Tents from China shelter Myanmar quake survivors

YANGON — Under the white canopy of a China-donated tent at a relief camp in Mandalay, 33-year-old Ma Aye Aye cradled her 9-month-old baby while keeping an eye on a toddler playing nearby.

"These tents protect us from rain, heat, wind, and even mosquitoes if we zip them up," she said, gently holding her baby. "Before this, we lived on the ground."

Ma Aye Aye and her family are among the thousands forced to flee their homes after a series of devastating earthquakes rocked central Myanmar, destroying houses and claiming lives across 10 regions and states. The disaster, which included tremors as strong as magnitude 7.9, left around 3,800 people dead and displaced over 200,000 as of Friday.

"Our house was tilted and cracked," she said. Fearing it might collapse if another earthquake struck, they left, she added.

Like many others, they first took shelter on the roadside before moving to a makeshift camp set up on a football field with China-donated tents. China's donation is part of a larger humanitarian relief effort that brought in 13 batches of food, medicine, prefabricated shelters, fuel, and sanitation supplies.

"Chinese doctors also came. They checked our drinking water and gave health advice for my children," Ma Aye Aye said.

Her husband, a car driver, has struggled to return to work. With roads damaged and daily life disrupted, jobs have been slow to resume, local residents said.

In another part of the camp, 72-year-old Daw Aye Aye Chit shares a China-donated tent with six other family members. "We used to sleep on the street, with nothing above us," she recalled. "Now, we have tents, beds, and lights," she said.

Win Hlaing Phyo, a medical doctor and team leader with Myanmar's Ministry of Health's Central Epidemiological Unit in Mandalay, who is working at a relief camp housing China-donated tents, said the shelters have been a great help.

Xinhua