The Mae Tao Clinic for Burmese Refugees

This report was written while I was living on the Thai/Burma border and I must admit, I’m not sure how to fully describe the painful experiences of the hundreds-of-thousands of Burmese refugees living in Thailand. Yet, I will do my best to show you through my photography the individual lives and experiences of a few refugees that I had the privilege of documenting while echoing the lives of thousands of Burmese people displaced by war.

The Mae Tao clinic is a free health care center on the outskirts of the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand which was established in February of 1989 by Dr. Cynthia Maung after fleeing violent repression from the Burmese government. Twenty-two years later, the Mae Tao clinic has vastly grown and now consists of several departments to address the needs of the ever-growing number of refugees crossing the border river every year. Upheld year round by some 630+ staff, the long list of these departments include: Dressing, Surgery, Trauma, Prostheses for land mind victims, Pre-natal/Post-abortion care (abortions are illegal in Burma but legal in Thailand), Food & Nutrition, Blood Transfusions, Water & Sanitation, Child Protective Services, Eye Care, Training Programs, HIV Care, School Programs, Dental, Social Outreach and Housing Accommodations for in/out patients as well as those traveling long distances to receive care. All of these vital services are free for the 150,000 refugees and illegal immigrants every year who otherwise cannot receive any health care whatsoever. The only payment required by the clinic is an initial registration fee of around 25¢!

Bedridden by injury.

Burma has the worst health record in Southeast Asia. The Mae Tao clinic report “From Rice Cooker to Autoclave” has published findings by Phil Thornton from the Bangkok Post which state that the “UN’s Development Programme's Human Development Index has ranked Burma # 130 out of 177 countries. The World Health Organization placed Burma’s health system as the world’s second worst out of 191 countries”. Per capita, “Burma’s official spending on health care is estimated to be $0.74 compared to Thailand, which invests $89”. Mr. Thornton continues to highlight how damaging the figures are on the ground by reporting that, “Over 7% of Burmese children don’t survive their first year on Earth and 10% will die before their fifth”. That's approximately one in fourteen gone before their first birthday, and one in ten that won’t see their fifth year of life.

Young girl in the trauma ward.

This neglect of human life and dignity is not from a lack of funds; rather, it highlights the depth of government corruption. The nation of Burma/Myanmar has a 1 -2 billion dollar a year revenue from oil and natural gas, and yet a John Hopkins School of Public Health report shows gut-wrenching evidence that the current regime spends “as little as 3% of national expenditures on health, while the military, with a standing army of over 400,000 troops, consumes 40%”.

A woman hospitalized by domestic violence.

This treatment center is crucial, as the situation in Burma/Myanmar is constantly fluctuating from instability to open war between the government and ethnic groups, such as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army or the Karen National Liberation Army, fighting for autonomy. Of course, every time war and conflict erupts inside of Burma there is loss of life, increased hardships and hundreds of arrests, disappearances, internally displaced people and refugees. Dr. Cynthia Maung has stated that, “Over the past twenty years I have never seen the patient caseload decrease”. To give weight to Dr. Cynthia’s words the Mae Tao clinic treated 1,351 trauma cases in 1999, which skyrocketed to 7,074 caseloads in 2008. In 1990 the clinic delivered 6 babies and a whopping 2,433 babies in 2008. Taking the doctor's words as truth, we can be sure that these numbers are even higher now in 2011 and will have exponentially increased by the time the next report is published.

A mother watches over her new born daughter.

The Mae Tao clinic runs its programs on year by year funding and with the global financial crisis still hitting many regions around the world supporters are backing out of their commitments and cutting off their contributions, leaving the looming question: Will the clinic have the necessary funds to continue their expanding work next year or the year after? As of now, 40% - 50% of the funding comes from the US AID program but with America tightening its grip on foreign spending (but not military expenditures) cuts are being made to social programs across the board. After personally witnessing the clinic and glimpsing the lives of those that depend on its help, I can begin to fathom what would happen if the clinic becomes unable to accommodate these desperate and displaced families. What would they do? And honestly, what other options would they have?

Young monk.