The Mae Tao clinic, which is located in Mae Sot, on the Thai side of the Thai–Burma border, has continued to attract thousands of ill and injured Burmese people not only with its close proximity to Burmese villages, but with its policy of treating migrants and refugees for little or no patient cost.
“This month [many] Mataotalay villagers from Myawaddy Township in Karen State have gotten the fever,” one Myawaddy resident reported. “Many of the people went to the Mea Tao Clinic because they do not have to pay for medicine. We can give donations as charity, but if we go to other clinic we have to pay 4,000 to 5,000 baht.”
A student studying in Myawaddy explained, “If my eye gets hurt, I can go to the Mea Toa [clinic] very easily and get it fixed. But I have to pay an admission fee of 100 baht; once there the cure is free and also it is very close to my native town Myawaddy.”
Many people who live along the Thai-Burma border are from inside Burma. While most of them are refugees, some are also migrants to the area to find work. For this population that often does not have the resources to visit a larger Thai clinic, when sick the majority of patients can find treatment at the Mae Tao clinic according to the Burmese patient who had come from Burma but has been living in Mae Sot.
For Burmese not already living in Mae Sot, the crossing from Burma is relatively easy. “If a person is sick in Myawaddy, they can cross the border to receive treatment at the Mea Tao Clinic. Some people cross the bridge, while some cross the river [illegally] by boat,” a Burmese Mae Sot resident explained. “If we cross Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge legally, we have to pay 2500 kyat on the Burmese side if we have never crossed before and 1000 kyat if we have crossed before.”
According to Saw Aung Than Wai, who is a program manager and research coordinator for the clinic, Mea Tao normally sees around 300 to 400 patients per day. 50% of these came from the Burmese side of the border.
“I believed that many of services at Mae Tao are unavailable to patients in Burma so patients came to seek treatment here,” said Saw Aung Than Wai. “A few weeks ago we performed eye operations on about 180 patients. 80% of them were from inside Burma and specifically came to undergo the operation. And the whole process was free. The most common condition people come seeking treatment for is fever and the second most common is respiratory illness.”
The clinic receives support and funding from 20 to 30 international and non-governmentally organized groups. “We can get support but we do not get all that we need. Dr. Cynthia Maung continues to work towards keeping the clinic running in the future, and to adapt to the changing needs of patients.”
Mea Tao Clinic was founded along the Thai-Burma border in 1989 after Dr. Cynthia Maung and 14 colleges fled Burma when the Burmese military began violently suppressing the 1988 democracy uprising.
