Chee Toh Paw
Chee Toh Paw’s mother’s first pregnancy was triplets (two boys and a girl). However, after one month one of the boys died. Now, after her second pregnancy, her youngest daughter is ill with heart disease (the child lays limp and listless, asleep in her mother’s tired arms). Her mother had noticed after the child was born that her heart beat very fast. Last July, she first noticed that something was wrong when the baby got sick with a fever and cough and her abdomen was swollen. Her mother thought that her liver was enlarged. Her mother says that the child is tired easily and fairly inactive as she becomes too exhausted by activity. In July, she took her to the Myawaddy Clinic, near their home in Burma. The doctor there told her that the child had congenital heart disease. He gave her some medicine and she returned home. She knew a medic from Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) who told her that the Clinic would be able to help the child. So she came across the Thai-Burma border to Mae Sot. It took her one day to get here and cost 4,000 Kyat (US$4) to get to the border and 15 Thai Baht (US$0.5) to cross the bridge. Chee Toh Paw’s parents work in Burma doing odd jobs. They earn 2,300 Kyat (US$2.30) per day each. However, they do not have work every day. His brother and sister go to school and his grandmother cares for Chee Toh Paw during the day.
Chee Toh Paw’s mother says that there is sometimes fighting in their area and their village is controlled by the SPDC and the DKBA who come into the village shooting. Each month they take money from each household in the village. They also take people from the village as forced labour (to work as porters). They are forced to carry the army’s supplies from village to village.
Chee Toh Paw’s mother says that she hopes her child can get well so that she can go to school and can help her mother and other people when she is older.
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