Back Pack Health Worker Team brings health care to internally displaced persons in remote areas of Burma

Over fifty years of civil war in Burma has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. They have fled their homes, hidden for safety and faced forced relocation. Compounding their loss of homes and security is their lack of the basic human right to health. Those people who are living along the border and in the interior of the ethnic nationalities' area of Burma are severely affected.

Since 1998, the Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT) has been providing primary health care in ethnic armed conflict areas and rural areas where access to healthcare is otherwise unavailable. The BPHWT provides a range of medical care, community health education and prevention, and maternal and child healthcare services to internally displaced persons in Burma.

When doctors and health workers from the Karen, Karenni, and Mon States established the BPHWT, there were 32 backpack teams with 120 health workers. Today there are 70 teams with two to five health workers in each team, who deliver a range of health care programs to 140,000 displaced people. The BPHWT aims to equip people with the skills and knowledge necessary to manage and address their own health problems, while working towards long-term sustainable development.

Burma is situated on the Indo China peninsula and shares borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. Of its 48 million people, 21 million are under 18 and more than 70% live in rural areas. A 1988 coup created the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the current military government. In 1990, multi-party democratic elections were held, and the National League for Democracy (NLD) won an overwhelming majority of seats, but the SPDC refused to transfer government.

In 2003, health spending was just 7% compared with 40% on military expenditures. The 2000 World Health Report ranked Burma’s overall health system performance as the second worst in the world. Many preventable diseases are rampant: 36% of children younger than 5 are estimated to be malnourished and Vitamin A deficiency is reported in up to 44% of primary school age children; babies and children die from tuberculosis, tetanus and measles; military activity, lack of electricity, transportation problems and insufficiently-trained health staff restricts immunization programs in border areas; 24% of infant and child deaths are caused by acute respiratory infections and 18% by diarrhea; and malaria and dengue fever are major causes of illness and death.

As well as facing harsh living conditions, internally displaced persons usually have no access to existing limited health programs. By the year 2003 there was between 600,000 to one million people internally displaced in Burma. On the eastern border of Burma the Karen, Karenni, Mon and Shan ethnic groups have been the most affected. Many international non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies work in Burma, but they are not allowed to provide services to people living in the border areas affected by civil war.

This story is compiled and adapted from information found on the website of the Backpack Health Worker Team program. The team’s mailing address is P.O Box 57, Mae Sot, Tak 63110, Thailand. Email. The BPHWT program has received support from the Canadian NGO Inter Pares as well as the Canadian International Development Agency.

 


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