 The Problem: Insufficient Healthcare in BurmaWhat do you do if you're sick in Burma? Due to government misrule and ethnic conflict, qualified health professionals have left the country. There is a shortage of trained physicians, nurses, midwives, and community health workers. Hospital facilities are run down, have unreliable electricity, and lack adequate medicine and equipment.
Also, people living in armed conflict and remote areas have no reasonable access to health care within a few days’ walk. Many rural and urban areas lack clean water and proper sanitation. Patients must pay for medicine, food, blankets, and bribes to medical personnel. The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
This past week, the nation's most popular marathon sold out in record time: 30,000 bibs gone in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Incredible. A lot of runners, however, were frustrated as the registration website crashed on them and they couldn't get into the race. Countless folks felt cheated out of the chance to run the Marine Corps Marathon. Well, there are still thousands of opportunities to run: Charity teams. Why joint a charity team? I've run a dozen marathons. My first 6 marathons...I ran for myself. Lots of pride. Lots of people encouraging me. Then,I started running for charity. It changed the marathon. People respected me for taking on the challenge of a marathon. When I asked folks to support my run...they extended a warm degree of admiration...to give meaning to my miles and transform my run into doing something to help others. Whether they gave $10...$100...or nothing but kind words...their support was unlike the casual comments of support when I ran just for me. Then, during my training runs...during the marathon...when it got tough...I recalled those supporting me. I couldn't and wouldn't let them down They were now part of the marathon...and my legs were theri legs to get to a shared finish line of 26 miles, 285 yards...and helping others. An when it got really really tough, I thought of those I was helping...the pain they endure...how often they were forgotten and had no hope. I kept running...because I and all my supporters had NOT forgotten them. So, hit up the charity page for the Marine Corps marathon...or your local road race. You'll find a cause that speaks to your heart. Every one of them is good. And, if you do have a bib...join a team anyways! Most will extend to you their special perks/benefits. You don't have to run the Marine Corps marathon...or any marathon. You can run for charity in any road race....of any length....any where. Sure, Burma Humanitarian Mission has bibs for the Marine Corps marathon. We also have a team in the San Francisco Marahton, Half Marathon and 5k on June 16t. Come join us! Put a reason in your run. You will not be the same...nor those who support you and those you are helping. See you at the start line...and finish line! Original article was written by Michael Isherwood. The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
On Monday, April 22nd, the European Union considered a permanent lifting of sanctions on the Burma regime. Citing promising signs of freedom, European leaders feel the end of restrictions on the regime is warranted. Yet, one week earlier, the regime’s army wrecked havoc in Eastern Burma. On April 14thand 15th, the Burma soldiers arrested and beat 15 adult men – beating several until they were unconscious. The soldiers destroyed one man’s vehicle and robbed another. During this same time, an army unit fired 10 mortar rounds into Loi Zay village – injuring a 20 month of boy and an 8 year old boy. Further south, another army unit fired 40 shells into the village of Mong Kay, damaging the school and numerous homes. Apparently, not satisfied with the destruction it caused, the soldiers indiscriminately fired automatic weapons into numerous homes. As a result, in the first weeks of this month, more than 400 villagers have fled their homes, seeking sanctuary in other villages or the jungle area. They are cut off from their food supplies, meager medical support and schools – not to mention economic livelihood. Sadly, all this occurs far removed from the media spotlight. It creates a permissive atmosphere for the brutal regime to act with impunity. The EU’s action only reinforces and encourages such activities for their failing to hold the regime accountable. This reality reinforces why cross border organizations, like BHM’s Backpack Health Worker Teams, remain as critical today as they’ve been for the past 14 years. Where there is violence, we shall bring compassion and care. My thanks to those who support us! Original article was written by Michael Isherwood. The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
We have returned to the Thai Burma border once again. This trips affords us the opportunity to connect with our friends in the Backpack medics. We learn quickly that the postiive news out of Burma is only partially accurate. On the positive side, many in the eastern Karen state feel it is easier to move around. The Regime is providing travel documents, allowing them to travel within Burma. At the same time, Army units do extract a tax, complicating necessary travel. What is missing from the reports is the violence that the Burma army continues to inflict in the eastern states, where a ceasefire is more an allegation than a reality. In Y_____ village of Mantong township, Burmese soldiers raped two women in April. Nearby, in Tangyan township, a number of people were forced to act as guides and/or porters for army units. Three young girls, under the age of 16, were forced to lead a patrol to a new village. The trek lasted overnight and the girls were given no food or shelter. A few days later, a group of 5 villagers were forced to guide and porter for an army unit. To ensure they didn't escape, the 5 were tied together. As the soldiers camped over night, they ordered the villagers to fetch water. One young boy reported the tragedy that followed: "When we went to fetch water, my father stepped on a landmine and died. immediately in front of me. My friend's father also died. There was nothing I could do." Death visited those in the east in other forms. Also in April of this year, three soldiers from one of the ethnic group's militia returned to their village in Namsan township to help with the harvest. Despite the donditions of the ceasefire, the Burma army arrested all three and tortured and killed them. Faced with this level of violence and the regime's attitude toward the Karen, Kachin and others, the people of eastern Burma still are confronting violence and instability. The only health care provided to them comes from the backpack medics, who brave the risks to care for their own. Original article was written by Michael Isherwood The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. This is an article about religious freedom in Burma. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
The most recent list of U.S. companies seeking access to Burma for development and business is stunning: Chevron, General Motors, Target Corp., ConocoPhillips, Caterpillar, General Electric International, Honeywell and eBay. These are just a few of the 50 plus U.S. corporations meeting with Burma regime officials over the next two weeks as they start to move into Burma. Such a line-up reinforces an incongruous image of Western societies -- the icons of human rights and liberties -- as they are now colluding with the Burma regime, which continues to abuse and kill ethnic minorities living within Burma. In Karen State, where a cease-fire has been in the works for the past year, the Burma army is reinforcing its forces. They have set up additional checkpoints along key roads, extorting ‘taxes’ on Karen as they transit. The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. This is an article about religious freedom in Burma. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
In 2010-12, the Burma regime undertook a series of overt measures suggesting they had reformed their oppression of the people of Burma. Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, was allowed to travel internationally and series of personal restrictions were removed on the urban population. Seeking geo-political influence in the region, the US and western nations removed sanctions on Burma, prompting a surge in corporations seeking access to Burma’s natural resources (gems, teak, gas, ports, etc). Ahead of the international companies, the Regime broke a 17-year cease fire in Kachin State in order to seize territory for the ruling elite’s benefit. Another 100,000 men, women and children have fled their villages seeking sanctuary in IDP camps, refugee sites and similar locations. The violence and associated horrific, lethal health conditions now has come to the Kachin as it once was endemic to the Karen. The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. This is an article about religious freedom in Burma. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
For the past two years, Burma Humanitarian Mission has supported students completing classes at the Leadership and Management Training College at Mae La Refugee Camp (LMTC). The college provides university level education in physics and English to ethnic minorities who fled Burma out of fear for their lives and have no other higher education opportunity available. Even if they could gain admission to a University in Bangkok (which is daunting given they have no formal passport from Burma and are refugees), college costs are beyond their means. Thus, LMTC fills a critical gap to help educate the next generation of democracy leaders for the ethnic minorities and Burma. The operating costs of the school are sponsored by the organization Child’s Dream, but CD is not able to provide the funding for the living expenses for the students. |
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