Justice and Human Rights Myanmar Project #15432

Combat Health Disparities for Kachin Women (2)

by GlobeMed at Dartmouth

Combat Health Disparities for Kachin Women (2)

Project Report | Nov 30, 2015
Upcoming Holiday Season and Updates

By Hae-Lin Cho | Director of Individual Givings

KWAT's initiates its 14 interns

Dear donors,

The Holiday season is upon us, and we at GlobeMed at Dartmouth are getting ready for several of our biggest events of the year, including our annual Holiday Season Individual Givings Campaign during December and our awareness-raising Benefit Dinner in the winter term. More importantly, we are, now more than ever, thinking about what we're grateful for: For one, our privileges, our health, and that of our families, but also our long-lasting partnership with our partner organization, the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) and our ability to contribute to their amazing work.

Fall has been a term of new beginnings with the start of a fresh school year. We've welcomed a new group of enthusiastic and passionate freshmen into GlobeMed at Dartmouth, who have started learning about the GlobeMed model of partnership, the conflicts in Burma, and the work of KWAT. People have been increasingly aware of Burma with the recent 2015 election, the victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), and what this means for Burma in the future.

In addition, since our last update, we have raised over $600, with our multiple fundraisers. One that we are particularly proud of is our parcipation in the Christmas Market in Hanover, New Hampshire, where we sold elephant pants, shorts, Thai tea, wallets, pencil cases, post-cards, and other objects hand-made by the women with KWAT as a part of their Income Generation Program, in which the women make traditional Kachin craftwork. This not only helps expose the conflict in Burma to those in the United States, but also allows the refugee women to stay in touch with their roots while finding a more stable job.

In the meantime, KWAT continues to do incredible work, made possible by the generous donations of people like you. They continue to visit the IDP camps in Burma as well as maintaining their multiple clinics like the Ja Reng Yang Clinic in Mai Ja Yang mentioned in our last update, in which, KWAT continues to treat cases beyond the aforementioned 104,100 cases, including 3,314 births, 1,745 eye surgeries, 653 malaria cases, and almost 20 prosthetic surgeries due to land mine explosions, in 2013 alone. In addition, in October, KWAT initiated a new round of its annual Human Rights Project, and are currently working with 14 women interns in an intensive 6-month training program, teaching them about the conflicts in Burma, furthering their English, and better preparing them to become leaders in their respective communities.

In addition, KWAT remains outspoken advocates for women's rights and for justice for the Kachin people, an important step in moving forward. For example, in October, KWAT released an important statement criticizing then President Thein Sein's failure to seek justice in the highly-publicized Kawng HKA Rape-Murder case involving two Kachin women and calling for action. In a country where freedom of speech is not a fundamental human right and censorship is common, KWAT's actions are important for not only finding justice in individual cases but for furthering the seeds of change within Burma.

Finally, we have already started planning our annual GROW trip which emphasizes our continuing dedication to creating partnership, understanding, and interconnection between GlobeMed at Dartmouth and KWAT. The new GROW coordinator and the team have started putting together a peace project proposal that would allow the ethnographic recording of the stories of the Kachin in both Burma and Thailand, and hopefully facilitate wider awareness of the conflicts within Burma internationally. By capturing and sharing these stories, GlobeMed at Dartmouth and KWAT hope to initiate more conversation and more understanding about the continuining struggles of the Burmese.

As always, we want to thank you for the support we receive from people like you. Every donation contributes not only to the numbers – lives saved in the clinic, equipment able to be bought – but also to the continual survival of this partnership and support we can provide to KWAT. We and KWAT are so thankful this holiday season for the willing support of our donors like you, and the opportunity to spread education about the conflicts in Burma.

As our new leadership team updates our projects and make new goals as we do each fall, we will keep you updated on the coming developments.

Thank you, again, for being a part of this valuable work.

Sincerely,

Hae-Lin Cho

Thank you from GlobeMed at Dartmouth!

Permalink

Sep 10, 2015
Fall Updates

By Hae-Lin Cho | Director of Individual Giving

The recreation center at the Mae Tao Clinic.

Dear Donors,

As summer comes to a close, we at GlobeMed at Dartmouth are preparing ourselves for the start of a new year with a new leadership team, and, of course, new ways in which we can work with our partner organization, the Kachin Women's Association Thailand.

Summer has been a busy and successful term: Since our last update, the three members of GlobeMed at Dartmouth that went our our annual GROW trip, which started early June, have returned to share their experiences with the rest of GlobeMed at Dartmouth. During their trip, our GROW members have finished compiling the annual 16-page activity report for KWAT, which includes a map of Burma detailing where KWAT is most active.

