Reverend Tim Costello. Pic: Supplied

WORLD Vision Australia head Reverend Tim Costello says the first question people around the world asked following the news of cyclone Nargis was, “Wow, is this like the 2004 tsunami?”

“That’s the frame of reference, the measuring stick for natural disasters,” he says. “Then we started to say, ‘Yeah, this actually is’ in terms of its impact on [Myanmar] … because it’s taken out the rice basket, it’s gone 250 kilometres inland whereas the tsunami only went 3 to 4km inland.”

Mr Costello, an Australian, spoke to The Myanmar Times the same day the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and UN emergency relief coordinator, John Holmes, singled out the Australian government’s response to the US$187 million UN Flash Appeal.

Immediately after the Flash Appeal launch, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged an additional AU$22 million – taking the country’s contribution to AU$25 million, which would be split evenly between the UN Flash Appeal and Australian NGOs like World Vision.

“I think the Australian government has been magnificent. I’ve been talking to Kevin Rudd fairly regularly while I’ve been here and he is a person who’s very committed to fighting global poverty, very committed to the millennium development goals and got elected, on that basis, at the last election,” he says.

“The message is that we’re part of this region, [Myanmar’s] one of our nearest neighbours, thank you Europe, thank you America for helping but this is particularly an Australian responsibility – this is the guys next door for us.”

He says this was reflective of the wider mood in Australia.

“The Australian public probably has a natural affinity with Myanmar because just about everyone knows the stories of our soldiers here on the Burma railway so there was resonance immediately … and they wanted to respond and help out.

World Vision, an Australian-based international NGO, has been operating in Myanmar for 30 years and has 588 staff, as well as a healthy relationship with the government.

Mr Costello says the importance of this was underlined when he recently met with the minister for social welfare and resettlement, who provided a letter for World Vision to pass through checkpoints quickly and guaranteeing they could distribute their own aid.

“The minister said ‘I know World Vision, I know what you doing.’ I assured him we’re only here for humanitarian reasons and he agreed,” Mr Costello says. “He said that certainly World Vision had the respect of the govern-ment to do the work it was doing.”

“We would like to build on that trust we have from 30 years working here with the government by saying, ‘We’re not engaged in politics, we’re not here with a political agenda, we’re a humanitarian-only organisation and this is about saving lives, not having any other agenda whatsoever.’”

“International NGOs are not beholden to any ideology, to any government, to any sort of politics. They will accommodate themselves to any political context to save lives,” he says, citing the examples of how World Vision, a Christian-based organisation, has previously worked in Iran and Iraq – both fundamental Islamic countries.

But despite some concessions from the government, Mr Costello says there is still much more that can be done, particularly in regards to access.

Mr Costello received one of two World Vision visas so far approved – the other went to a water and sanitation expert, while 14 were declined. He says more are needed because the international crisis experts provide the organisation and co-ordination that local, partner organisations need.

There are other problems, though, with having such a large disparity between the number of international and local aid workers, he says.

“They are specialists because they have not just the experience but skills that the local office just does not have, skill that would be incredibly important in managing logistics, setting up the necessary structures to prevent an epidemic,” he says. But they can also manage the local staff who are, themselves, in a state of shock; they have family members they haven’t heard from, they are like everybody here, at one level, victims of the cyclone.”

“It’s important to recognise that when so many have been traumatised, local aid workers are not always the best-placed with the greatest skills and the perspective to respond with the most objectivity.”

“I’ve been in a lot of crises and this is the narrowest humanitarian space to work in.”

But the void has partly been filled, at least temporarily, by the philanthropy of ordinary Myanmar people, many of whom have little to give, which has impressed Mr Costello.

“We need to act quickly. We know as the water recedes we’ve got a chance to get back clean water and sanitation. As the monsoon hits, we’ll lose that opportunity again. That’s when people who are already frail will be utterly susceptible to water-borne and opportunistic diseases.”

Ensuring that the next rice crop, which would normally be planted in late May, goes ahead is another major challenge. This is as much to do with seed and salt-affected paddies as the trauma inflicted on those who would normally be doing the planting and harvesting.

“Our staff are saying it’s knife-edge whether people are going to have the wherewithal, the seed, the strength to actually meet the planting deadlines,” he says. “People are trying to rebuild their lives, they’re trying to make sense of the pain, they’re grieving lost loved ones. It’s as if they’re walking in slow motion, trying to grab hold of whether they can trust life and have confidence again, which makes productivity and getting out there with industry really difficult.