Singer Htoo El Lynn to visit IDP camps in Arakan State

By DMG 05 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
5 July 2021, Sittwe

The well-known Myanmar vocalist Htoo El Lynn is lending a helping hand to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State.

He told DMG that he would leave for Arakan State on July 6 to help Arakanese IDPs, and planned to work with a group of motorcyclists there.

“Motorcycle lovers in Arakan State have arranged this trip, so it is not clear which camp we will donate to. I intend to visit remote IDP camps. We have been planning to come to Arakan State in the past to provide such assistance, but we have only just come due to circumstances,” said Htoo El Lynn.

They plan to mainly focus on food aid to IDPs in Arakan State due to financial constraints, he said.

“If we put K10,000 or K15,000 each in the hands of the IDPs, it would not be very convenient for them. So, we plan to provide rice and ready-to-eat shrimp paste to each household,” he explained.

They will donate relief items to IDPs in Arakan State with the help of donors and fans from mainland Myanmar, he said.

U Zaw Zaw Tun, secretary of the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), said that at present, humanitarian aid for the IDPs in Arakan State is declining.

“In the past, there were donors, but now only the government and the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] donate, so some IDPs have to work outside the camps due to livelihood hardships,” said U Hla Tin, an IDP sheltering in Ngasayine Chaung IDP camp in Sittwe. “Now, we can’t even send our children to school because our work situation is not good.”

Currently, IDP camps in Arakan State are mainly supported by the World Food Programme (WFP), the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, and the ICRC.