CHAUKAINTAN , 28 November 2008 (IRIN) - More than six months after losing her husband and her home to Cyclone Nargis, Yin Nwet, 37, is struggling to make ends meet.      "I don't know how much longer we will have to rely on my brothers and their families," said the mother-of-three in the village of Chaukaintan in Pyapon Township, in the heart of the Ayeyarwady Delta.   Her husband had supported the family with a small-scale fishing business. Now Yin Nwet has no income and relies on relatives.

"I can't sleep at night," she said. "I worry so much about our future … I don't know how to provide money for my children, and I can't imagine how we'll get ahead."

There are thousands of cyclone-widows like Yin Nwet, many of whom have yet to receive any assistance.   Most have no choice but to rely on the goodwill of relatives or neighbours, many of whom are themselves struggling to rebuild their lives.   Others have no choice but to cope alone.   The Post Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) [See: http://www.asean.org/21765.pdf] makes only scant mention of widows specifically although it notes that female-headed households in rural areas prior to Nargis accounted for nearly 17 percent of the total - a figure believed to have  grown after the disaster. Traditional social roles for such women have been altered, with many taking on increased responsibility, it added.   Community support

"I'm grateful to the people in [Bogale] town who gave me laundry work," said 29-year-old Khin Htay, who came from Kuntharyar Village, Bogale Township. Of the 800 people in her village, 600 perished in the cyclone. Her income is sufficient to afford the tuition to keep her son in school.

"By and large, the widows have different kinds of vulnerabilities related to survival, poverty, land documentation, that require our intervention," Bhairaja Panday, country representative for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), told IRIN in Yangon, the former capital.

"Their condition is as serious as those of other vulnerable groups like orphans, the disabled and the elderly, who also need our further humanitarian support," he said.

The UNHCR official praised community efforts to protect the cyclone   widows. Relatives, either close or distant, and the communities themselves provided protection and safety to these widows.   "Because of this support the problem has not been as grave as we initially thought," the official said.

According to one Myanmar Red Cross Society official, who did not want to be named, psychological counselling should be given to those widows who need it.    

"Some widows haven't recovered yet from their losses," she said, "Counselling can be one important component in restoring their livelihoods."   lm/bj/ds/mw

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