Since 1999, the U.S.–based Burma Humanitarian Mission (BHM) has partnered with the Back Pack Health Worker Team to provide health care to members of Myanmar’s oppressed and persecuted ethnic minorities. Teams of backpack medics from the ethnic minority Karen, Kachin, Shan, Pa’laung, Mon, Chin, and Rohingya communities each travel to between nine and twelve villages or internally displaced persons (IDP) camps each month, working with local village health volunteers and midwives to provide health care to people from their respective communities.
The regions where the medics carry out their work remain highly dangerous, particularly in northern Burma. As a result, many medics relocate their children to Mae Sot, Thailand, where the medics’ headquarters is located. There, a school and boarding facility called the Children’s Development Centre (CDC) provides education, housing, and other support for displaced children from Myanmar, from preschool through twelfth grade. The school fills a critical need, as authorities in Mae Sot do not permit migrant children from Myanmar to attend local schools.
Aid from Buddhist Global Relief will help provide food and schooling for 55 children of medics living in Mae Sot. Funding will also support basic medical training for fifteen women to become backpack medics as well as food assistance for 1,080 displaced pregnant women.
Since 1999, the U.S.–based Burma Humanitarian Mission (BHM) has partnered with the Back Pack Health Worker Team to provide health care to members of Myanmar’s oppressed and persecuted ethnic minorities. Teams of backpack medics from the ethnic minority Karen, Kachin, Shan, Pa’laung, Mon, Chin, and Rohingya communities each travel to between nine and twelve villages or internally displaced persons (IDP) camps each month, working with local village health volunteers and midwives to provide health care to people from their respective communities.
The regions where the medics carry out their work remain highly dangerous, particularly in northern Burma. As a result, many medics relocate their children to Mae Sot, Thailand, where the medics’ headquarters is located. There, a school and boarding facility called the Children’s Development Centre (CDC) provides education, housing, and other support for displaced children from Myanmar, from preschool through twelfth grade. The school fills a critical need, as authorities in Mae Sot do not permit migrant children from Myanmar to attend local schools.
Aid from Buddhist Global Relief will help provide food and schooling for 55 children of medics living in Mae Sot. Funding will also support basic medical training for fifteen women to become backpack medics as well as food assistance for 1,080 displaced pregnant women.
