Su Ya Min
Su Ya Min is 12 years old, she lives in Myawaddy in Burma, near the Thai-Burma border. Su Ya Min’s mother says she noticed her child’s health problem when she was six months old. At the time, her child had a fever and a cough. She brought her child to a clinic in Burma and the doctor there told her the child had a heart problem. However, he told them not to worry because as she grows up her condition will get better. Last year Su Ya Min’s aunty brought her to Mae Tao Clinic because she had a skin problem. At the clinic the medics discovered she has a heart problem and explained to her aunty that she would need treatment or she would get very sick as she gets older. The medics told Su Ya Min’s aunty to discuss Su Ya Min’s condition with her parents and to come back to MTC. But they never returned. Su Ya Min’s parents had gone to work in Bangkok and her aunty was taking care of the children. In June, 2009 Su Ya Min’s mother took her back to Mae Tao Clinic because they were worried about her skin problem. She had a dry lesion on her body and the skin color was fading and getting worse and spreading.
When her parents worked in Bangkok, they worked in construction. They were there for two years and they returned to Myawaddy six months ago. Su Ya Min’s family had previously lived in Kyone Done inside Burma in Karen State, but they moved to Myawaddy because they had no job in Kyone Done. They moved to Myawaddy for work ten years ago. Su Ya Min’s mother says that her and her husband do daily wage work (where they show up at a job and if there is work they work and if not they go home), but they do not have work every day. They earn 4000 kyat (US$4) a day when they work. They work on building sites, and they also transport construction material. There are four children in the family (a younger child died when she was five years old). All four children go to school and it costs the family 80,000 kyat (US$80) per year.
Su Ya Min’s mother says she heard about Mae Tao Clinic along time ago, but they never needed to come before because no one in the family had been sick. They heard about Mae Tao Clinic from their friends and neighbors, who had told them that there is a free service at the clinic. It is cost them 1000 kyat (US$1) to get Mae Tao Clinic.
Su Ya Min does not appear to have any symptoms but when her aunty brought her to Mae Tao Clinic the medics found out she had a heart murmur - it is important for her to get treatment because when she grows up she will get tired and very sick. Su Ya Min says that she is starting to get tired easily when she plays with her friends and is jumping and running. Her mother says that the family thought that because the doctor had told them she will live along life, they did not have to get treatment for the child’s condition and the family did not have money to pay for treatment.
Su Ya Min’s mother says she hopes her child can do what ever she wants to do in life. She says she will try to support her. Su Ya Min says she wants to be a doctor because she wants to help her community. She says she knows she will have to learn a lot to become a doctor.
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