As always, KWAT continues to do incredible work that illustrates the importance of both their efforts, our own with GlobeMed, and the generous donations from people like you. In addition to the Ja Reng Yang Clinic in Mai Ja Yang mentioned in the last update, KWAT supports various other health clinics. Our GROW members had an opportunity to visit and learn about the work of another one of these clinics on the Burma-Thailand border: the Mae Tao Clinic. This clinic, in 2013, received 104,100 cases, including 3,314 births, 1,745 eye surgeries, 653 malaria cases, and provides various other services including prostethics (16 patients, 15 due to land mine explosions), drug recovery, and recreation for children of patients. These stories serve to remind us about why we work to support KWAT, and why each and every donation makes a difference. Mae Tao and Ja Reng Yang clinics, as well as the other clinics and programs serviced by KWAT, can provide so many wonderful services to refugees and other patients for lower costs than expected.

In addition, our members have continued to give English lessons to members of KWAT, including reading and discussing portions Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Ristof and Sherlyn Wu Dunn, and translate testimonials for documentation. Maria, an intern with KWAT, is another example of the positive impact KWAT (and the opportunities it can provide) has. Our GROW members write: "Her English is exceptional; she works closely with the GROW team, eats lunch with us, and takes part in afternoon English lessons. She’s an example of how, given the right tools, a young woman can use her potential to change her community." Despite the tragic loss of her sister to malaria a few years back, Maria remains strong, playing an important role in KWAT's political empowerment program, which targets educated and non-educated individuals from all backgrounds to educate them on their basic human rights as well as their voting rights.

Perhaps just as importantly as their work, however, is the building of a stronger partnership, understanding, and interconnection between GlobeMed at Dartmouth and KWAT, one of the pillars of GlobeMed as a whole. The GROW members write about the constant cultural exchange throughout their trip, not just in trying different foods or exploring the landscape and attractions of Thailand, but also in sharing stories of discrimination in, not just Burma, but also the U.S., of which the members of KWAT had not always been aware.

Finally, those of us remaining at Dartmouth over the summer have dedicated ourselves to new fundraising projects and raising awareness on campus about KWAT and Burma. In the following months, as the school year picks up, we hope to continue our work in fundraising, raising awareness, and building a connection with KWAT.

We are gratified to the support we receive from people like you, and hope to communicate our passion in what we do, and the broad impacts your donations are able to have. As our new leadership team updates our projects and make new goals as we do each fall, we will keep you updated on the coming developments.

Thank you, again, for being a part of this valuable work.

Best wishes,

Hae-Lin Cho

Thank you from GlobeMed at Dartmouth!

Permalink

Jun 24, 2015
Summer Updates and GROW Trip

By Hae-Lin Cho | Director of Individual Giving

GlobeMed and KWAT members translate testimonials

Dear Donors,

It's summer, which not only means wonderful weather, but marks an opportunity for GlobeMed at Dartmouth to interact more directly with our partner organization, the Kachin Women's Association Thailand, with our annual GROW trip!

This year, three of our members traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand earlier in June to work with members at KWAT headquarters for two months: Since arriving, they have been working on assignments including putting together the annual activity report detailing KWAT's activities for donors and other interested persons, giving English lessons to members of KWAT and novice monks, and translating testimonials of the human rights violations on the Kachin by the Burmese army. This work, particularly the latter, has reminded us of the real people affected by the conflict in Burma. Writer and historian Marcus Rediker wrote that statistics are a violent abstraction of the real human cost of sufferring. Similarly, our GROW trip members wrote that the testimonials consisted of "story after story of unwarranted shootings and cold-blooded rapes" that left them feeling "horrified, emotionally drained, and intrigued...[and] more connected to the organization than ever."

Despite the tragedies of these stories, these testimonials remind us of the GROW trip also illustrate the importance of the work done by our partner organization and why we want to and need to continue our efforts with KWAT. In addition, our members report positive interactions with the KWAT members and novice monks, from introducing Skippy peanut butter to the women at KWAT to petting tigers and exploring the mountain of Doi Suthep. We are excited to see the cultural exchange occurring between GlobeMed at Dartmouth and KWAT.

We are gratified to see the effect of our work, thanks to generous donations from people like you: Last year, we focused much of our work towards funding the Ja Reng Yang Clinic in Mai Ja Yang, and our GROW trip members report that the clinic serviced 13,464 Kachin patients in 2014, providing testing for patients' glucose levels and HIV, heptatis B/C, and malaria statuses. Each of those 13,464 patients is a real human being with a unique, individual story, that KWAT, we, and yourselves have contributed to helping. This year, our main project aimed to help mothers requiring surgery or hospitalization due to complications during childbirth by creating an emergency fund. We hope to continue to see the effects of our work, your contributions, and, of course, the hard and magnanimous work of KWAT -- and to keep you, our generous donors, up-to-date!

Thank you, again, for being a part of this valuable work.

Best wishes,

Hae-Lin Cho

Thank you from GlobeMed at Dartmouth!

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.