VOLTA4 supports People in Need (PIN)

Corresponding to a difficult time in some countries in our planet, 20% of the sale of any of the smaller 6-seater dinner tables by Winter + Hoerbelt will go directly to the international relief organization People in Need (PIN). Working directly with local churches, religious communities and NGO's, PINs members travel directly to disaster areas cash-in-hand to distribute funds directly to the organizations and victims in need.

 

Here we attach the statement of this registered charity foundation.

 

Since Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in the night of May 2nd my foundation People In Need (PIN) spent about US-Dollars 110,000 in emergency assistance for Cyclone victims, PIN supported three evacuation camps by the Catholic Church with 1,800 plus survivors in the inner Delta region, we already repaired the Boarding House for HIV/AIDS patients in Yangon; we extended our mental health program for political prisoners to include traumatized Cyclone victims and sent 50 mental health counselors to villages in Yangon Division, PIN helps the homeless parents of our Yangon nursery for the Poor and I assist local communities to apply for help internationally. But now I need your help and assistance; the need is simply too big for me.

 

After Cyclone Nargis hit the Ayeyarwady Delta and Yangon Division, the need of 1.5 million homeless people is tremendous. On day 13 after the Cyclone still 95% of Yangon is without electricity and hence water and many people are homeless. The Delta Area west of Yangon is still flooded and the remote villages have not seen any help and did not get food and water; as the monsoon season started the survivors are without shelter in the remains of their bamboo houses. The official death toll is 35,000; the UN puts the number at 105,000 deaths. The corpses are still floating in the rivers as places to bury and fuel to burn the dead are scarce.

 

The ruthless junta does withhold assistance from the Cyclone victims and even worse, only about 30% (UN estimate) of the international humanitarian help reaches the survivors. The military appropriates most of the goods for their own profit and announces cynically that everything is under control and the clean-up is going well; the Myanmar government has allocated a meager 5 billion Kyats (4.5 million US-Dollars) for the Cyclone Nargis disaster.

 

As most of the donated goods do not reach the people we help local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Christian churches, Muslim Communities and Buddhist monasteries with money to buy rice, water, salt, medicine, Tarpaulin, Diesel, etc. and they distribute the supplies through their local resources and within their evacuation camps to the survivors. Over the last four year we worked through local NGOs only and we have developed a good network: we can identify the ones which are active, trustworthy and work in the disaster areas where the military and government does not go. In the disaster area we mostly work with the Catholic and Baptist churches, Buddhist monasteries and the Karen Development Network, as many of the victims are ethnic Karens. To be clear, we do not pass money to the head offices in Yangon, we rather go to the individual parishes, monasteries and local communities and assess the needs before we pass on assistance locally. By that we also avoid the overheads of big organizations; 100% of our donations go to the needy. (I pay for my own expenses)

 

Currently, our main activity is to get cash into Myanmar; due to financial sanctions, no financial system (no bank services, no credit cards, no ATMs, etc). We have to carry the cash from Bangkok to Yangon and pass it on to the communities in need. (I don’t smuggle the money, I declare the cash import officially). Caritas Germany has just approved EURO 180,000 for emergency relief which will be channeled through People In Need.

 

Today, the need in Burma is for emergency assistance (rice, water, medicine etc.) rather than for special projects of People in Need; the reconstruction projects will come later when the survival of the Cyclone victims is secured. The situation in Myanmar is worse than shown on the TV and I would like to ask you for a donation for the suffering population in the cyclone-devastated areas.

 

Please transfer your donation to

 

Account: Dr. Gerhard A. F. Baumgard

 

People In Need - Gerhard Baumgard Stiftung

 

Grossmannswiese 1

 

D-65594 Runkel / Lahn

 

Germany

 

 

 

US-Dollar-Account: 001-288513-203

 

EURO-Account: 001-288513-204

 

 

 

Bank: Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd (HSBC)

 

HSBC Building

 

968 Rama IV Road,

 

Silom, Bangrak

 

Bangkok 10500

 

Thailand

 

Tel +66 2 614 4701

 

 

 

SWIFT Code: HSBCTHBK

 

BIC Code: HSTHTHB1XXX

 

 

 

People In Need is a registered German Charity; we will issue tax-deductible receipts for your donation (relevant for German taxpayers only)