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FIELD REPORT: Mae Sot, Thailand |
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KIRF is getting disaster relief supplies into Burma (Myanmar)
June 10, 2008
by Mark Kirwin
 The tragedy in Burma from Cyclone Nargis that hit on May 2nd is far worse than what we have been lead to believe. During the last few days, I have interviewed Burmese refugees and seen footage of the tragedy that the locals took using their cell phones and other small cameras. Many Burmese have gathered this information at great personal risk with hopes that the outside world will know the true extent of the devastation, homelessness, sickness, loss of life caused by the cyclone and the Burmese military junta's intentional interference with international aid to the victims. While I was watching a video taken of the disaster area that showed the destruction and people begging for aid in the Irrawaddy RIver Delta on a computer, in the same room there was a TV broadcast from Burma that was created by military junta. It showed a fiction of images of nice tent cities with well feed people. Unfortunately, these fabricated TV images are not the truth of what is happening inside of the country as I learned from eye witnesses.
 Through many confidential meetings with Thai and Burmese humanitarians in northern Thailand, we were able to get disaster relief supplies into Burma. The supplies will be distributed through a network of Buddhist monks. The supplies KIRF donations purchased include mosquito nets, tarps, blankets, antibiotics and other emergency medical aid. The many people who are making this effort happen are very brave because they are at serious risk of harm if the military junta finds out what they are doing. KIRF, through it contacts with these local humanitarians are using this unofficial aid network to get disaster relief into the country. Others have joined our effort and a new load of supplies is going across the same route n the next few days.
I wish I could tell you the names of the brave people who helped us get the supplies into their country but for their safety, I can not. Burma is a dangerous place right now. For instance, when we delivered our truck loads at the boarder crossing we were provided an armed guard by the unofficial aid network for protection.
Now that we have established an effective means to get the supplies to the disaster victims in Burma, KIRF intends to send more aid. KIRF will ensure that funds donated to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis goes to purchasing disaster relief that gets delivered into Burma. We will do this so that we can purchase more supplies for the cyclone victims, many of which are now dying from treatable infections, disease and starvation.
 One of the major populations devastated by the cyclone in the Irrawaddy River delta and southern region of Burma, and who is being denied aid by the Myanmar military, is the Karen people. The Karen are one of several major ethnic groups in Burma with their own culture and language. For years, the Karen have been struggling to keep their traditional territory called the Karen State and their ancestral homesteads near the Thai border from being appropriated by the Burmese military junta through a systematic program of genocide that has included mass murder, rape, torture, forced labor, and the dispersal of land mines. The Karen State is rich in natural resources such as natural gas, timber and rice farming.
For more information about KIRF providing humanitarian aid to Karen refugees from Burma last year, please see my previous field report >
Thanks to all the people I can not name, and to my brother Stephen, who has been my right hand man during this relief trip.
Thank you to all for your support from the border of Thailand and Burma,
Mark
 P.S. Thankfully, we were able to get supplies to the victims of the cyclone through our contacts in Thailand and Burma. In addition, on this last trip, we worked with Support the Children Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand and supplied another refrigerator and ice cream maker so that AIDS affected children could make and sell ice cream in order to purchase food for lunch at their rural school. Local dairy farmers supply the cream that they need at below market prices.
Photos (top to bottom): Homes crushed and flooded by Cyclone Nargis in Burma; KIRF's Cyclone Nargis relief supplies being ferried across the river into Burma (Myanmar); Brothers Mark and Stephen Kirwin with a Burmese monk disaster relief worker (whose face has been blurred to protect his identity). KIRF Collection. |
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FIELD REPORT: Lima, Peru |
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KIRF Helping Homeless Earthquake Survivors in Peru
October 17, 2007
by Mark Kirwin
 A 7.9 Magnitude earthquake struck Peru on August 15 of this year. The earthquake flattened homes, buildings and churches in the coastal areas of Peru from the town of Cañete to south of the town of Ica. The devastation extended along 200 miles of coastline in the regions of Cañete and Ica. In preparing for the KIRF relief trip we learned from international relief postings and media reports that 35,568 houses were destroyed and 503 people had been killed.
However, when I landed in Lima 35 days after the quake, I found out from the Peruvians that the earthquake disaster had a much higher human cost than reported by the international media. Over 64,000 homes had been completely destroyed or made uninhabitable. Only about 1/4 of the people made homeless by the earthquake had been given temporary tents to live in by international relief agencies. During my daily excursions from Lima, I saw tent camps set-up in schoolyards, crop fields and in and around the adobe rubble of destroyed villages. Lima is about 2 ½ hour drive north of the town of Cañete in the province of the same name. Read more about KIRF's earthquake disaster relief in Peru >
The devasting Peruvian earthquake reduced most of the Ica's buildings and homes to piles of rubble. Photo: Mark Kirwin |
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We help..... |
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Because the world is full of people who suffer unexpected tragedies, depriving them of basic needs such a clothing, food, shelter, health and even life, there is a need for those of us who have to give to those who now have nothing.
