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The Mae Tao Clinic is located in Thailand directly at the Burmese border near the small town of Mae Sot. It provides free health care for refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals, who dare to flee across the border from Burma to Thailand through the minefields of the jungle of Burma, chased by the burmese military. 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 and developed from being just a few cottages with helpers to a clinic with physicians and volunteers for most injuries and deseases. It is a first shelter for the burmese refugees to run to and even more a fully functional clinic with departments such as prosthetic, surgical, intern, pediatrics, accupuncture, an eye clinic and an intensive care unit, financing itself only by donations. For many of the Burmese, it is the first health care they receive in their whole life. Not only contagious desease like malaria and tuberculosis are a huge problem of the people coming to the clinic, landmine wounds are steadily increasing, as there are an estimated percentage of 70 of the eastern border which is mined. A landmine is a weapon, that is not used to decimate but to mutilate it’s victims. The Mae Tao Clinic provides free surgical and prosthetic help for these victims.
In Burma, the military junta has been in government power since 1962. Pushes for democracy in 1988 and 2007 have been brutally repressed, resulting in many deaths of burmese civilians. The military junta denounced the results of democratic elections in 1990, won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Price and hope of the people, has been under house arrest ever since. The UN special rapporteur on Burma documented that the Burmese military continues to unlawfully confiscate land, displace villagers, demand forced labour, and use violence (including rape, torture, and murder) against those who protest such brutality. More than 75,000 Burmese have been displaced for hydroelectric dam projects. The World Health Organization ranked Burma’s health sector 190 out of 191 countries. UNICEF estimates that government spending on healthcare per capita is US $0.40. This is less than 3% of national budget going towards healthcare, while 40% goes towards military expenses. The majority of Burmese citizens subsist on an average annual income of less than $200 US per capita. Across Eastern Burma, the infant mortality rate is 91 deaths for every 1000, one in five children die before their fifth birthday, one in twelve women die during . Malnutrition levels among children are over 15 percent. Malaria infection rate is over 12 percent at any given time. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are considered epidemics. Local understanding of sanitation and hygiene remains low, as does access to clean water and basic sanitation facilities such as latrines. This naturally leads to high levels of associated diseases such cholera and diarrhoea, among others diseases. A great number of deaths are preventable but the burmese military does not show any effort to do so.
In my opinion, the Mae Tao Clinic is one of these rare lights in the world that need more attention so it can continue to exist and to create an awareness of an issue known, but yet almost forgetten. The burmese military regime and it's refuse to cooparate is creating an environment of fear and hatred, willingly disregarding human lives and possessions and it manages with no freedom of press, that these issues almost never appear in the international media.
To find a place like the Mae Tao Clinic, were it does not matter what ethnicity or background you have, that is just there to help those who are in desparate need, is the best reason to document it. It is not hidden, nor is it a secret place. It could easily be swept and all refugees could be deported back to Burma, where they would suffer under the military regime. But because there is an international awareness of the Mae Tao Clinic, it is tolerated and can continue it's wonderful work living just of donations. So please help to keep the Mae Tao Clinic in our minds and help them so they can be there.
