Myanmar earthquake: your help is urgently needed

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake has caused extensive damage in some of the most densely populated areas of Myanmar.

Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada (DPCC) has made an immediate allocation of $50,000 to assist local partners responding to the Myanmar earthquake. We are also calling Canadians to donate generously to help with urgent relief efforts.

At 12:50 a.m. local time on Friday, March 28, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Myanmar (Burma). Its epicentre was close to Mandalay (pop. ≈1.5 million), the country’s second largest city. The quake, the strongest to hit Myanmar in over a century, was so powerful that it damaged buildings in Bangkok, nearly 1,000 kilometres away.

Myanmar earthquake: a heavy toll on a beleaguered people

Within 72 hours, UN estimates were placing the death toll at over 1,700, while local media were reporting it at closer to 3,000. Even higher estimates are likely conservative, given that communication links with the worst-affected areas are all but severed. Casualty numbers will certainly rise dramatically as the rubble is cleared.

This calamity has befallen an already stricken people. The areas affected by the earthquake are home to nearly half of the 3.5 million people displaced internally by the civil conflict that has wracked Myanmar since a military junta seized power in 2021. These people were already facing major shortages of food, shelter and health care. With homes, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure now severely damaged, millions of children face grave risks. Late last year, UN agencies warned that 19.9 million people―over a third of Myanmar’s population―would need humanitarian aid in 2025.

Myanmar earthquake: a call to peace and solidarity

After the earthquake, the junta appealed for international aid but kept striking rebels in the disaster zone who had declared a partial ceasefire. To prevent continuing conflict from complicating matters, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon, has urged all belligerents to stop fighting and allow the free circulation of aid.

We echo the cardinal’s call and commit to supporting the Caritas network in responding to this emergency through local partners who have already begun assessing needs to coordinate lifesaving aid.

A Vatican telegram to Burmese authorities conveyed Pope Francis’s prayer “that the emergency personnel will be sustained in their care of the injured and displaced by the divine gifts of fortitude and perseverance.” In addition, our partners will need the earthly assistance that only your solidarity and generosity can provide.