FOUR days left...

We are finally counting down the days. We finally have everything sorted, from vaccinations to our place of residence to the bed nets. All we do now is go!

Thank you so much for those of you who have donated needed items for the supply drive. We are delighted to be able to bring what we received to the clinic.

So... just a little map here to show you exactly where we will be. City of Mae Sot is home for many Burman refugees (mostly Karen, some Hmong), and international relief workers who work at the refugee camps and the Mae Tao Clinic. Burma is still under a dictatorship and is a military nation, with a social hierarchy that discriminates against hill-tribe people such as Karen and Hmong. Many of them flee Burma in a hope for a better life in Thailand, a semi-democratic nation, though the effect of long-lived caste system still prevents tribal people from accessing any medical care. As a result, many refugee children are used as child labor force, women resort to commercial sex work, and men migrate in and out of urban centers of Thailand for work. Mae Sot is truly a "boarder town" in a sense that it acts as a "home base" for many of these people who do not have a "home" elsewhere, and also as a place for foreign aid that support the refugees and their local allies.