assignments assignments...

so the first couple of days were slow, just kind of observing everything and getting to know the facility and the staff. even then, we have encountered many memorable momments like witnessing a malnourished boy (skinny, with blotches of bleached hair) throw up a live worm and being scolded by a mother for it, and a neonate a size of a kitten...

we did, however, tag along to dr. cynthia and eth war one day to check up on all the schools for burmese refugee children that mae tao clinic helps to run. some schools are attached to the boarding houses (well, more like a shack, and in some cases, a building is used as a class room during the day and sleeping corridor by night), because many of their parents are either deceased, still trapped in burma, or at the refugee camps where resources are scarce and schools are not well run. it was really interesting to see though, that about half of these schools had at least one computer. the juxtaposition of the leaf-made roofs and the fairly new desktop computers was quite amusing. we also picked up a girl (and her devoted teacher) who was suffering from high fever due to malaria (as we found out later).

finally, after three days of sitting around and trying to establish our existence and our commitment to the clinic, we have finally seemed to gain enough trust and friendship to actually take on multiple projects that could be helpful to the clinic staff and dr. cynthia. it started off with dr. cynthia's request to write up a three year report for a grant for children's health program that was expired in march, followed by the request from the medic in charge of data collection (leo) and analysis to translate each department based burmese exit interviews and general quality assurance surveys into english (obviously with a help from a medic "moon star" who speaks very good english). the surveys are very basic, but impressive in terms of their contents and subjects. we will continue to translate all the surveys they currently use, and we may have to create a new survey and conduct it to assess the maternal child health/disease recognition in the pediatric department in the near future.

AND today, we got new assignments from dr. cynthia to write a proposal in response to funding offers from australia and thai independent organizations specidically to help refugee children's education. we were then taken around to interview children, school teachers, and dorm parents by a teacher who is a representative of the clinic's refugee children education department called Children Development Centre (CDC). the stories they told us were heart wrenching, and we were constantly holding back tears. these stories will follow soon...

in the meantime, please visit:

Karen Women's Organization (in charge of organizing border crossing for women, children and their families, orphanage at the refugee camps, and social support for internally displaced women in burma)

The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (support organization that highlights and recognizes children and their allies in harships through publications, awards, and funds - dr. cynthia won an award recently for her effort to help children)