By Lisa Carson | Director of Individual Giving
Dear Donors,
As we begin the 2015, I would like to thank you for your generous support since this project started. We have had many successes, from completing the construction and stocking of a diagnostic laboratory to enhancing Dartmouth students’ understanding about the conflict between the Burmese Army and Kachin State.
This year, GlobeMed will continue to fund KWAT’s health programs. One major health issue in Kachin State that has been in the news lately is drug addiction, particularly concerning opium and heroin. A senior member of KWAT explained the situation to me as follows: Kachin State is rich in jade. There is a trend in young men dropping out of school because they think they can strike it rich in the mines. Instead, they end up experimenting with opium, which is readily available in mining communities. Eventually, smoking all the opium they can buy with their earnings from the mines does not provide enough of a high, and they switch to smoking, then injecting, heroin. Among other health problems, this leads to high rates of HIV/AIDS in mining areas. Since all their income goes to buying drugs, they are stuck in this cycle.
KWAT combats drug addiction through several of its programs (many of which you have helped us fund). Health education in both schools and IDP camps warns adolescents about the dangers of drug use. Capacity building programs give people alternatives to mining and allow them to make a living elsewhere. The health outreach mobile clinics and the permanent health center at Ma Jai Yang provide diagnosis and treatment for HIV/AIDS and offer medical care to drug users. The documentation and research program publishes information on drugs and related issues so that people worldwide are made aware of this problem. For their latest report, please see http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/7Oct14Report/silent_offensive_drug_report_english.pdf.
With your help, KWAT is able to do a great deal to offset the damage being done to Kachin communities by the civil war in Burma. Thank you again for your continued support, and I look forward to seeing what we can do together this year!
With gratitude,
Lisa Carson
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