THE International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has allocated more than US$12 million to Myanmar as part of a massive aid program to assist countries affected by the December 26 tsunami.

The allocation is being provided under a $1.25 billion, five-year program, the biggest and longest to be mounted by the Geneva-based organisation, it said in a statement released on May 9.

The program will begin this year in ten Asian and African countries around the Indian Ocean that were affected by the tsunami, the statement said.

The funds will be used for “rebuilding or upgrading homes, hospitals and clinics, water and sanitation systems...as well as training community-based volunteers and putting in place sustainable disaster preparedness measures,” the statement said.

The program seeks to “put in place sustainable solutions that meet the real needs of the tsunami affected communities in each country and will empower people to protect themselves in this very disaster-prone region,” the head of the federation’s Asia Pacific Department, Mr Simon Missiri, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The federation’s Yangon representative, Ms Joanna MacLean, told Myanmar Times on May 10 that about half the funding allocated to Myanmar under the program had been received from the organisation’s counterparts in Asia and Europe, including those in Australia, Canada, China, Britain, France, Germany and New Zealand.

Ms MacLean said the Myanmar Red Cross Society, to which the federation provides technical and financial support, will mount the aid operation in Myanmar under the program.

She said the aid operation would include providing food and household necessities, construction materials, health care and safe drinking water for about 15,000 people in tsunami-affected areas of Ayeyarwaddy and Tanintharyi divisions and Rakhine State.

It will also be used to buy boats and nets for fishing communities, Ms MacLean said.

In other activities under the program, Ms MacLean said the federation will support efforts by the MRCS to improve its logistics capacity. It will also help the MRCS to increase its emergency stockpile of relief supplies so it can cater for 20,000 families.

She said the MRCS would provide community-based disaster management and life-guard training. The allocation would also enable the society to expand its network of emergency-relief volunteers.

The official death toll in Myanmar from the tsunami was 61.