One month since devastating earthquake in Myanmar

On 28 March, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, killing and injuring thousands of people. Since then, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been working in Mandalay region, located 20 kilometres away from the earthquake’s epicentre, to provide people with medical care, psychological aid, and essential items.

So far, we have restored 140 water sources for 475 families, distributed kits with soap, toothbrushes, menstrual products, and mosquito nets to over 2,000 families, and trained over 200 volunteers on psychological first aid. Through our mobile clinic in 8 locations across Mandalay region, our team has met and cared for people who have been directly affected, including Ma Win Win, Thein Zaw, and Khin Myo Khaing who shared their testimony about that day with us.

Ma Win Win

My husband and I were having dinner when it [the earthquake] started. He ran to find our son and fell between the kitchen and the main house. As he fell, bricks fell onto him one by one. When it all crumbled, I didn’t know what to do. 

My head felt like it was burning. A big stone hit my head. When the shaking was over, another big stone from the house fell and hit my head. 

When the earthquake hit, two of my children, my sister and her husband, my little brother, and an employee were trapped inside the house. I was the first to escape. Then my brother-in-law escaped. After he got out and my father reached the house, they rescued my son – it took five hours to dig him out of the rubble. They found my son wrapped in my sister’s arms. She did not survive. And I lost my husband too. Because he was the first to start running, I thought he had escaped. My child is too young to lose his father.

We who survived were injured. I had severed the arteries in my wrist. I went to a hospital in Mandalay right away. I still can’t bend or stretch my hand. I came to the clinic today to see how my hand is.

My child has been very scared since. I’m afraid it will happen again. I just want my husband back. 

Thein Zaw

On 28 March 28, my wife, daughter, and I were all at the tea shop where I work, on the fourth floor, making cakes and samosas for the next day. I was about to open the shop, so I was putting away the ingredients and at that moment, I heard a loud bang. 

To be honest, we first thought it was a mine or a bomb. We came here from the conflict zone; it sounded so familiar. 

Then the Buddha statue fell, and when it fell, my wife said: “Earthquake, earthquake, earthquake, sit down.” I have only one leg - we had a motorcycle accident two and a half years ago - and I thought we can’t run because we were on the fourth floor. I protected my daughter and my wife protected me. The house was shaking. We had to move things to get out of the house. 

When the aftershock hit, we were on the road in a rickshaw – we wanted to go home. The house was still there, so we all went home.  

Many buildings in our neighborhood have collapsed. There were not enough ambulances. We were able to help carry the sick and the dead with our tricycle. We did what we could. When we saw those collapsed buildings, we felt very bad. In my heart, it's not good. 

My daughter’s hand was slightly injured. It wasn’t too bad. But when she hears a loud sound now, she wants to run. Her heart is beating fast in her chest, and she’s very scared. She used to want to live in a big building with 3 or 4 floors, but now she feels very scared after this earthquake. 

Khin Myo Khaing

My youngest daughter has a cough, so I came to the clinic to get her looked at. My sister and I came to the clinic together, she is pregnant. After the earthquake she was not sure that everything was ok, so she came for a check-up. 

On 28 March, we had visitors at our house. We were in the kitchen making rice and frying cakes for them. When the earthquake started, I first thought it was raining. From the kitchen I called out to my mother: “Mom, the rain is coming, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining, it's raining.” Then I realised that it wasn't rain, it was an earthquake. 

I was so worried for my four-month-old baby in the other room. My mother said: “Don't run, I'll take care of the baby.” Then my sister-in-law called out: “Don't run, sit down.”

I sat down in the kitchen with my 6-year-old daughter, we almost fell to the ground. The wooden chair we had just been sitting on tumbled and hit my head, but I was lucky. 

I have never experienced such a violent earthquake.