Burmese people are currently passing through a dramatic period, afflicted by the violent consequences of the coup begun in February. Thousands of women, children and elderly flee the country every day, looking for asylum in Thailand but completely deprived of any resource. Our goal, thanks to a collaboration in Ranong (Thailand), is to offer medical care to refugees who cannot get access to the Thai healthcare system (as illegal immigrants) and food assistance to poor families.
Burmese people are currently passing through a dramatic period, afflicted by the violent consequences of the coup begun in February. Streets have seen death and fear. Now, thousands of refugees look for asylum in Thailand, deprived of any resource. Women, children and elderly flee Myanmar every day. However, Thai military repel them even by force and, once in Ranong (Thailand), they are considered as illegal immigrants: as such, they do not have access to national healthcare system
Refugees in Thailand are poor, without appropriate tools to make their way in this desperate getaway. As illegal residents, they do not have the right to get access to the national healthcare system. Our goal is to offer medical care, medicine and health assistance to those people and free food to families. Since men generally preferred staying in Myanmar to take care of animals or growing natural rubber, refugees are mainly women, children and elderly.
We have seen fruits of our work in the past 16 years, with similar projects in the area: after the tsunami, we have built a school and an orphanage and have been providing free medical services in villages and islands. This new emergency is concrete and immediate: in our experience, the first goal is to bring concrete aid to refugees, with essential services like medicine and food, and to give them the necessary assistance.
