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COPYRIGHT 2004 Financial Times Ltd.
(From Bangkok Post)
Byline: MAXMILIAN WECHSLER
Dr Cynthia Maung, the "Mother Teresa of Burma", is the recipient of many international awards, including the 2002 Magsaysay Award for community leadership. She runs the Mae Tao Clinic in the bustling Thai town of Mae Sot bordering Burma.
The word "hospital" is more appropriate for the complex that consists of several wooden buildings whose signs, written in English and Burmese, identify them as Emergency, Registration, Surgical Department, Prosthetic Workshop and others.
Dr Cynthia was born into a Karen family at Insein Township, Rangoon on December 6, 1959. She studied at Rangoon University and graduated from its medical faculty in 1985. Afterwards, she practiced in a Karen village close to her home. She fled to Thailand on September 22, 1988, a few days after the military seized power and began a crackdown against the opposition.
With assistance from local Thai churches and business people who gave food, paid the rent and donated some equipment, Dr Cynthia managed to open a clinic in Mae Sot in February of 1989.
"I wanted to help the Burmese students who fled Burma, and who needed emergency medical assistance. We also treated other Burmese refugees who were suffering from trauma, malaria, respiratory diseases and diarrhea, as well as injuries from gunshots and land mines," Dr. Cynthia said. "At the beginning we had only one house. But...
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