As death tolls from the Burma / Myanmar cyclone continue climbing, its fallout may dwarf the late 2004 Tsunami that devastated the same region. Compounding that horrific reality is the ruling junta continuing to make it difficult to get aid to those who desperately need it while claiming the process is going smoothly.

Christian Freedom International President Jim Jacobson explains that his organization is very well positioned to provide direct support to the cyclone’s victims because of personnel who are already on hand.

“We have over 100 highly trained indigenous medics that we can and are sending to the affected region. We’ve been working in Burma for 10 years,” Jacobson said, adding, “We don’t need permission from the dictatorship, because we’ve been in there helping without their permission.”

Jim Jacobson further explains how his teams are able to circumvent stonewalling, protectionism, and bureaucracy with legwork and backpacks. “We need to raise about $200,000 to buy medicine in Thailand (a fraction of the cost for medicine in America) for our backpack medic teams. Our backpack medics will be in the region in less than 4 days. While the big organizations wait for permission to go in, CFI will be saving lives,” said Jacobson.