Burma Healthcare

Healthcare in Burma has dramatically declined over the past twenty years since the suspension of aid in 1988 and as a result of sanctions that punish the people not the regime.

To make matters worse, large number of experienced doctors have left the country during this period as part of a general 'brain drain' in the face of worsening conditions. Medical facilities for the majority poor have never been worse since Independence. Meanwhile the population continues to rise.

Though some NGOs have crept back in, almost clandestinely in fear of politically correct recrimination, and despite the arrival of larger players in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the situation around the country is one of humanitarian disaster.

We were able to assist both the medical charity Merlin and Save the Children in the aftermath of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis with the loan of Pandaw II and Pandaw IV as hosiptal ships and subsequently supplied a motorised barge as a floating clinic which is currently operating in and around Laputta.

Prior to Nargis we have been associated with the U Hla Tun foundation where we sponsored a new 'Pandaw Ward' for their hospice just outside Mandalay.

In addition we have been able to open dispensaries with visiting nurses and doctors attached to village schools, with mixed success due to government interference.