Jai Ma
Jai Ma is 4 years old and his family are from Burma. He is of mixed ethnicity and is half Shan, half Pa’O. He is the second youngest of 5 children, the youngest of who is 3 and the oldest 12. All the children go to school, Jai Ma goes to kindergarten, his younger sibling attends a nursery and the older children are in primary school. Jai Ma’s parents say that he was born with his condition. He has pain in his right eye and cannot see out of it, and he cannot breathe through his nose and has to breathe through his mouth all the time. They say he sometimes feels pain in his nose. His condition became worse on the 10th of June, 2009 and his family took him to Mae Hong Son hospital. He stayed there for two nights and the doctor have given medicine to take. When he was discharged the doctor told the family that he would have to come back to hospital in September for further check ups. However, the family cannot afford this and so approached the Pa’O National Development Organization, who contacted the Burma Children Medical Fund for help.
It took Jai Ma’s family 3 days to get to Mae Hong Song. When they arrived they had to borrow money from their relative as they had spent all their money to make the journey. Jai Ma’s father works on a corn farm. He gets paid between 2,000 (US$55) and 2,500 (US$69) Baht/month. It is difficult for them to provide for all their children as both parents cannot work and when his father goes to work Jai Ma’s mother has to look after him. His father says that he wants Jai Ma to be the same as other people. He wants him to be healthy so that he can grow up and attend high school.
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