El-Branden Brazil

Photography by El-Branden Brazil

The Mae Tao Clinic (MTC), founded and directed by Dr. Cynthia Maung, providing free health care for refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals who cross the border from Burma to Thailand. People of all ethnicities and religions are welcome at the Clinic. Its origins go back to the student pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988 and the brutal repression by the Burmese regime of that movement. The fleeing students who needed medical attention were attended in a small house in Mae Sot.

Since 1989 MTC has grown, from that one small house to a large complex of simple buildings that provide a wide variety of health services to different groups of people. Today it serves a target population of approximately 150,000 on the Thai-Burma border. Exact numbers are hard to calculate because of the fluidity of the population. About 50% of those who come to MTC for medical attention are migrant workers in the Mae Sot area; the other 50% travel cross-border from Burma for care.

Mae Tao Clinic Objectives:

1. To provide health services for displaced Burmese populations along the Thailand-Burma border.
2. To provide initial training of health workers and subsequent corollary medical education.
3. To strengthen health information systems along the border.
4. To improve health, knowledge, attitudes, and practices within local Burmese populations.
5. To promote collaboration among local ethnic health organizations.
6. To strengthen networking and partnering with international health professionals and institutions.

Please support this vital service. maetaoclinic.org/