Myanmar town struggles to feed cyclone refugees

MYAUNG MYA, Myanmar (Reuters) - Ten thousand cyclone refugees have turned up in this bustling town from the devastated Irrawaddy delta, and their numbers swell by the day despite a lack of food and shelter, an aid volunteer said on Saturday.

Most are staying in 15 schools and monasteries dotted across the town, 100 km west of Yangon and just north of the direct path of the cyclone that slammed into the southeast Asian a week ago.

The military government has provided no help and the town cannot cope, a woman working at a school housing 900 people told Reuters. Most shelters -- schools, monasteries or public halls -- each hold about 700 people, she said.

"Three hundred was OK but 900 is too much," she said, asking not to be named for fear of recrimination from the military government.

Three teachers stood at the gates of the school asking passers-by for donations, but the parcels of rice they gathered were woefully too small.

"We have 900 people here but we only have 300 lunch boxes. We gave it to the women and children first. The men still have not had any food," the woman said.

RUNNING OUT OF CHARITY

Myaung Mya, a town of 100,000 people, was largely unscathed by the cyclone, which killed up to 100,000 and left 1.5 million homeless in the delta, according to the United Nations.

Now, the homeless bathe their children in playgrounds with water drawn from public wells. They hang their washing on the wrought-iron railings of ornate Buddhist pagodas to dry beneath the searing southeast Asian tropical sun.