Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Connor Graham, Asia Research Institute, and Tembusu College, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Dr Cynthia Maung is a medical doctor and founder of the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand on the Thai-Burmese border. When the military seized power in 1988 and began cracking down on pro-democracy activists, she was among thousands who fled to the jungle. Like many of the others, she eventually made it across the Thai-Burma border. In 1989, after consulting with residents of refugee camps along the border about the medical needs of refugees and internally displaced persons, she established her clinic in a dilapidated building with bare dirt floors on the outskirts of Mae Sot. Her makeshift clinic had few supplies and almost no money, but she improvised by sterilizing her few instruments in a rice cooker and soliciting medicine and food from Catholic relief workers. Today, Dr Cynthia’s clinic treats more than 75,000 patients each year. Dr Cynthia works with a staff of 550 people to provide health education and protection to conflict-affected communities, migrant workers and displaced children who have little resource to services elsewhere. The clinic receives 400–500 patients daily, treating such conditions as malaria, respiratory disease and diarrhea, as well as providing over 200 prosthetics for people who have had a land mine injury. Last year Mae Tao Clinic provided a safe delivery for 2800 pregnant women. Dr Cynthia and her staff work closely with other community based organizations to strengthen the health system in Eastern Burma and Mae Tao Clinic has been a training hub for more than 20 years where more than 3000 health workers have been trained to provide primary health care in conflict areas where no other service was available. This seminar will discuss the challenging process of moving from a makeshift health clinic to a centre for health care for border communities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Cynthia Maung is a medical doctor who since 1989 has lived in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burmese border. An ethnic Karen, Dr Maung left Burma (Myanmar) after the 8888 Uprising and has since run a clinic treating refugees, migrants and orphans at Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, together with 100 paramedics and teachers. Dr Maung and the Mae Tao Clinic have won many awards over the years due to tireless work, to improve the lives of the Burmese people. She received Southeast Asia’s Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership and she was listed as one of 2003 Time Magazine’s Asian Heroes. In 1999, she was the first recipient of the Jonathan Mann Award, sponsored by Swiss and US health organisations. More recently, she was also awarded Ilga Foundation award for Public Service in 2015, Sydney Peace Prize and Rotary One Award in 2013 among many others.

REGISTRATION

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