Travel companies in Myanmar provide cyclone relief

While governments and some relief agencies seemed stymied in their efforts to rush aid to cyclone-battered Myanmar, two tour companies that have staff and offices in the Asian nation have turned into aid givers.

Marilyn Staff, president of Boulder, Colo.-based Asia Transpacific Journeys, said the staff of 75 locals and three Westerners on the ground in Myanmar were able to respond immediately after Tropical Cyclone Nargis, which left tens of thousands dead.

“We are in the enviable position of being very small [players] but able to trump the big guys in terms of being able to provide critical services because we’re already there,” Staff said. “We are activated, motivated and working 24/7.”

As of Friday, Myanmar‘s government continued to thwart large-scale relief efforts. The U.N. temporarily halted its relief operations.

That left tour operators that were in place uniquely poised to respond.

For three years, Asia Transpacific Journeys’ nonprofit foundation has been in Myanmar producing clay water filters that produce clean drinking water. The foundation operates two facilities, one of which was severely damaged by the cyclone.

The 2,000 filters the company has on hand, Staff said, were being distributed in Yangon, the capital, to village centers, hospitals and schools using the company’s trucks, cars and even a boat.

It will take at least two weeks to produce more filters, which cost about $20 each to make and provide a family of six with potable water for about two years. Using the filters, residents can scoop up water -- provided it’s not chemically tainted -- and strain out bacteria, Staff said.

“There’s no potable water in the capital and no potable water up and down the river,” she said, adding that the foundation would “stick to its mission” of producing and distributing water filters instead of food and other relief items.

Abercrombie & Kent, another company that operates tours in Myanmar, is contacting past clients and asking them to contribute to its aid effort.

So far, A&K has mobilized its ground crew with $15,000 to buy essential supplies such as rice, drinking water, cooking oil, medicines, clothing and tents.

Staff members are “driving the truck with the supplies they have purchased . . . and personally delivering them hand to hand to refugees in Pathein,” said A&K spokeswoman Pamela Lassers. The company is enlisting help from its offices in Hong Kong and Thailand.

“This is person to person, nothing to do with the government,” Lassers said. “This is a tragedy of enormous scale, just beyond imagination. Everyone wants to see as much aid as possible going directly to these people, and we’re able to work through our local office.”

Both companies lead tours of Myanmar in October, far from summer’s monsoon season.

A&K welcomes donations from the public through Friends of Conservation. Asia Transpacific Journeys’ nonprofit also is taking donations to keep its water filter production facilities open to meet the crucial need.

Click here for a list of other agencies accepting donations.