Dr Cynthia Maung stressed that her clinic and her projects still facing major challenges after Burmese sham election in November 2010. She said that more Internally Displace Persons (IDPs) daily and more Burmese crossing the border and getting medical needs for their daily lives.
She predicts that there would be more refugees and more medical recipients from Burma in terms of border clashes and economic hardships. She receives more than 80% of the patients from across the border than migrant community. Her clinic is not only providing medicial treatments but social assistance and other security issues for the patients.
Many Burmese across the border that lack of medical needs in Burma facing Thai immigration law and her social team normally negotiate with local authorities to get humanitarian ground, let them get medical treatments without arresting. Some cases, the whole family were arrested included new born babies who needed medical attention from Thai local hospitals.
Her concerns are not only Burmese suppressive regime but Thai political changes will affect Burmese patients from cross border and migrant community in the future.
The Mae Tao Clinic (MTC), founded and directed by Dr. Cynthia Maung, provides free health care for refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals who cross the border from Burma to Thailand.
People of all ethnicities and religions are welcome at the Clinic. Its origins go back to the student pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988 and the brutal repression by the Burmese regime of that movement.
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