Mae Tao Clinic celebrates 30 years

news : Updates

June 18, 2019

Taken on the front steps of Parliament in Ottawa – a delegation organized together with Rights and Democracy. Guests included staff the National Coalition Government of Burma, Mae Tao Clinic, Shan Women’s Action Network and the Karen Women’s Organization.

Credit: Inter Pares

Today Mae Tao Clinic celebrates thirty years of providing healthcare, education and protection… and so much more.

30 years ago, Dr. Cynthia Maung and a few colleagues set up a temporary clinic in a small house on the Thai side of the border with Burma. In the beginning, health workers sterilized their instruments in a rice cooker. Not long after this, Mae Tao Clinic began receive funding from the Government of Canada through Inter Pares.

Today Mae Tao clinic is a training hospital – a place where people from Burma hone critically needed medical skills. Over 2,000 babies are born at the clinic each year – and staff provide birth certificates, of great value to stateless children. The clinic is also a hub for policy development, bringing together health providers to plan for a future when there is peace and democracy in Burma.

Inter Pares has had the privilege of working with Mae Tao Clinic since the early 1990s. We have learned so much from staff at the clinic and look forward to many more years of collaboration! Happy anniversary MTC!