Myanmar’s third wave of COVID-19 has been merciless. Officially, over 7,500 people have died from COVID since February — the worst per capita death rate in Southeast Asia. With little to no medical infrastructure intact, testing widely unavailable, and many infected individuals cloistered in their homes, the true death count is unknown. Overwhelmed crematoriums have led to desperate solutions: Buddhists who would usually favor cremation are resorting to burying the bodies of loved ones in the ground. The military junta has constructed ten new crematoriums in Yangon alone, which are little more than refitted garbage burners that afford no dignity to the deceased. Locals have reported walking down the street and seeing abandoned corpses burning in dumpsters.

Mercifully, a few signs of much-needed relief are beginning to show. A government vaccination program, previously thrown into disarray by the coup, is starting to roll out vaccines from China; even some ethnic minority organizations have begun their own vaccination programs. In some major cities, oxygen concentrators and medicines are more readily available at a fair price now.

Meanwhile, daily reports of COVID deaths continue on. A large portion of the population refuses to receive vaccination out of deep distrust for both the military junta’s vaccine administration, as well as the vaccine’s origin in China. In rural areas rife with armed conflict, crucial medical supplies remain difficult to access. Some believers desire to slip through conflict zones in order to bring medical supplies to those in need.

To support ministries and believers on the ground who are delivering vital oxygen and medical supplies to the sick and dying, please give below: