Since April 2012 we are
travelling by bicycle from Germany/Austria to New Zealand. Due to the
fact, that we will gain some attention on this trip by using Facebook
and Blogspot, we decided to use this item to support people, who have
not the same luck as us. Until today both of us had a very good life.
We know that there are so many other countries with people, who have
so many problems, not able to solve them by their own.
In November 2011 Gerd made
a phonecall to Humedica (www.humedica.org) and Steffen Richter, the press spokesman,
invited him to come to Kaufbeuren/Germany. It was a hearty welcome!
Gerd met many people there, and it was a great pleasure to meet the
founder of Humedica, Mr. Wolfgang Gross. A small guided tour through
the organisation made an excellent impression.
Now we are glad to
sustain „Partner´s Relief and Development (PRAD)“,
the partner organisation of Humedica in Thailand
(www.partnersworld.org),
helping people from Myanmar !
Main fields are :
Healthcare
- education of local people in first aid and basic medical treatment, i.e diarrhea, worms , malaria, pneunomia, nutrition, dehydration, hygiene and anaemie
- implementation of a village health worker and introducing a hygienic education of local person
- Medics/nurses are educated for a local group. their knowledge is up to make amputations (caused by landmines or bad accidents). Smaller clinics in bigger villages.
- transport of patients and support, including interpretors.
Agriculture
farming
support: visiting the farmers in Myanmar and showing how to grow
plants and increase crop yield without fertilizer. Using fertilizers
is a method from the Myanmar goverment to make farmers dependend on
the state banks. The majority of the farmers are poor and have to run
into debts.
Social
development
support
people to develop community spirit. , widows, pregnant women,
stepchilds.
Education
Supporting
schools.
Childcare
distribution
of every day needed products like toothbrushes in the refugee camps
(food is provided by other organisations)
Our
visit in Mae Sot/Thailand at Partner´s Relief & Development:
We
arrived in Thailand on Aug 2nd . After some days of
sighseeing and organisation Gerd went by bicycle up to Mae Sot.
Astrid arrived one day later with her friend Sophie from Austria.
Marci Haigh ( Health Projects
Manager, Mae Sot Branch ) was our contact person in Mae Sot
and first gave us an excellent overview.
The
next day we had a meeting in the branch office, where Marci explained
us the structure and tasks of PRAD very detailed. We had a lot of
questions as much of the things she told us were far beyond our life
experiance.
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| meeting so many great people from PRAD! |
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| at the HQ, Marci gave as an overview about PRAD |
Then
we joined Marci visiting a young girl in the hospital, suffering from
TBC (tubercolosis).
Naw
K'Pru is a 15 year old girl who started to feel ill November 2012.
She suffered from mild fevers, abdominal pain and weight loss. She
started to get swelling in her abdomen. Local medics diagnosed her
with abdominal TB and gave her 6 months of treatment. After
treatment, she felt much better and gained back weight. The swelling
in her abdomen remained. She was embarrassed because many people
assumed that she was a young pregnant teen. PRAD helped her get to
hospital and do some medical testing. They found a very massive cyst.
This is locally known to be an after-effect of the abdominal TB. The
cyst was pressing on her kidney causing some damage. We helped her to
get surgery so that her kidney wouldn't be further damaged. Now she
is so happy to have a slim tummy like her friends.
Two
days later we visited a refugees camp, where a former patient of PRAD
lives. Well, the people there have a very poor life. Only bamboo huts
and most of them nothing to do the whole day. we had a long
conversation with the woman and she told us her life:
Naw
Wah Per is a 40 year old teacher from a small village in the
mountains of Karen State. She lives in Kay Pu village which has been
the setting of war for many years. She had to run from the attacks of
the government soldiers and hide with her students in the jungle on
many occasions. In late 2012 she suffered a miscarriage. Afterwords
she felt sick and had abdominal pain for many months. The local
medics did not have all the correct medicine to treat her. They sent
her to the border area. PRAD arranged for complete treatment and also
gave her a full health check up. After taking treatment and eating
good food she felt much better. Now she has gone home to her village
and will again work as a teacher with the start of the next school
term.
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| at the refugee camp |
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| Naw Wah Per, 2nd from left. |
Well,
the other refugees regarded us with curiosity and the security guard
kept a wary eye on us. Taking pictures was allowed, but when Gerd
startet to use the videocamera, the guard told him to stop.
If
you see such a camp, it is very depressing. Astrid and me come from
such rich country and these people have nothing, not even freedom.
Albania, Laos and Cambodia are very poor, too, but people can move,
here not. The political situation in Myanmar currently becomes
better, but nobody knows, how long this process will last. Again time
to think about the important things in life and how lucky we are,
despite all the problems in Europe.
Gerd
worked for a long time as a manager financial accounting and
controlling. Therefore it was evident that we asked for much more
details, how donations will be handled.
There
are three posibilities to send money to our fundraising project:
- Website Partner´s Relief and Development (www.partnersworld.org)
- Betterplace (www.betterplace.org)
- directly connected with our blog/Facebook
ad
1.
Your
donations goes directly to PRD. 11% of all donations is set aside to
cover the salary and benefits of the local staff and 4% for the
office rent and utilities.
ad
2. Humedica collects the money and transfers it without any
deductions to PRD. 11% of all donations is set aside to cover the
salary and benefits of the local staff and 4% for the office rent and
utilities.
ad.3
the link on our blog will lead your directly to betterplace.org
All
foreign workers at PRAD are volunteers who are independently
supported. The local staff (from Thailand or Myanmar) are paid a fair
salary which is according to their performance, qualifications and
seniority.
Marci
showed us the monthly profit-and-loss-report from the inhouse system
and it makes an professional impression. Of course, Gerd did not
checked the details by himself, but the acoounting and reports are
examined by a Thai public auditor and we got it by email. We have no
doubts, that all financial affairs are done in a very professional
way.
For
us it is a matter of heart to support PRAD and we would be glad, if
more people could help them.
The
costs for one person, coming from Myanmar, is 45 EUR and all kind of
amount is highly welcome, whether you can donate 5 EUR or more.
Here
are again the other links for donating:
Thank
you so much for your help !
Merry
Christmas !
Yours
Astrid
Fischer & Gerd Müller
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| river between Thailand and Myanmar |
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| brigde from Thailand (right) to Myanmar |
