Most of Yangon's people were still without power and running water Thursday. At one makeshift well built on a sidewalk, neighborhood women, decorously wrapped in cloth normally worn as traditional longyi sarongs, took bucket showers as the morning traffic rolled past.
Small boys and girls dipped plastic engine oil containers and buckets into a pool of fresh water pumped from underground with a portable generator. The children struggled to carry the sloshing buckets home on their heads.
The cyclone destroyed bridges, blocked roads with fallen trees, sank ships and caused other damage that has disrupted Yangon's port, leaving the city with dwindling fuel supplies.
The local businessman is funding his aid effort with the support of friends in California and other parts of the United States. He went to members of the regime seeking approval and transportation to deliver relief supplies in the delta region.
Like many here, he sided with the opposition when he saw monks beaten and shot at by troops last year, but is now appealing to bureaucrats to save lives.
The word-of-mouth fundraising campaign has raised $50,000 so far, and as he maneuvers his way through the bureaucracy, the businessman also has to find a way around U.S. economic sanctions to get the money into Myanmar.
"I will have my own way to do that," said the businessman, who added that some officials have been eager to speed up approval. "Someone who is very helpful is helping me. When you speak with the right person, you can get things done.
"We have no black and white at this moment, no argument over democracy or the military regime. We don't care. I only want to help the people who need it."
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How to help
Action Against Hunger
247 W. 37th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10018
(877) 777-1420
support.actionagainsthunger.
org/donate
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
JDC: Myanmar Cyclone Relief
P.O. Box 530
132 East 43rd St.
New York, NY 10017
(212) 687-6200
www.jdc.org
American Jewish World Service
45 W. 36th St., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10018
(212) 792-2900
www.ajws.org
American Refugee Committee
P.O. Box 1415
Minneapolis, MN 55485-5618
(612) 872-7060
www.arcrelief.org
Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team
6810 Tilden Lane
Rockville, MD 20852
