Healthcare for 2000 Rural Villagers in Myanmar

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. 

Dear friends,

today we woke up with unexpected news from newspapers and, more importantly, from our colleagues in Myanmar: the political situation of the country is extremely fragile at the moment and it has been declared the state of emergency. Internet and telephone communication has been interrupted for some hours. When the connection was available again, we immediately reach out to the local staff for news and it seems that all the country is living in a suspended time waiting for the next move to come.

To avoid security problems for both the MedAcross'staff and remote area patients, we decided to postpone the Mobile Clinic trips for some days, while the Kawthaung Clinic will remain open to all patients.

Our concern for the Mobile Clinic is that the groups of patience awaiting the medical visit in the villages could be misunderstood as political protesters. Our goal is to help people who do not have access to medical care and we intend to pursue our goal of friendship without political implications.

I will keep you informed in the next days

Warm regards, 

Vittoria from MedAcross

Since August 2020 MedAcross' Mobile Clinic is visiting 7 villages placed in remote areas of Kawthaung district, at the extreme south of Myanmar. Every month, the Mobile Clinic made approximately 800 miles through dirt roads, wood bridge and forest track to reach our patients giving free healthcare and medications they need.

The distance between remote villages and proper roads is one of the most challenging problems that prevent people living in remote areas to have proper healthcare (together with the cost of medications). The Mobile Clinic is closing this gap, offering free healthcare, medication and health prevention to more than 300 patients every month. People like Mr Kyaw, who has severe asthma since he was a child.

We found Mr Kyaw at Aung Myanmar village, with severe breathlessness, shaking and can't able to speak. One of MedAcross' doctors, dr Hsu Nandar, immediately take care of him, checking his condition and, since the asthma crisis was extremely severe, deciding to drive back to Kawthaung hospital. During the rush to the hospital, the patient has been treated with emergency asthma drugs and for this reason, it arrived in quite good conditions at the hospital after 2 hours of car travel. 

Mobile Clinic is not an ambulance service, MedAcross focus its work on detect illnesses and treat them before they can develop in emergency problems, but we keep emergency medications for situations like this one. In places where villagers often do not have cars and are miles far from the hospital, Mobile Clinic is the only healthcare defense. 

Thank you for being part of this journey.

I don't know if you are now still enjoying some vacations at seaside or super busy in the office fighting against mosquitoes and working deadlines.
Now you can take a moment to distract yourself from your routine to travel through Myanmar islands with Medacross.

But here, as you well know MedAcross is not a travel agency and even if I will tell you about the islands, it will be necessary to make an effort not to let the imagination run wild with a cocktail on the beach.
The islands that we reach with the Boat Clinic are not only natural paradises often threatened by aggressive fishing by large international companies, they are also the home of many people living in some of the most untouched and remote places on earth.

During the last Boat Clinic at Aung Myanmar village we visited over 70 patients who live many kilometers away from the first hospital. Among the waiting patients, a little girl also arrived accompanied by her grandmother and our doctors immediately understood that something was wrong with her.
The grandmother learned of our arrival from a neighbor and arrived so worried at the place where we set up the visiting area because for some time the child, when she is agitated, has been spending long moments without breathing.

Her name is Poe Poe and she has 2 years old. The doctors examined the child with attention, noting that she showed signs of stunting and denutrition. The baby was born seven-months from a natural birth in the village, without any control during pregnancy and with only the help of a midwife, the norm for many women in Myanmar.
This situation causes 2,700 deaths during childbirth every year and causes serious problems for the growth of children born in isolated villages.
Helping this little girl is not easy because for an accurate diagnosis she will need to travel 4 hours, crossing the sea during rainy season, but we will make every effort to take this child to the hospital for more thorough checks.