2025-03-30 – TORONTO – Earlier today, CMAT’s Rapid Assessment Team deployed to Yangon, and an emergency appeal for donations has been launched to help the people in Myanmar. A powerful 7.7 magnitude quake struck the area on Friday, centered about 16km northwest of Sagaing and 35km north of the city of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city. Several thousand people are estimated to have perished, and numbers are expected to climb. The Rapid Assessment Team will conduct a needs assessment to ascertain the level of destroyed infrastructure, in particular the health needs of quake-affected persons, to prepare for the potential deployment of CMAT’s Emergency Medical Team.

Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT) is a disaster relief organization comprised of medical professionals and non-medical volunteers who selflessly give their time and resources to assist and provide relief aid to the victims of natural and man-made disasters around the world. CMAT teams have responded to numerous crisis situations, including earthquake affected Haiti and Nepal, typhoon-affected Philippines, and most recently in response to the conflict in Ukraine. CMAT has accumulated a database of over twelve hundred skilled health care professionals from across Canada. All are volunteers who foot their own travel bills.

We managed to mobilize very quickly with thanks in large part to our new collaboration with Airlink, which facilitated flights with United Airlines, Discover Airlines, Thai Airways, and Singapore Airlines. On Sunday, March 30th, CMAT’s Rapid Assessment Team departed Canada for Yangon via Bangkok, Thailand. Brandon Duncan, RN – Board Chairperson and Team Leader – London, ON Dr. Anthony Fong, MD – Director – Vancouver, BC Dr. Daniel Kollek, MD – Dundas, ON Teresa Berdusco, RN – Edmonton, AB PRELIMINARY CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

As we are awaiting the arrival and initial findings of the assessment team, we are putting out a call for volunteers to stand by for the first medical team. These findings are key in building the professional profile of our teams of volunteers, as well as to decide the most appropriate equipment and supplies to send to the area. CMAT’s medical team will also require dedicated logistics and administrative (non-medical) volunteers in addition to medical/ clinical volunteers. We encourage non-medical volunteers to apply!  We may also need Toronto-based volunteers to help assemble logistical and medical equipment and supplies in deployable pods.