Primary Health Care in Myanmar’s Special Regions and Autonomous Areas

Health Poverty Action is working on the Myanmar-China border to provide basic health care to marginalized communities.

Myanmar/Burma is one of the world’s least developed countries.  It has had a long history of conflicts since the Second World War, most of which have ended during the 1990s in ceasefire agreements.

These conflicts have left areas extremely impoverished and this has increased with the cessation of logging in the area and the banning of poppy cultivation.

The situation remains politically complex and difficult to work with, so health is very poor in some regions.  However, after more than 20 years, progress has been made and the current programme builds on the success of previous projects and is expanding into new areas.

Health Poverty Action supports primary health care work in five regions, four of which are directly supported by UKaid from the Department for International Development.

Five steps to better health

Through our primary care programme, we work with communities,  health providers and health authorities, making sure that all health gains are sustainable in the long term.

• Enable communities to improve their own health

Even if there are no doctors, local communities can take action.  Health Poverty Action trains village health committees (VHC) to improve health at a village level.  For example, we encourage teaching about better hygiene and nutrition through songs and drama, and help the VHC to plan and organise the community to build wells.  This programme also encourages schools to teach hygiene and sanitation awareness.

1. Providing basic health care services, especially for mothers and children

Basic medicines save lives but remote communities struggle to access them.  We build rural clinics, which mean that villagers will be able to get treatment for malaria and other illnesses.  The programme also makes sure that children are vaccinated against childhood diseases and receive supplementary feeding if they are malnourished.  We train and supervise Traditional Birth Attendants to visit pregnant women to help them to give birth safely and refer those at high risk to hospital.

1. Increased availability of prevention and treatment for major communicable diseases to priority groups.

Diseases such as malaria and HIV do not respect national boundaries; when countries work together there are much better chances of preventing the spread of such illnesses.  We train Birth Attendants to offer HIV testing for pregnant women and in areas where injecting drug use is a problem, we encourage needle exchange to prevent HIV infection.  Through this programme, we are also distributing malaria nets and following up on their use – so that fewer children die unnecessarily of malaria.

1. Strengthened capacity for coordination, management and organization of health services.

After decades of civil war, there was no health infrastructure in these regions.  This programme trains local authorities to run the newly established health facilities – developing consistent rules and regulations, collecting information about health and liaising with other organisations.

1. Advocacy for the health rights of marginalized people and case to invest in health.

Poor people have the same rights as anyone else – including the right to health.  Through this programme, Health Poverty Action will encourage local authorities to carry on investing in health, and we will share the lessons that we learn with other stakeholders.  Our Mothers on the Margins campaign takes action for women for indigenous women, who are more likely to die or face complications related to pregnancy.

This work is supported by UKaid from the Department for International Development.

Last modified: 09/12/2011