Medicine distribution, food relief & free clinics

Over December and January we’ve been hard at work serving remote communities in southern Chin and northern Rakhine States.

Our team have had the privilege to visit many remote tribes who rarely receive visitors or support from outside their own communities.

Over the next few days and weeks we’ll be sharing some of the stories and photographs of this work.

Today’s news post covers our visit to the Laymyochin.

Our three main areas of practical focus were:

• Distributing medicines to our Community Health Workers
• Running free clinics in the villages
• Distributing food relief

However, our team soon realised, that while our focus on health, education and food security were important, the biggest impact the work was having was in the hearts of the people.

For many of us reading this post, having somebody tell us that we are loved, having someone to care for us, or even someone to simply ask us ‘how are you?’ is a regular and daily occurrence. But for many of the villagers we met, even the gentle, sincere, caring question, ‘how are you?’ is a rare occurrence.

Many remote tribes in this area live in constant fear of outsiders who threaten to take their land. They have been told by others that the reason they are sick is because they are poor, dirty and worthless. They have been denied recognition of their own identity, through the rejection of their language and culture… they are seen as the last and the least in the worlds’ eyes.

But we had the privilege of being welcomed into their communities, the joy of feasting together even with the little that we had, and the opportunity to share their pain and suffering. Most importantly, all that we shared, we shared as equals, valuing every moment of their warm hospitality.