This project will provide training, support and essential supplies to 40 mobile, community-based medics who hike through difficult terrain to deliver lifesaving emergency care to 65,000 people in remote communities of Eastern Myanmar. This region remains in the grip of a protracted health crisis after decades of civil war and chronic under-investment in health. In many cases, these mobile emergency medics provide the only access to health services for the poorest and most vulnerable communities.
While recent ceasefires offer hope of long-term peace in Eastern Myanmar, 450,000 villagers remain displaced and land mines are rife throughout this region. Communities have little or no access to government services. The challenge of delivering basic emergency care to these remote populations remains immense, but not without hope. Mobile medic teams operated by community-based organizations have demonstrated remarkable success in providing high-quality health care in low-resource settings.
This project will help train, support and equip 20 community-based medic teams (2 medics per team) operated by our partner organizations. These medic teams deliver emergency care services to 65,000 villagers in remote regions of Eastern Myanmar. Through training, the medics learn techniques for advanced trauma care in low-resource field environments. Equipment and supplies provided are portable so that they can be carried from village to village across mountainous, hard-to-reach terrain.
This project will help alleviate the health crisis in Eastern Myanmar and strengthen the foundations of community-based health care in preparation for long-term peace and stability. It will build the capacity of community-based health care providers to prevent deaths resulting from severe injury and illness. It will help maintain and strengthen trauma care skills which will be increasingly needed as refugees and internally displaced populations return to areas with a high density of landmines.
