Health

OUR GOAL is to improve access to public health and primary medical care in Chin state.

Health indicators in Chin State continue to be among the worst in Myanmar. The primary cause of death is from infectious diseases including pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria – most of which are preventable and treatable. Medicines are scarce and expensive and despite there being numerous health facilities, many are empty and all are understaffed.  Due to the distance between villages and towns, patients only travel to a hospital when their deteriorating health conditions are at their worst, with some arriving too late. 

Since 2008, Health & Hope have trained 791 Community Health Workers (CHWs), 32 Area Coordinators (ACs) and 126 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). In addition, 14 local Trainer of Trainers have been trained who have in turn delivered Maternal & Neonatal health training to 101 TBAs in remote villages. This network of locally trained health workers forms part of the community-led response to health challenges across the region, providing support to a population of 150,000 people across 445 partner villages.

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Summary

Based in Lailenpi, Hope Clinic was built in 2016, and provides services to just under 2,000 patients in and around Lailenpi each year.  The clinic has room for up to six inpatients and, in emergencies, can provide a referral and transport service to hospitals in Pakokku or Yangon. The clinic also acts as a clinical training centre for CHWs and TBAs, and as a base for a mobile medical team who conduct clinics in remote villages. 

Challenge

Health indicators in Chin State are poor and due to the remoteness between villages, patients only travel to a hospital when their deteriorating health conditions are at their worst, with some arriving too late. The rural poor are most affected by the lack of investment in healthcare.

 

Solution

Hope Clinic was constructed in 2016 to provide outpatient and inpatient services to 2,000 patients each year from the community in and around Lailenpi. The clinic provides outpatient services six days a week and, in emergencies, can provide a referral service and finances transport to hospitals in larger towns and cities across the country. This service often saves families going into lifelong debt in order to reach expert clinical care in hospital.

The clinic also acts as a clinical training centre for Area Co-ordinators (ACs), Community Health Workers (CHWs), Trainer of Trainers and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and a base from which to run community health education campaigns. 

In 2018, two doctors from Health & Hope’s Freedom to Education Project (FEP) returned to Lailenpi to run the clinic after undertaking six years study in the Philippines. They were joined in 2019 by three qualified nurses, who have also been supported by Health & Hope’s FEP through six years of study in India. 

2020-21 Project Aims

This year, the project aims to: 

  • Provide the supplies, resources and medical staff to provide essential healthcare services to 2,000 out-patients a year.
  • Send medical outreach teams into remote villages to run clinics and deliver health education campaigns. 30 villages will be reached annually with vital medical supplies, treatment, advice, patent referrals and vital health education.
  • Provide 12 Community Health Workers with two-week placements under medical doctors and nurses at the clinic to equip them to better respond to their communities health needs.