The situation for our clinics has now now changed as a wave of Covid spreads across Myanmar. In Pagan alone over 100 villagers have died from Covid and one of our own doctors is suffering from the virus.
Our original fund raiser in March 2021 was to raise money to offer medical assistance to innocent people shot by the military and financial assistance to the families of those who had lost a loved one in these shootings.
Since then as demonstrations across the country have scaled back to hot spots, like Kani on the Chindwin, we have switched focus from front line medical assistance to general food aid as many people face real hunger with a frozen economy and the closure of most businesses.
Our team at Pagan have now distributed over 10,000 food bags, each costing about USD10 and able to feed a family for a week. We are continuing with this food programme on a regular basis which is not easy as vital supplies are short as the distribution networks have collapsed.
Currently the main challenge is how to respond to the Covid epidemic. Quite early on we were able to secure a considerable number of oxygen cylinders and believe we have sufficient to cover all our clinics for the foreseeable future.
A real concern is to protect our medical teams and PPE is hard to come by. In this photo you can see two of our doctors in home made PPE.
Though there is little in the news about the situation in Myanmar, the people there are facing a real humanitarian crisis in the absence of any form of government provided health care system. We really need all the help we can get to save lives so please keep giving.
Follow the events in Myanmar as they unfold - beware contains graphic content
Images of Pandaw Clinics at work