A Nu Mya looks out from her front door, reflect­ing on life one year after Cyclone Nar­gis killed her husband.

Every home along the main street of Myan­mar’s Aima fish­ing vil­lage has some­thing in common.

It goes beyond the woven bam­boo walls, metal roofs and iden­ti­cal 270 square foot floor plans.

You might see it in the eyes of a Burmese boy who is barely tall enough to peer out of his front window.

Or maybe you can sense it from the young mother crouched in her door­frame, hands on chin, look­ing out.

One year ago, 119 of the 940 peo­ple who lived in Aima lost their lives in Cyclone Nar­gis, often the hus­bands and fathers who were out for the day catch­ing crabs or fishing.

The deaths here are a small part of the 140,000+ killed when Nar­gis ripped across the Ayeyarwady delta on May 2, 2008, an unfor­giv­ing wall of wind and water that lev­eled every struc­ture that wasn’t steel rein­forced concrete.

Among those who lost loved ones is A Nu Mya, a 30-year-old woman with four children.

Her hus­band was out catch­ing crabs to sell in the mar­ket­place when the storm hit.

He never came home.

A Nu Mya has known her hus­band since she was 15 years old.

The soft-spoken woman has a strong faith, though, and believes that it was sim­ply an act of nature.

A Nu Mya told me, “God will help me rebuild my life.”

When World Con­cern began its human­i­tar­ian recov­ery work in Ai-ma and in other vil­lages across the low, muddy plains of the delta, our work included dis­trib­ut­ing emer­gency sup­plies of food and water — as well as the for­mi­da­ble and grim task of find­ing and bury­ing victims.

So many died, though, it’s still not unusual to dis­cover human bones on the shoreline.

Many thou­sands of peo­ple will never be found.

Now in the next phase of human­i­tar­ian dis­as­ter response, World Con­cern has done amaz­ing work, from build­ing homes, water and san­i­ta­tion sys­tems, to dis­trib­ut­ing kitchen and bed­ding supplies.

World Con­cern is work­ing with Habi­tat for Human­ity to build the inno­v­a­tive homes, which use coconut wood frames and woven bam­boo floors.

We’ve even replaced fish­ing boats and worked on schools.

Our aid has reached far into the community.

Much of it is to pro­mote sus­tain­able liveli­hoods, so that peo­ple there will be able to sup­port them­selves once we leave.

In many vil­lages we’ve even worked with locals to built tall mounds of raised Earth, a place to go to escape ris­ing flood waters of the next cyclone.

Walk­ing the streets of the vil­lage, pain remains fresh.

I spoke with two fish­er­men and a woman. Inter­viewed sep­a­rately, all told me that it seems like the storm just hap­pened. It is often the first thought they have every morning.

I am proud of the way World Con­cern has helped thou­sands of peo­ple here rebuild their lives.

We’ve lis­tened to their sto­ries and are help­ing them cre­ate bet­ter lives.

But the hearts of these vil­lagers remain fragile.

Say a prayer for the delta. It’s been a year, and peo­ple are still reeling.

Give to Cyclone Nar­gis dis­as­ter response.

Cyclone Nar­gis killed one out of 10 peo­ple in Aima vil­lage in Myan­mar. World Con­cern human­i­tar­i­ans and Habi­tat for Human­ity rebuilt 110 homes.

A Nu Mya holds her youngest son, age 2, inside their Myan­mar home.

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