Saw San Nyunt
When Saw San Nyunt was 5 years old his mother noticed he had difficulty breathing and after walking he would get very tired and gasp for breath. His symptoms persisted for a long time, and this month his mother took him to their local hospital in Kaw Ka Rate, Burma. There, the doctor told them to go to Rangoon Hospital for treatment, but they could not afford to travel to Rangoon. Saw San Nyunt’s mother had a friend who works at Mae Tao Clinic in the eye department, and she told them to try the clinic instead. She told them that the clinic would help them for free. It took them one day to get to the Thai-Burma border and cost them 10,000 Kyat (US$10). Saw San Nyunt’s family are farmers for a living. They work on other people’s farms and do not earn a wage, they get paid in food after the harvest. Sometimes they sell rice paddy from the harvest to get cash. Both Saw San Nyunt’s parents work on the farms as well as his older brothers who are 20 and 18. Saw San Nyunt and his younger brother, who is 5, go to school. Saw San Nyunt says that he likes to play at school. However, he says that when he gets tired he does not want to play and does not want to do anything, but when he feels better the first thing he wants to do is go out and play again.
His mother hopes that her child gets better so that he can continue his education and grow up to get a good job. She hopes that he can learn English also. She says that the education in Burma is not good and she wants him to come to one of the migrant schools on the border so that he can get a better education than in Burma. Saw San Nyunt says that when he is older he wants to be a teacher.
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