Israeli charity SmartAID responds to earthquake disaster in Myanmar and Thailand

Israel’s SmartAID, which has operated during the past year aiding displaced people along the Myanmar-Thailand border, has immediately moved into action on the ground as well as calling for public support.

Emergency declarations by government officials now span 16 Myanmar regions while Thailand’s capital struggles to respond. Myanmar, its infrastructure already battered by poverty and civil war, faces a worsening situation—families trapped, communities cut off, and aftershocks still rumbling.

SmartAID’s Israeli, International Response team (in Australia, the US) and local SmartAID team in Thailand and Myanmar has swiftly mobilized to respond to the horrible humanitarian crisis.

Over the past 24 hours, the situation in Myanmar has deteriorated rapidly, with reports confirming over 1,600 deaths and hundreds more injured as of March 29, 2025.

The epicentre, located near Mandalay, has left the second-largest city and surrounding regions like Sagaing and Naypyitaw reeling from widespread destruction. Collapsed buildings, damaged infrastructure, and severed communication lines have compounded the challenges, while tremors felt as far as Bangkok, Thailand, have triggered regional concern.

Myanmar’s military leadership, already grappling with a civil war and over 3 million internally displaced people, has made a rare plea for international aid, signalling the severity of the disaster.

Amid this chaos, local communities are struggling to access basic necessities like shelter, clean water, access to electricity, and medical care, with fears of aftershocks.

“Both our international and local teams are hard at work to help the quake-hit families—people like my grandparents, who survived the Holocaust with nothing but hope. I can’t stand the thought of a child crying in the dark, cut off from help. That’s why we do what ever we can to get there within hours. Those first hours are everything—when fear takes over, people need to know we are there for them. It’s personal for me, and it’s life or death for them.” Says Shachar Zahavi, Founding Director of SmartAID.

SmartAID has been working for a year now in helping internally displaced people in Myanmar, helping them access clean energy and water in camps.

6 SmartAID team members are already in 3 key different locations—Mandalay, Naypyitaw, and Sagaing actively assessing the situation, coordinating efforts with local charities while helping communities to move to temporary shelters.

In the capital, Naypyitaw, 2 of our staff are procuring from local suppliers, initial clean energy units, clean water purification systems, and telecommunications equipment to establish the first immediate lifeline for affected communities and first responders.

Parallel, SmartAID Israel and International SAR Unit is in route to join our local team on the ground, while our global office is working with our global corporate partners to prepare additional aid to be flown into the country.

Leveraging our global logistic partners’ expertise helps facilitate the pickup and delivery of these critical resources to the capital where our local team is preparing a warehouse to absorb the and then distribute it to locations that will be determined in the next few days.

Our global team is in route to the field while our local team is already part of the national relief efforts, embodying SmartAID’s core principle of localizing our relief efforts around the world.

We believe that local responders, with their deep understanding of culture, logistics, geography, and political landscape, are best equipped to navigate the complexities of this crisis.

This approach ensures our response is not only efficient and fast but also culturally sensitive, reaching those in need effectively.

Our team members are coordinating with national authorities, other local charities and community leaders to identify and make sure the aid provided will be in the most critical affected areas, while also laying the groundwork for longer-term recovery.

SmartAID specializes in integrating technology and innovative solutions into humanitarian responses, a mission that is particularly vital in catastrophes like the Myanmar and Thailand.

We bridge the gap between the corporate and humanitarian sectors, harnessing innovative technological solutions to address immediate and ongoing needs.

Beyond delivering aid, our team is now tracing safe locations to put up and install our technological coordination hubs on the ground to support and help coordinate international, national, and local aid efforts.

These hubs will be streamlining relief efforts, preventing duplication and ensuring resources are used efficiently.