Birth of the Burma Refugee Children’s Project
In the June of 2019, China Cal board members, John Thorne, Shan Shan Chen and Robert Detrano traveled together to Mae Sot, Thailand to visit the Mae Tao Clinic, a community based not for profit NGO, founded in 1989 by refugee Burmese physician, Dr. Cynthia Maung and sometimes called “Doctor Cynthia’s Clinic”. The clinic serves the impoverished Burmese refugee population on the Thai Burma border.
Mae Tao Clinic
Mae Sot, Thailand
They met with some of the clinic’s international staff and Dr. Detrano consulted on some patients.
Examining heart patient
John Thorne at right.
In September, 2019, Dr. Detrano and Ms. Chen returned to the Mae Tao clinic to meet its founder and director, Dr. Cynthia Maung and to begin screening school children at two local schools in Mae Sot.
CDC School
Mae Sot, Thailand
In December, 2019, Dr. Detrano and Ms. Chen returned a second time to Mae Sot. In December, with the cooperation of Help Without Frontiers, an NGO that supports and coordinates learning at refugee schools, they screened 500 children and referred 10 children for treatment at the Mae Tao clinic and for financial support to the Burma Children’s Medical Foundation.
Hope School
Mae Sot, Thailand
In December, 2019, the China Cal board voted to start a project to support pediatric heart health among Burmese refugee children. China Cal will partner with Mae Tao Clinic, Burma Childrens’ Medical Fund and Help without Frontiers to screen 10,000 children in 2020 and to support care for all children found with heart disease.