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NAN THI DAR AYE 6 Years Old

Nan Thi Dar Aye is 6 years old and comes from a small village outside Pha An in Karen State, Burma. She has a large growth on her face around her nose and eyes and her mother and grandmother have brought her to Mae Tao Clinic after hearing about it from friends and relatives. They first noticed the growth as soon as Nan Thi Dar Aye was born, although then it was about ¼ of the size it is now. It has grown steadily over the 6 years since.

Nan Thi Dar Aye’s parents work as farm laborers near their home village and each earn around 1500 kyat a day ($1.80). Work is irregular and dependent on the seasons. Ah Htwe, Nan Thi Dar Aye’s mother told me that her husband often has to work trying to catch fish to sell in the rainy season, so he can feed his family when there is no farm work available.

The journey form their home village to Mae Tao Clinic near Mae Sot on the Thai Burma border took 8 hours by car. It cost 10,000 kyat ($12.20) and they were able to pay for it with help from their friends in the village who lent them money for the journey. Ah Htwe told me that when her child was well and she was able to work again she would pay them back.

Ah Htwe has 5 other children and is now using family planning measures to ensure she does not have more children, knowing that she would not be able to support them. At the moment, her other children are being looked after by their father and the youngest (2 years old) is looked after by her 9 year old daughter in the daytime while their father is working. Ah Khaw told me that if her daughter has to go to Chiang Mai, her grandmother will go with her so that Ah Khaw can go back to look after her other children and work. Her oldest son is working for another family and receives only 40 tins of rice a year in payment. He receives no monetary wages. Her other two sons are monks in a monastery near their home town.

Nan Thi Dar Aye is bright happy child. She smiled, laughed and looked around, taking everything in as I talked to her mother and grandmother. She was taken to a hospital in her home town when she was one month old and it became apparent that the growth was increasing in size. Doctors told her mother she was too small for them to be able to do anything and she should wait and bring her back when she was older. The reality however is that if she was to go for treatment in Burma, her family could not afford it.

Nan Thi Dar Aye went to school briefly but was teased so much by other children that she stopped attending. She told her mother that she wanted to have the growth removed so that she could be like the other children and they wouldn’t laugh at her. Her growth is tender to touch and she can’t run around and play because it hurts when it moves.

When I showed her the photograph of herself she pulled a face, laughed at herself and said “big nose”!

Her mother hopes that her daughter can have the growth removed so she can go to school and have normal life. The growth is still growing and will continue to do so without surgery to remove it. Nan Thi Dar Aye’s family cannot afford the treatment and BCMF are looking for funding to support her through her treatment in Chiang Mai.

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