The North Carolina-based evangelical humanitarian aid charity Samaritan's Purse is dispatching an emergency field hospital to Myanmar following a catastrophic 7.7-magnitude earthquake.
The DC-8 aircraft, which departed from Greensboro, North Carolina, on Monday, traveled to Calgary to load the field hospital from Samaritan's Purse's Canada office. The aircraft is also transporting 28 disaster response specialists, including doctors and nurses, to support the relief efforts on the ground.
The fully equipped emergency field hospital includes two operating theaters, an emergency room, inpatient wards, a pharmacy, and a laboratory. This facility is designed to handle a high volume of trauma cases, addressing the urgent need for surgical care, blood transfusions, and essential medicine.
Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse, remarked, “Now, families are grieving the loss of loved ones and many are left with nothing — sleeping outside in the elements as aftershocks continue.” He added, “Samaritan's Purse is responding in Jesus' Name to bring relief to those who are hurting,” urging Christians to “pray for all those affected and for our teams as they serve.”
The earthquake struck Myanmar and parts of Thailand on Friday, resulting in widespread devastation, including collapsed infrastructure and thousands of injuries. In Myanmar alone, the official death toll rose to 2,719 on Tuesday, with 441 individuals still reported missing and over 4,000 injured, according to Myanmar's military ruler Min Aung Hlaing, as quoted by Reuters.
The earthquake has exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, which has been grappling with political instability and armed conflict since a military coup in 2021. A United Nations representative noted that nearly 20 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance even before this disaster. In response, the U.N. has issued a flash appeal for $8 million to support emergency operations in the country.
