Mobile clinic in Kawthaung

Myanmar (Burma) is one of the poorest countries on the planet. In the south of the country, in Kawthaung, in an area plagued by malaria and dengue as well as by trafficking in child prostitution, A.I.D.S. and the illegal drug market, we have been running a health project for four years. We started in 2016 with the Specchio dei Tempi foundation, and today the project is supported by Specchio d’Italia. In the area it is developed every day by Medacross, a non-profit organization of which we are the main financiers.

We are currently working with two goals. The first is to guarantee the daily operation of a free medical clinic in Kawthaung, a city on the border with Thailand where health services are completely inadequate and the population is forced to seek treatment for a fee, without being able to afford it. In our Basic Health Clinic, we treat 4000 patients and we make an average of 50 medical examinations per day. The second objective is a mobile clinic activity: we use off-road vehicles and boats with a doctor and two nurses on board, to reach the most remote villages. There are over twenty we can reach, within a radius of 150 kilometres. We take treatment and care to thousands of people, especially children suffering from malnutrition and respiratory problems.

We have also promoted several missions of Italian doctors in Burma to train local staff. In particular, together with Medacross, we are now strengthening the Aung Bar Station Hospital, a small rural hospital: we want to improve its services and the supply of medicines in order to cover the health needs of the people who live and work in the area and now are forced to travel 80 kilometres to reach Kawthaung. In the coming months we will continue to give hope to a country torn apart by recent political tensions that could lead to further impoverishment.