“I just wanted to cry—I was so scared”
Yoon May* has never experienced an earthquake, until tremors shook her home in Myanmar on Friday 28 March. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake is the strongest to hit Myanmar in a century. It was felt across many parts of the country, and across neighbouring Bangladesh, Laos, China and Thailand.
The 16-year-old has just finished attending a Save the Children Group Networking online meeting when she heard her brother shouting for them to run.
“I couldn’t process what was happening—I just ran. I barely escaped. The moment I stepped outside, bricks started falling from the ceiling. We all ran to the open field near our house.
“I thought it would be over quickly, but a second quake hit soon after. The aftershocks haven’t stopped.
“At that moment, I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to cry—I was so scared. My mind kept racing, thinking about my cat, my friends. Once the shaking stopped, I began worrying about my family, relatives, and everyone else.”
Yoon May and her family have been sleeping outside in an open field in front of their house since, using only a mosquito net.
“We have no electricity, no water, and phone and internet connections are unstable.”
“They will need emotional support to heal from this disaster”
Zaw Thet* is a Save the Children project staff member who was on the road to Yangon for work when the earthquake struck. As his car started to shake, he saw the road crack with a deafening noise. Water burst from the ground and the bridge ahead collapsed.
He shares his terrifying experience:
“Back on the highway, dozens of buses were stranded. Many had children on board. When the first earthquake struck, the children didn’t understand what was happening. But when the second tremor hit, they screamed and cried in fear. Some even vomited from shock. Thankfully, they had caregivers to comfort them, but the situation was dire.
“If no food or water had been donated that night, those children would have gone hungry while waiting for the highway to be repaired. The emotional toll was impossible to predict.
“Everything happened so quickly that even I couldn’t process it fully—but for the children trapped on that road, the trauma would be far worse.
“Right now, they need immediate shelter, food, and water. In the long term, they will need emotional support to heal from this disaster.”
Help Save the Children respond
Our teams are responding alongside local partners to ensure children and their families can get the support they need to mitigate the worst impacts of this disaster. We’re already distributing food and water to impacted communities.
We have more stocks prepositioned in several of our warehouses across the country, that are ready to be distributed. This includes kits containing toiletries, blankets, tarpaulin for makeshift shelters and learning and recreational materials for children.
Damaged roads and communication lines, coupled with the ongoing threat of aftershocks, are complicating relief efforts but Save the Children and our partners are working around the clock to provide urgent support to children and their families as soon as possible. Over the coming days and weeks, we will work alongside local partners to scale up critical support to children across the worst impacted areas.
In times of emergency our Children’s Emergency Fund allows us to act as soon as crisis hits, and deliver lifesaving support wherever it is needed, when it matters most.
It means we can have funds ready for when a disaster strikes. By giving to the Children’s Emergency Fund, you can help protect a child caught up in emergencies like this latest earthquake in Myanmar, helping to protect lives and futures.