CPI Aid in Thailand and Myanmar Reached Nearly 300 Landmine Survivors in 2007

Lobke Dijkstra, our Thailand Country representative, and I traveled to a remote refugee camp on the Thai border with the Shan state to observe New Year with many of the camp�s 2,000 residents.



The Shan lunar calendar puts the New Year in December, so we marked the occasion well before the end of our program year. But it didn�t seem too early to celebrate with some of our beneficiaries.



Last year was very successful for our Thai-Burma border initiative which has already served more than 500 landmine accident survivors since its inception in 2002. In 2007, thanks to Lobke�s tireless coordination, management and fundraising, we served 298 Karen, Karenni and Shan survivors in five different locations along the Myanmar border.

Most of our beneficiaries, 278, received new or repaired prostheses, plus we provided full-time nursing care to about 20 severely disabled survivors at a UNHCR refugee camp at Mae La. Forty-one technicians and medics received training and compensation for their aid activities from prosthetics fabrication to physical rehabilitation.

We received funding for this effort from the Dutch rehabilitation hospital Groot Klimmendaal in Arnhem, the Dutch charity Mensenkinderen, Bainbridge Community Endowment, Susila Dharma UK, Susila Dharma USA and Susila Dharma Netherlands, Grace Episcopal Church and Cedars Unitarian Church both on Bainbridge Island.

For its relatively modest budget of $53,000, the program has had great leverage in the field thanks to its volunteers, including Lobke and two prosthetics students from British Columbia, Duane Nelson and Jody Riggs, who spent their summer making 18 Monolimb prostheses for survivors at a Shan camp.

This year, we hope to expand the breadth of our services with income-generating projects, such as pig breeding, mechanics training and other skills instruction at or near two Shan border camps while we continue to support prosthetics fabrication, physical rehabilitation and full-time care for severely disabled survivors.

With our partners, the Mae Tao Clinic, the Karen Handicap Welfare Association, KNPLF (Karenni) and the Shan Health Committee, we expect to provide services to more than 400 survivors at seven locations along the border in 2008. Groot Klimmendaal, Lobke�s employer, has been encouraging its other employees to volunteer in the area. Neeltje Rosmalen, a psychologist and cognitive trainer helped train medics and counselors in psychological treatment of new and existing accident survivors.