Rupert Miller
Diary update: 19 June 2008

As Private Sector Emergency Coordinator, Rupert's role is to facilitate the mobilisation and coordination of the private sector response.

I spent the first ten days in Myanmar familiarising myself with the context and learning more about the devastating impact cyclone Nargis has had on the people of Myanmar.  It was clear that the engagement with the corporate sector was going to be very challenging due to the way in which Myanmar is governed.  I met lots of other international NGO's to learn more about their operations in Myanmar and their relationship with the corporate sector. Everyone was very interested in the commitment and leadership being shown by Impact and by the new thinking of Save the Children to look at expanding their corporate engagement in the middle of an emergency.

After ten days I flew to Bangkok to start looking at the Thai business community and to talk about the relationship between the two organisations and what we wanted to achieve.  The Save the Children South East Regional Director was very keen to see how they could increase their regional exposure as well as highlighting the work in Myanmar.

I have now started a very busy time getting in front of anyone who wants to hear our story!  This has included various presentations at business breakfast events, meetings with the Dutch Embassy, Mattel Toys, RM Asia Group the JCB distributor, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Puma Sports, Scott Wilson and the British Chamber of Commerce.  All the contacts are developing a platform for Save the Children to really start to raise their profile in a region which is currently dealing with Myanmar and the earthquake in China.

This will continue for the next two weeks and I will update you as to how things are progressing.  I am meeting people everyday that want to learn more about the project and the work of Save the Children.

Rupert Miller

If you are interested in/ or can link us to people who can participate in forums hosted by Rupert in Bangkok and/or Yangon, or can actually get involved in the relief effort then please contact us.