Rural Healthcare: Than Ya Gone village clinic

Than Ya Gone is a small village in the Kawkareik district of Kayin (Karen) state. A sleepy backwater on the plains beneath the Dawna mountain range, the village is entirely off-grid and obtains its water from hand-drawn wells - even though the main road between Hpa-An and Myawaddy is only a few kilometres away. Here, in a wooden stilted structure typical of the region, is a village clinic serving six surrounding villages: approximately 1,900 people use this healthcare hub, which is staffed by community health-workers who have undergone training in the border area with Thailand which has traditionally received aid as a focal point for refugees from a decades-long insurgency. The clinic is run by the Karen Department of Health and Welfare (KDHW), the healthcare provider for non-government controlled areas of the state. It delivers a number of internationally-funded projects in public healthcare - including training village and community healthworkers, running malaria control and vitamin deficiency/deworming programmes, and supplying ‘traditional birthing attendants’: midwives who also educate villagers in the basics of reproductive health.

Than Ya Gone’s staff told us that they wanted to build a modest in-patient facility which would help to control the spread of disease when treating patients - who are currently sent back to their homes, potentially carrying infectious illness - and to enable mothers to give birth in a more hygienic, controlled environment. Two other priorities were raised: the need to address child malnutrition, and to improve oral health. We want to support these three areas through the building of a stand-alone in-patient clinic in the village, and piloting child malnutrition and oral health awareness schemes.

The Than Ya Gone community needs you! You can support us, and find out more about the project costs, here: