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Dr. Cynthia, as her patients call her, is a ray of hope for the thousands of refugees living along the Thai-Burma border. Having fled the conflict in Burma and oppressive rule of the ruling military junta, they now subsist on the fringes. Health care is one of the many things that is in short supply. Dr. Cynthia Maung’s Mae Tao clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot sees up to 200 patients every day. The clinic’s five doctors and dozens of other medical staff treat everything from malaria and diarrhea to gunshot wounds broken bones. Dr. Cynthia is herself a refugee, having fled the junta’s bloody crackdown in 1988 against those working for democracy. She did not expect to be in Thailand for more than a few months. She hoped conditions in Burma would improve. However, she saw hundreds of sick and wounded around her. With the few medical supplies she could scrape together and a rice cooker as a sterilizer, she set up her clinic. Months turned into years, as conditions in Burma got worse instead of better. Every day, more Burmese flee across the border and into her clinic. Life on the border is not easy for many reasons. Poverty and hopelessness create more challenges. Injuries from domestic violence are about as common as those from war. To fight some of these corrosive aspects of refugee life, Dr. Cynthia supports women’s organizations and youth programs. Training Backpack MedicsThe clinic is also the training post for more than 80 backpack medics. These medics make the dangerous trek across the border into the dense Burmese jungles to treat the thousands of people who have fled or were forced out of their homes. Malaria is a common killer as are landmines. The medics risk their lives sneaking past Burmese border guards and the military that often patrol the area. With only the medical supplies they can carry, they save hundreds of lives. Rebuilding LivesThis year's theme for World Refugee Day is "Rebuilding Lives in Safety and Dignity". The work of Dr. Cynthia and her staff is a major step towards that goal. Between mid-2002 and mid-2003 alone, she and her staff treated more than 30,000 refugees and others living along the border. The clinic’s outpost inside the Karen State in Burma treated another 15,000 internally displaced people living near the border. USAID provides funding to support the tremendous work Dr. Cynthia and her staff do every day.
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