AS police and emergency services swung into action following the deadly bombing of a water festival pandal on April 15, help was also being provided by a less obvious source.
The Dhammaduta Organisation, a Buddhist civil society group led by Dr Chekinda, a professor of the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University, was also giving emergency assistance to victims.
“Once I heard the news, I left my monastery in Hmawbi and took medical equipment, supplies and medicine to Yangon General Hospital. I was the only non-staff member pr victim permitted to enter the emergency ward,” Dr Chekinda told The Myanmar Times last week.
The equipment was used to treat some of the victims of the blasts, which killed at least eight people and injured more than 170.
Through the association, Dr Chekinda also managed to organise food for the victims as well as doctors, nurses and Myanmar Red Cross Society members who were dealing with the wounded. He also provided spiritual guidance for the victims, many of whom were just teenagers.
“I really felt sad when I met a girl – she was only about 15 – who had injured her leg. She was not even at the pandal, she’d just gone there to look for her father. When she arrived, the bomb went off and her leg was injured,” Dr Chekinda said.
While her father was not injured, her mother died in the bomb blast.
“There are many other people who had similar traumatic experiences,” he said. “For these young people, this is a tragedy that will remain with them forever.”
Ma Nan Kyaw, 29, suffered a head injury in the second of three blasts to hit the X2O pandal on April 15. Of her group of 10 friends, one was seriously injured and she said he may lose his leg.
“First I heard an explosion; I thought a car tyre had popped. Then I heard another explosion and I felt that my head was hot. My friend beside me was hit on her leg and we began to run away from the pandal, we realised then it was a bomb,” Ma Nan Kyaw said.
“I was afraid, and went straight home instead of being put in the ambulance,” she added.
Later, she was collected and taken to hospital by a team from the Dhammaduta Organisation.
Ko Okka Thein, a Dhammaduta Organisation member who works for the United Nations Development Program, helped to rally blood donors and prevent the hospital running low on blood supplies.
“I was actually at the X2O pandal on the day of the bombing but fortunately I wasn’t injured in the bomb blast,” Ko Okka Thein said. “Later, I stayed at the hospital caring for my friends and organising blood donors.”
Source : http://www.mmtimes.com
