU Director Prof Frank Smithuis reports that MOCRU/MAM have distributed 750,000 litres of water.
By early May, MOCRU/MAM had supported 72,000 people at 370 villages and camps with 1-month food rations and cash. They conducted 7,000 patient consultations at MAM’s fixed and mobile clinics, and referred 50 patients for surgery and paid for their treatment.
The earthquake had major mental health impacts. Many survivors were extremely sad because of the loss of family members and in total panic because of the many aftershocks that hit the area. MOCRU/MAM provided 800 mental health counselling sessions (both individual and group), listening to the challenges faced by the earthquake victims. For affected children, MAM counselling teams conducted group drawing sessions as a form of therapy.
- Photos: ©MOCRU/MAM.