 Since
early 2002, Clear Path International has been working with ethnic refugee
health committees along the Thai border with Burma to provide prosthetic
and rehabilitation care to hundreds of Burmese landmine amputees. It
has also funded efforts to improve prosthetics fabrication and measurement
technology resulting in better and lower-cost limbs for accident survivors.
It all began at the Mae Tao Clinic 250 miles northwest of Bangkok. The
clinic, located within a mile from the Burmese border, was set up by
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Cynthia Maung to serve ethnic Karen and
other Burmese refugees who were displaced by the fighting between ethnic
and government troops inside Burma.
At the Mae Tao Clinic, Clear Path has provided financial support for
prostheses materials, the construction of a new prosthetics workshop
and the training of new technicians – all landmine accident survivors.
The clinic’s prosthetics department was founded by Maw Kel, himself
a Karen landmine amputee who was trained by Handicap International and
made artificial legs in the refugee camps for 15 years.
Maw Kel’s prosthetics department, which has graduated a number
of technicians who have spread out to work along the border, has become
a hub for the creation and nurturing of other prostheses production shops
with financial and technical support from Clear Path:
The goal is to use the Mae Tao Clinic as a center for outreach among
displaced amputees who cannot travel because of legal and security issues,
using a new remote measurement device developed by Prosthetics Research
Study of Seattle with funding from Clear Path. The technology, known
as the Transtibial Alignment System (TTAS), is introduced at the Mae
Tao Clinic to technicians from each of the four work shops along with
thermoplastics production resulting in lighter, cheaper and more durable
below-the-knee prostheses. By using this new technique, landmine amputees
in the remote jungles are able to get prostheses without travelling to
a clinic or production site.
In the Thai-Burma border region, where 2 million refugees have fled
their homes since 1996, Clear Path works alongside Handicap International
and the International Committee of the Red Cross. HI serves the landmine
survivors in the United Nations refugee camps (approximately 160,000
people) along the Burmese border in Thailand, while ICRC has orthopaedic
facilities in government-held territories in eastern Burma. Clear Path’s
unique role is to help the ethnic refugee committees reach and serve
amputees the two other organizations can’t.
CPI’s country representative, a physical therapist from the Netherlands,
provides several training sessions per year to the local staff at Mae
Tao Clinic. These sessions are designed to improve the rehabilitation
treatment of the amputees, and to expand local rehabilitation knowledge
and skills.
 PENG
LO, Thailand – A few hours north of Chiang Mai, the Shan
Health Committee has founded a prosthetics shop that employs two technicians
who graduated from Maw Kel’s training course at the Mae Tao Clinic.
Clear Path funded their training, equipment and operating budget. It
continues to provide technical expertise to the remote shop.
KUNG JOR, Thailand – This camp of 600 refugees from the Shan State
in Burma is close to the Peng Lo workshop. Here, CPI supports the Shan
Health Committee initiative to build a pig and fish farm that will create
jobs for seven amputees who live in the camp. This income-generating
project helps them generate income, rebuild their self-esteem and independence,
and facilitates social reintegration.
LOI KAW WAN and LOI TAILENG, Thailand – These two remote villages
at the far north-eastern border with Burma count respectively 2,800 and
about 2,000 refugees from ethnic groups. Seven amputees in Loi Kaw Wan
want to unite with a group of more than 20 amputees in nearby Therd Thai
to find suitable jobs and have asked CPI to support their effort. In
Loi Taileng, 28 amputees have asked CPI to help them start income-generating
projects through the Shan Health Committee. CPI’s country representative
provides orthopaedic rehabilitation training to the staff of the medical
clinics in both villages.
LOI KAW, Burma – To meet the needs of the numerous amputees inside
Eastern Burma, CPI supports a new workshop in the Karenni capitol. The
area is fairly stable, but accident survivors have no other access to
medical and/or prosthetic treatment in their area. Seven technicians
who were trained at the Mae Tao Clinc are running this new workshop,
which started producing artificial legs in October 2007.
KHO KEY, Burma – This small shop was started by the Committee
for Internally Displaced Karen People and serves landmine accident survivors
in the southern part of the territory held by the Karen National Union.
Clear Path provided the budget for raw materials to make prostheses and
the local organization has been sustaining the workshop ever since.
CARE VILLA, Mae La camp, Thailand – This is a home, a shelter
and a 24-7 care facility for 18 men inside the UN refugee camps at Mae
La. Most of the men were blinded by landmines and/or lost their hands
and arms in their accidents. CPI funds are used for their daily care
and the building. Saw Mordecai, himself a landmine victim, is dedicated
to help these severely disabled survivors make their lives as worthy
as possible through handicraft and musical activities. The CPI country
representative and other volunteers provide intermittent physical therapy
for the men.
Sponsors:
Johnson & Widdifield Charitable Trust
Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island
Rotary Club of Maung Chod
Rotary International
Open Society Institute
Grace Episcopal Church
Susila Dharma USA
& hundreds of donors just like you! |
