Brothers come to aid of Myanmar victims

Most people would probably think twice before making a trip to Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma.

It's a region devastated by death, famine and an oppressive political regime after one of the worst natural disasters of our time.

But Jeremy and Joey Barrier did travel to the troubled country to help the millions left homeless and hungry as the result of a May 2 cyclone that left 134,000 people dead or missing, according to The New York Times.

Jeremy said he first received word that a cyclone had gone through Myanmar while on a mission trip in Hamilton.

"We were talking about it, but we didn't know what was going on," Jeremy said.

Chito Cusi, a relief aid worker based in the Philippines, approached Double Springs Church of Christ in Double Springs to see if they could help.

The church immediately gave $20,000 to efforts in Myanmar and sent Cusi to the area, one of the first to enter the country after the disaster. Double Springs also discussed sending Jeremy's parents to the region because of their many trips to the area since 1997 to teach Bible classes. The couple had just returned from the country in April.

"They said that they just can't turn around and go back," said Jeremy, who is an assistant professor of biblical literature and director of missions at Heritage Christian University in Florence.

Jeremy said Don Posey, who had taken the last flight out of Myanmar the night before the disaster, couldn't go, so the church then suggested that Jeremy's brother, Joey, travel to the area. He accepted, but he wanted someone to go with him. Jeremy volunteered to go and said he had no second thoughts about going on the trip.

"My only concerns were my children," he said. "My wife and I were going to go, but we decided against that because we have two children, so it wouldn't have been good if both of us went."

Joey said he didn't care about the dangers in Myanmar, adding that they have many friends there and wanted to help them.

"As soon as I found out, I was trying to find ways to get over there," Joey said.

After a long period of not knowing whether they would be allowed to go to Myanmar because of the country not allowing any visas into the region, Jeremy and Joey, who've both traveled to the area in previous years, arrived in the country May 23, landing in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city and former capital. The two, entering Myanmar as tourists because the junta, Myanmar's government, wasn't allowing aid workers to enter the country at the time, arrived on the day the political regime allowed the United Nations and other organizations into Myanmar to help.

Jeremy said that the devastation reminded him of the destruction Hurricane Katrina caused in the Gulf Coast.

"The number one difference is that the U.S. is a country of wealth, and building materials, such as wood, helped in preventing a large number of lives lost (during Hurricane Katrina)," Jeremy said.

"In Myanmar, (the storm) was equally as devastating, but their building materials are weed, bamboo and palm leaves. Whole towns were completely destroyed and wiped off."

The two brothers went to the country to hand deliver funds to the area for aid. Their father, Wayne Barrier, said that they've raised between $85,000 to $86,000 in donations.

Jeremy said the villagers in Myanmar greeted them.

"The reaction was very positive," Jeremy said.

"We looked for people who needed food and water and we told them, 'We've got food. We've got water. Do you want any?' "

"We were just doing whatever we needed to do to keep people alive," Joey said.

The junta, which Jeremy calls "power hungry," gave no warning that a cyclone was coming and would meddle into relief efforts, he said. For instance, Jeremy said that the junta would take the good rice brought by aid workers from the U.N. and others, "sell it into the black market and they would sell the damaged rice into the public."

Wayne said that the junta is paranoid about outsiders coming in, adding that the government wants to prevent an uprising from Myanmar's citizens because of the junta's low popularity and the positive response toward aid workers.

"When there's a problem like this and when organizations like the U.N. come in, they're doing things that make the government less popular," Wayne said.

But Jeremy said that they weren't confronted by the junta, adding that a "good government contact" was with them at all times.

"At a refugee camp, we were asked by the police two or three times what we were doing and the person with us would explain what we were doing (and) would describe the aid," Jeremy said. "We would watch and take pictures, but we weren't allowed to touch them."

Jeremy said that a group from Double Springs church will possibly be going back to Myanmar later this summer and in September and October.

Wayne and Joey said they're planning to go back, as well.

"We plan to apply for a visa in October, and we haven't been turned down yet," Wayne said.