AMI in Myanmar

AMI in Myanmar

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Objective

Objective: Improve the health of populations living in highly vulnerable areas in Myanmar.

Context

In 2005, the military junta ruling the country allocated less than 3% of the national budget to education and health. The annual expenditure for both sectors is less than €0.5 per inhabitant. In addition, the worsening economic situation impoverishes most vulnerable populations, thus affecting their health. AMI has been active in this country since the beginning of the 1980s, supporting those most vulnerable populations forgotten by the state: minorities, displaced people fleeing areas of fighting [approximately 2 million people]. In 2005, AMI worked in three areas: the Yangon, Wa and Buthidaung regions.

Improving the access to health care and safe drinking water of populations in Dala and Twantay

Since July 2001, AMI has been working in the township of Dala [suburb of Yangon], a “dormitory swamp” where more than 100,000 people live [10% of them being displaced or “relocalized”], and, since 2005, in the adjacent townships of Twantay and Seikgyi. The precarious living conditions of these populations [numerous infectious diseases such as diarrheas and skin problems] mainly result from the lack of resources and a very limited access to safe drinking water and health care. Each program comprises prevention and education activities.

Program

AMI’s activities aim at improving the access to health and increasing the self-reliance of these populations. AMI’s mission focuses on three main areas: mother and child protection, fight against HIV/AIDS propagation, and construction of water and sanitation infrastructures.

Results

* Water and sanitation

  • Construction and rehabilitation of 58 rain collectors for individuals, 17 rain collectors for schools, 58 hand pumps and gravity systems for individuals, 17 hand pumps for schools, 5 community ponds, 1,450 latrines for individuals and 100 latrines for schools. Management and maintenance committees were created for each one of these infrastructures
  • 21 schools also benefited from water and sanitation facilities Fight against the propagation of sexually transmitted diseases [STD] and of HIV/AIDS
  • 2,500 patients infected by STDs diagnosed and treated
  • 240,000 condoms distributed
  • Training and monitoring of 43 peer educators
  • 3 health centers equipped

Giving access to health care to populations in the Wa region

Since 2003, AMI has been working along the Sino-Burmese border, in the northern part of the Shan state in a province managed since 1989 by the rural guerilla movement Wa, independently from the Burmese authorities. Health structures in the region are rare. Administrative contraints have hindered humanitarian workers in their movements.

Program

The program aims at providing the population with quality primary health care based on a community health agent network, by reinforcing existing structures with the help of mobile teams.

Results

  • 121,000 people have access to primary health care and to mother-and-child prevention services thanks to the support of 7 health centers and 2 hospitals, with the help of mobile clinics and 230 community health volunteers
  • 17 assistant midwives received training

Giving access to health care to populations in the Buthidang region

AMI also operates in the Rakhine state, in the township of Buthidang [north-western part of the country], where an important Muslim minority, the Royinga, lives. This area remains extremely isolated, and health structures are rare.

Program

The program aims at providing the population with quality primary health care by reinforcing existing structures with the help of mobile teams.

Results

  • 120,000 people have access to primary health care and to mother-and-child prevention services thanks to the support of 4 health centers, with the help of 3 mobile clinics and a network of 160 community health agents and 160 traditional birth attendants
sent 21 August 2006