Myanmar's Shan State: ASEAN Delivers Humanitarian Aid in Taunggyi, More Than 11,000 Displaced Households to Benefit
Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, who also serves as the ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar, led the distribution of rice, family kits and personal hygiene supplies to displaced people in Taunggyi, southern Shan State, Myanmar, on October 28, opening a month-long ASEAN humanitarian aid operation expected to reach more than 11,000 households.
The distribution is being carried out by the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) together with the Myanmar Red Cross Society, with an ASEAN monitoring team overseeing the handout. The relief goods include 50-kilogram sacks of rice, family kits and hygiene kits, and the operation covers Kayah State as well as southern and northern Shan State, including areas the AHA Centre had never reached before. It will run through November 2026.
A representative of Japan's Mission to ASEAN in Yangon also joined the Taunggyi distribution. During the visit, the Philippine side also turned over a house of worship and learning packages for a school that the Philippines helped fund after the 2025 earthquake in central Myanmar.
Philippine Foreign Undersecretary for Policy Leo Herrera-Lim said on October 29 that Lazaro's visit showed ASEAN carrying on with the Five-Point Consensus reached in 2021, which calls for an end to violence, dialogue, mediation by a special envoy, humanitarian assistance and engagement with all parties. ASEAN leaders are set to decide on the implementation of the consensus at their summit in Manila in November.
Since Myanmar's military seized power in 2021, the country has been limited to non-political representation at ASEAN meetings.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 缅甸掸邦首府东枝与瑞本平塔（资料图）。Taunggyi, capital of Myanmar's Shan State, with the Shwe Bone Pwint Pagoda (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0，Heinz Htetz摄，经Wikimedia Commons / via Wikimedia Commons.
