Healthcare and Education for Burmese Immigrants

Dear GlobeMed at University of Cincinnati Supporters,

As mentioned in our last update, a team of four GlobeMed at UC members is spending three weeks with our partner—Social Action for Women (SAW)—in Mae Sot, Thailand. The team members are Ceejay Boyce (External Co-President 2013/14), Codee Boyce (Campaigns Coordinator 2013/14), Shanelle Davner (Campaigns Coordinator 2012/13), and Adam Voegele (GROW Coordinator 2012/13). The GROW Internship started on July 30^th and the team will be there until August 22^nd. As part of the trip, our team will be assessing our partnership with SAW, learning more about the area—including visits with local migrant schools and migrant worker organizations, and observing the implementation of the Community Health Outreach Program Phase II: Training of Peer Educators. Our team is lucky to have to opportunity to see the impact our fundraising has made on the lives of the Burmese migrant workers, women, and children. Our chapter, and partner, cannot thank donors enough for your gracious help in making this second phase of our project possible. In order for you to see how successful our work with SAW has been, here are two stories SAW reported to us from the first phase of CHOP.

As Phase I focused on the importance of educating Burmese migrant workers about reproductive health and preventable diseases like skin diseases, our case studies focus on the importance of education and how educating a group of people within the community to act as points of contact and share all this new information about health can prevent future problems in the community:

“In one case, a woman in one of the workshops said that she was pregnant even after she received a sterilization procedure. After looking into her story, we realized that she had conceived prior to her procedure. We also realized that she misunderstood that even if she had been sterilized, any fertilization prior to the procedure could still result in pregnancy. So we explained what sterilization is and the exact effects of the procedure with her. Before coming to our workshop, she thought that sterilization was not very effective and unreliable. She had shared this uninformed opinion with her friends and they accepted it as fact. After the workshop, she understood the truth and promised that she would correct her misinformation and share the facts with her friends.

In another case, a woman was pregnant after one year of marriage. However, she was unaware of her pregnancy even though there were some signs such as vomiting. She had been working in a job where she was required to carry heavy things. Because she was not aware of her pregnancy, she continued her job and kept lifting heavy loads all day. At two months, the woman miscarried while using the bathroom. When she went to the Thai hospital, the nurses thought she had aborted her pregnancy intentionally and she was heavily scolded. When she attended our workshop, we explained to her the signs of pregnancy so that something like this wouldn’t happen again.”

When we first heard these personal stories, we realized just how significant our health education project was. With the completion of Phase I, there has been noticeable improvement in the amount of knowledge in each community. We hope that with the implementation of Phase II, we can solidify this knowledge with permanent points of contact with the important information community members may need between health care visits from the Mobile Medical Team. Once the GROW team has returned and Phase II is further along, we hope to have more updates to provide on how our project is going.

In closing, we would like to thank you for your continued support in our efforts in Mae Sot. Hearing about, and seeing first-hand through our GROW trips, the impact we have made on the lives of these people by simply providing them what we often times take for granted—education—is both gratifying and humbling. We can only hope that our success continues, and we can keep funding more projects to help these communities thrive and work towards a brighter future.

Yours in health,

Ceejay Boyce and Mahima Venkatesh

Co-presidents, GlobeMed at University of Cincinnati

ucin@globemed.org

www.globemed.org/cincinnati

Dear GlobeMed at University of Cincinnati supporters,

Since our last update letter, a few changes have occurred within our chapter. One of which is due to supportive individuals like you! Our chapter has successfully raised over $16,000 for our partner Social Action for Women (SAW). This money will be used to fund the second phase of the Community Health Outreach Program (CHOP) and begin the training of Peer Educators in the migrant communities. The other big change has been the transition from old to new Executive Board members and Co-Presidents. With this change in leadership have come ambitious goals for the next year in campaigns, community building, globalhealthU lessons, and partnerships. As one of the new Co-Presidents, I am overwhelmed with excitement at the passion and dedication each new executive member has to making our chapter, partnership, and project as successful as it can be.

The school year has come to an end, but our Partnerships Co-Directors (Radhika Teli and Charles Ebersbacher) and GROW team (Ceejay Boyce, Co-President, Shanelle Davner, Director of Communications, Codee Boyce, Campaigns Coordinator, and Adam Voegele, GROW Coordinator) are still very busy working on the beginning of the implementation CHOP II, next year’s project (which is still being determined), and the next GROW trip which will take place July 30-August 22 this summer. We have been working closely with our partner contacts Ye Ye Win and Thwin Linn Aung throughout this process to help plan our trip and get feedback on what to improve on while moving forward with our partnership. With the financial support of friends, family, and other generous donors, we have been able to make a difference in the lives of Burmese migrant workers and their families.

As highlighted in our first report, CHOP I has reached out to ten different migrant communities in the Phrop Phra region to provide health education workshops to recruited men and women to disseminate basic knowledge about communicable disease prevention on migrant workers. CHOP II will afford 20 Burmese Migrant Workers the opportunity to generate income for themselves and to be trained in basic health education practices.  It is estimated that 17,000 Burmese migrant workers live in the Phop Phra region, the majority of whom live on less than $1 per day.  Because the workers are forced to work 10 hours per day picking corn, spraying fields with pesticides, and digging potatoes to meagerly feed their families, health education has fallen by the wayside.  This second phase of the project will allow education to occur constantly.  Not only will the 20 peer leaders become highly educated in disease prevention but they will also share that information with current citizens who will share with their children and further generations to come.  

We cannot express how important your support is in making our vision a reality. Your trust in students making an impact in the movement for global health equity and social justice is appreciated more than you know. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.

Yours in health,

Ceejay Boyce and Mahima Venkatesh

Co-presidents, GlobeMed at University of Cincinnati

ucin@globemed.org

www.globemed.org/cincinnati