Compassion, kindness and love guide us at the Kirwin International Relief Foundation to raise funds to assist those in need of dire relief. Inspired to give today by the devastation of the Andaman Sea tsunami and tomorrow for the unexpected calamities that will continue to challenge humankind.
Our non-profit foundation assists people with reconstruction of their lives and livelihood in a sustainable, environmentally conscious manner.
P. Mark Kirwin, Esq.
Co-Founder
January 1, 2005 |
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| Keep In Touch |
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| News |
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First KIRF Tsunami Orphan University Scholarship Awarded in Thailand
March 2008
 "I cannot express the amount of joy I have reading your report. We are so very glad that KIRF was able to help," Mark Kirwin said upon hearing that the first tsunami orphan will get a scholarship to college. The Population and Community Development Association (PDA), a renown sustainable development and public health non-profit organization based in Bangkok, announced that the first tsunami orphan received a KIRF scholarship to the Rajabhat Phuket University. The selected scholar is a 19 year old girl from Phang Nga province. She lost her father and the sole family wage earner to the tsunami in 2004. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree.
PDA Chairman Senator Mechai Viravaidya and Mark Kirwin in Bangkok at PDA's headquarters setting up the KIRF Educational Fund for Tsunami Orphans in May 2006. Photo: KIRF Collection
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KIRF delivers school supplies in Huantan, Peru
March 2008
KIRF founder Mark Kirwin returned to Peru in March and delivered textbooks and school supplies to a remote Andean village in need. In addition, KIRF partnered with a battered women's shelter non-profit in LIma to provide micro-loans to entrepreneurial mothers so that they can gain financial self-sufficiency for themselves and support their children. Microloans are small loans secured by social collateral. Loan repayment and compliance is managed by the recipients themselves in a small cooperative. We have seen for ourselves how poor families can become financially self-sufficient through a micro-loan program. Check out photos from Peru >
Photo: KIRF Collection
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KIRF India's web site due to launch soon!
 "It looks incredible!" Diane Kirwin, founder and director of KIRF India said about her non-profit's upcoming new web site soon to be at KIRFIndia.org.
KIRF India is a separate non-profit based in India with an Indian board of trustees. KIRF has provided drought relief, school supplies and microloans to the most impoverished and repressed families of the Dalit caste in Bihar, India through KIRF India. Please check out KIRF India's new web site for contact and donation information at www.KIRFIndia.org >
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you can make a difference! |
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Please support our grassroots disaster relief and sustainable development. You can make a difference.
Please make an online donation by clicking here >
Online donations are tax deductable and go directly to our non-profit account at the International Humanities Center. Checks should be made out to “KIRF/IHC":
Kirwin International Relief Foundation (or "KIRF")
c/o International Humanities Center
Post Office Box 923
Malibu, CA 90265
Donations made to “KIRF/IHC” are tax deductable. The Kirwin International Relief Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the International Humanities Center. Tax I.D. # 33-0767921.
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The privacy of our supporters and the security of their online transactions on our web site are important to us. Private and personally identifiable information will not be given, traded, sold, released or otherwise communicated to a third party, without their consent. Read our Privacy Policy >
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Top of page photos (left to right): Mark Kirwin, Co-Founder of KIRF with his mother Diane Kirwin who founded the KIRF Bodhgaya Indian Trust in front of a new KIRF Education Center near Bodhgaya, Bihar, India. Photo: Kirwin International Relief Collection;
A home destroyed by the tsunami in flooded estuary near Bin Bang Bang, Thailand. Photo: Mark Kirwin;
Rotating photos:
Angela's new friends at hurricane evacuee campsite in Picayune, MS. Photo: Timothy Burdick/Brooks Institute of Photography
Tsunami orphans who need scholarships to continue school in Ranong Province, Thailand. Photo: Stephen Kirwin
Rebuilding Fish Farm with KIRF donations, Thailand. Photo: Jada
Water again in the village of Bandha – made possible by KIRF's donors. Photo: Rick Fendrick, MSPH;
Right Photo: Maasai cattle leaving over-grazed hillsides during dry season near Oldonyo Sambu, Tanzania. Photo: Angela Rockett Kirwin
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© 2005–2008 Kirwin International Relief Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
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