RAISE Projects
RAISE supports Mae Tao Clinic and Burma Medical Association in Thailand, near the Thai-Burmese border, to provide clinician training and high quality reproductive health care to displaced people and migrant workers from Burma.
On the ground
Clients on the way to get care
A typical story at Mae Tao Clinic might read like this: A woman joins hundreds of others in exodus from a remote village in Burma. Her family is from the Karen ethnic minority, who have fought for independence in a 60-year-old conflict that has forced them to pack their belongings and find safety in a displaced persons camp near the Thai border.
Her life is yet again at risk when she discovers that she is pregnant, because high quality services for pregnant women in Burma are scarce. Will help be available if something goes wrong during her pregnancy or delivery? Her fears are justified: Every year over half a million women worldwide die from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications.
On both sides of the Thai-Burmese border, thousands of displaced are in desperate need of life-saving reproductive health (RH) services.
How RAISE is helping
Training health workers to deliver babies
The RAISE project at Mae Tao Clinic began in 2007, building on the clinic’s 20 years of experience delivering health care to Burmese living on the fringe of Thai society.
With RAISE support, Mae Tao Clinic trains health workers who journey from Burma to the clinic for RH training, since none is available back home.
The Burma Medical Association helps these trained workers return to Burma with supplies and equipment to provide critical RH services in areas where troops still fight rebels, people continue to be displaced from their homes, and RH services remain dangerously inadequate.
The eight-month competency-based training for Burmese health workers at Mae Tao Clinic includes:
- Emergency obstetric care
- Family planning
- Treatment of sexually transmitted infections
- Clinical care for gender-based violence
RAISE also renovates and equips Mae Tao Clinic facilities and helps bring in expert trainers from around the world.
For every worker who travels to Thailand for RH training, there are scores of others who cannot. Mae Tao Clinic prepares students to train colleagues upon their return to Burma, multiplying the number of skilled RH workers in their communities.
Country Context
- Burma's military government has held a tight reign on life and politics for several decades. Many people have fled to safer places, including Thailand.
- Over half a million people in Burma are displaced by conflict.
- 160,000 refugees live in camps on the Thai-Burmese border.
- One in twelve women dies during childbirth in Burma.
- Over two million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand are undocumented, making access to health care and social support extremely difficult.
- Infant mortality in eastern Burma is 20% higher than in the rest of the country.
RAISE Partner
Mae Tao Clinic, located in Mae Sot in western Thailand, provides free, first-rate health care for refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals who cross the border from Burma to Thailand. Mae Tao Clinic has grown considerably from its humble beginning in 1989 when floors were dirt and instruments were sterilised by rice cooker. Now the clinic boasts high-quality facilities and staff that provide comprehensive medical and social services to a target population of approximately 200,000 migrants, refugees and internally displaced people from Burma. (maetaoclinic.org)
The Burma Medical Association has been helping to improve health among displaced people and migrant workers from Burma and the Thai-Burmese border since 1991. The organisation supports nearly 40 health clinics and works with Mae Tao Clinic to reduce maternal death and disability. (bmahealth.org)
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