Two years on from Cyclone Nargis, ActionAid has helped 200,000 people in the Myanmar Delta to build safer communities.

Immediately after the cyclone, food, water and shelter were provided. Since then ActionAid has focused on longer-term work, helping people to rebuild their lives in more than 900 villages.

Working through local partners, ActionAid’s response in the Ayarwadddy Delta has focused on reducing the risk of disaster, livelihood support, capacity building and psychosocial care.

By linking relief activities to longer term recovery and working with local partners and a network of village volunteers and fellows, ActionAid has brought about real change.

“After the cyclone, we had no way of earning a living and no income,” says Ma Cho Mar Win, 20, from Labutta in the Delta. “We had to depend on donations for food so when ActionAid provided us with a net and a boat, it was the first time we were able to earn money.”

ActionAid is also working with people to reduce the risk of future disasters and helping those affected to carry on working.

“We don’t panic now when there are strong winds and storms as we know how to handle potential disasters,” said a 53-year-old woman from Thae Ein Chaung Su village in response to a ActionAid social audit in 2009. “We keep dried foods, bury important property and run to secure shelters.”

Despite huge progress, recent evidence suggests that only 46 per cent of damaged houses have been repaired and 84 per cent of affected households feel their housing is inadequate.

“The international community needs to be more strategic in the provision of long term livelihood support,” said Shihab Uddin Ahamad, ActionAid’s country manager in Myanmar.

“And donors need to be more flexible so agencies can work with communities to bring about long term change.”

ActionAid has recently secured an additional $3m for shelter, livelihoods and sanitation programmes in the Delta. Projects will continue until at least 2011, working with people to rebuild their lives and ensure they are better prepared for future disasters.