Almost two weeks after the devastating Cyclone Nargis tore through Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, CARE's emergency teams are returning from the worst-affected areas with reports of villages where as many as 90 per cent of the deaths were women, children and the elderly. 

"Our figures in the camps show a lot of adults, but very few children and very few elderly," said Brian Agland, CARE 's country director. "The worst-case scenario is that a lot of children may have lost their lives because of drowning. In one village there were 500 survivors and they were all adults. 

"So that's the kind of despair people are living with, wondering where their children are." 
After disasters of this scale, it is women and children who suffer the most. Women and children, unable to run as fast or swim as hard as men, are swept away by the flood waters. Elderly people who can't move as quickly die as they are trapped in their homes. 

As we work to reach the most vulnerable people, CARE staff are meeting with groups of surviving women in the camps where we are working to determine how CARE's relief efforts can best meet their needs, such as hygiene items specifically for women. 

CARE has been working in Myanmar for 14 years. With a team of 500 staff already in the country, CARE responded immediately after the disaster struck to provide aid to the survivors. CARE is distributing food, clean water, and emergency family survival kits to people in the worst-affected areas of Yangon and the Irrawaddy Delta. 

For people who lost their homes and all their belongings, the CARE survival kits include emergency supplies for families to make it through the worst weeks after the disaster: plastic sheeting to set up temporary shelter, clothes, blankets, kitchen utensils, mosquito nets, soap, toothpaste, sanitary napkins for women, and other hygiene items. 

The family survival kits are designed for families of five, the average family size here in Myanmar. But as survivors are telling CARE staff, there are very few families left intact.