Healthcare for 2000 Rural Villagers in Myanmar

Since Myanmar's coup, the activities of MedAcross have continued with the limitations demanded by the government that require checkpoints between towns and villages and a restriction on meetings with more than 10 people.

These limitations are particularly difficult for the patients living in the isolated villages of Kawthaung, where it is challenging to access in medications. For several months, it was not possible to reach patients with the Mobile Clinic. In order to continue to provide health care to those who remained isolated, we thought of a solution that we had in mind for some time: telemedicine applied to the Mobile Clinic.

The medical staff of MedAcross has activated specific training for some particularly capable volunteers living in remote villages. They were trained on how to take the vital signs of patients suffering from chronic diseases, as well as the management of common diseases that do not require specific medical prescriptions (e.g. common articular pains, headaches and stomach aches). Volunteers have become a point of reference for their villages, especially when the Mobile Clinic cannot reach them. They report patients' vital signs to our staff by phone, creating long-distance consultations followed by the delivery of free medicines.

MedAcross has been planning for some time to train communities to improve health conditions from the inside with villagers. The pandemic and the Burmese crisis have accelerated this process, aiming to make communities more resilient and active in terms of their health condition.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Finding the time to look back it's always difficult, it just never seems the right time because the present is constantly knocking at the door asking to solve problems. 

Yet it is useful to understand how many steps have already been taken, how many challenges we have overcome, especially if the period concerns a pandemic, a lock-down and many other problems!

For MedAcross, 2020 meant above all teamwork, it was strange but we have never felt so close to our Burmese doctors as in the months of lock-down. From a distance, we were able to plan and carry out Covid-19 prevention programs and to continue our medical activities.

You can read all the results we have achieved together in the 2020 Report and Budget present in our website.

News from Burma is not encouraging:

• Kawthaung hospital works with only 2 doctors, at the moment only the emergency room is operational.
• For 7 months, surgery, basic care, and preventive actions have been suspended for millions of people. Without vaccines and with contagious variants, COVID is corroding the hopes of Burmese people. In Kawthaung, patients with severe respiratory problems are treated by nurses who administer oxygen. Oxygen cylinders, like medicines, are paid for by patients.
• To comply with the total lockdown imposed by the government, our activities are also suspended.

But when you know you can help, you can't really sit still. This is why our doctors have held many meetings to understand how to support the citizens of Kawthaung. At the moment we have already donated to the Kawthaung hospital:

• 10 CYLINDERS OF OXYGEN for patients of the covid exhibit
• 3 OXYGEN CONCENTRATORS
• 500 QUICK TESTS for covid
• 500 N95 MASKS and 500 VISORS for healthcare personnel

This is just a small step of solidarity from MedAcross staff. We are planning to do much, much more to help people in need of healthcare in Myanmar.

Keep giving your support to be able to help the most fragile people in Myanmar, spread our message!

My name is Ma Yi, I am 27 years old and I live with my little girl in the village of Aung Thar Yar, on the border between Myanmar and Thailand, but this was not my project.

My plan was to reach the Thailand border to offer a better future for my daughter. Since I left my family, I have traveled 12.000 kilometers: by foot, bus, and bicycle. During the trip started the covid-19 pandemic, I had to stop my journey in a safe place since countries' borders were closed.

I gave birth in an isolated village with the help of a midwife, the hospital was too far away and I could not afford the transport costs. At the moment it is impossible to continue my journey, I prefer to stay in the south of Myanmar, even if living in a small rural village is difficult.

A family living close told me about MedAcross when my baby got sick, the little one had never seen a doctor before. Dr. Khant was kind and the nurses gave us the necessary medicines and vaccinations for my baby. The doctor told me that MedAcross is an Italian project, I am moved to know that people so far away are thinking of us!

Thank you so much

Today we want to share with you the story of Mrs. D. who suffers from many years of hypertension that prevents her to be able to work and to pay for her medical care. She lives 10 km far from Kawthaung and helps the community cooking for kids when parents are away from work.

Like many chronic diseases, hypertension is a very insidious illness to live with because is impossible to solve completely. Instead, people suffering from hypertension need to treat is for all the life, keeping sure that it doesn't get worst because is a direct cause of stroke and ictus. In Myanmar, 30% of the population suffers from hypertension and are mostly elderly people who are not able to work anymore and therefore cannot afford medical care (which lays directly on patient finance availability). 

Mrs. D health gets worst during these months, she could not come to the Clinic for the general city's instability. Dr. Khant visits her a few days ago giving proper treatment and a full month of drug coverage for hypertension, making sure she will not run out the next time. In these uncertain times, we keep our focus on the most fragile people living in Myanmar, their stories and the resistance that they prove every day inspire us.