Network aids Nargis victims in Rangoon

Border clinic, charity groups band together

Monday June 02, 2008

MAE SOT, TAK : A border clinic in Tak's Mae Sot district and eight charity organisations have set up 34 networks to provide relief assistance to victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.

The Mae Tao Clinic, the National Health and Education Committee, the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, the Burma Medical Association and five other charity organisations have set up the networks to help victims of the devastation, said Cynthia Maung, who runs the clinic.

The clinic provides free health care services to displaced people and immigrant Burmese workers. The networks operate as Emergency Assistance Team-Burma.

She said it would directly distribute relief assistance to 40,000 cyclone-hit victims who had not yet received state assistance.

Most members of the networks were local residents, said Dr Cynthia.

The cyclone ravaged large areas of Rangoon and her clinic had set up the Cyclone Nargis Relief Effort to help affected communities.

It had solicited 18 million baht in donations.

Of this about 10 million baht had been spent to provide relief assistance to victims, Dr Cynthia said.

"We have learned that several of the devastated communities are far from the centre and state assistance has not reached them," she said.

"In some areas, corpses are being collected, but in several areas, the bodies of the dead have not yet been recovered."

With only limited funding and staffing, the networks can provide assistance to only 40,000 needy victims.

She said her clinic and other volunteers would be willing to work with the Burmese government in rehabilitating the victims if invited.

However, the Burmese authorities must guarantee the safety of the volunteers.

Dr Cynthia was born into a Karen family in Rangoon in 1959 and grew up in Moulmein in Mon state.

She fled Burma in 1988 following a violent crackdown on student pro-democracy protests and started the clinic a year later in Mae Sot district.

The border clinic is manned by five doctors, 120 nurses and 40 health staff and provides free health care services to 200- 400 patients a day.

Article Courtesy from Bangkok Post