This project will build and fully implement a pathology lab at the Ja Reng Yang Clinic in Mai Ja Yang, Myanmar. Our work supports the Kachin, an ethnic minority based in northern Myanmar who have been internally displaced due to prolonged conflict with the Burmese military regime. The lab will screen Kachin women refugees for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB, which will improve the quality of health and health care in this region.
Crowded living conditions, poor sanitation and hygiene, lack of clean water, and insufficient food and nutrition are causing increased rates of illness among the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) in the Kachin region of Myanmar. In Laiza alone, this past summer, seven children between ages 1-11 died of illness, mainly diarrhea and malaria. With a growing number of IDPs in Mai Ja Yang camps, the Ja Reng Yang clinic requires more resources to treat the increasing patient population of 10,000+.
The medical laboratory at KWAT's clinic will take care of and treat all patients more systematically and effectively. The laboratory is also important for pregnant women who have contracted HIV/AIDS, as babies can be protected from mother-to-child transmission with proper treatment and early diagnosis by medical personnel.
Long-term, this project will improve the health of the Kachin refugees in this region. We hope to better the lives of the 10,000 refugees in camps in Mai Ja Yang, reduce the disease burden afflicting the population through early diagnosis, and to make free diagnostic screenings very accessible to Kachin refugees.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
