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BENEFIT: Jeremy Taylor, a coordinator with the Free Burma Alliance, and Elena V. Tchainikova, President of Network 355, hosts of an April 8 benefit to raise funds for a Childrens' Center at a Burmese refugee clinic in Thailand. (Aloysio Santos/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—A steady flow of Burmese refugees moves daily across the Moei River into the Thai border town of Mae Sot—many in search of a better life. A packed fund raising event held Wednesday evening at the Friar’s Club in midtown Manhattan hopes to help them along in their quest.
“It’s for the orphaned Burmese children, actually the ones lucky enough to make it across the border into safety into Thailand,” said event host Jeremy Taylor, a coordinator with the Free Burma Alliance (FBA), which coorganized the event with the women’s NGO, Network 355.
The fundraiser seeks to benefit the Mae Tao clinic, one of the very few sources of medical services that the refugees, being paid a tiny fraction of what a Thai worker would earn, have access to.
There are over 2500 children living at Mae Tao, says Elena V. Tchainikova, President of Network 355, a new association of professional women who volunteer to raise awareness of cultural and humanitarian causes. This is the organization’s first cause, says Tchainikova, adding that raising awareness about the tragic state of human rights in Burma is just as important as raising the funds.
Yet the fundraising didn’t go poorly, says Tchainikova. A significant portion of the 250-odd guests paid the 100- to 250-dollar-a-head entrance fee. Some guests weren’t asked to part with their money, such as Burmese dissident Nay Tim Myint, who spent over 15 years in prison for promoting democracy, before gaining asylum in the United States.
FREE BURMA: Burmese dissident Nay Tim Myint, who spent over 15 years in a Burmese prison for promoting democracy, before gaining asylum in the United States, at a benefit fundraiser in Manhattan on Wednesday night. (Aloysio Santos/The Epoch Times)
The clinic’s services are free, and it serves 300 people to 500 people per day, says Taylor. Many of the refugee children, which largely come from Burmese ethnic minorities such as the Karin, have contracted HIV or malaria, or have even been fired upon by soldiers, raped, or enslaved at one time, he adds.
Dr. Sonja Binkhorst, 88, is a physician who spent over 10 years on-and-off treating patients at Mae Tao. The term “clinic” doesn’t quite capture the scene, she says, as the compound serves as both refugee camp and medical center.
“There’s an eye clinic, there is a pediatrics clinic, there’s a pharmacy, there’s a prosthesis clinic,” says Dr. Binkhorst. The fundraiser seeks to add a Child Protection and Education center to what has now become a large complex.
Mae Tao was founded 1989 by Dr. Cynthia Maung, who had fled to Thailand along with tens of thousands of her fellow countrymen following Burma’s failed attempt at democracy a year earlier. Many were in desperate need of medical attention, so Dr. Maung decided to step in by providing basic services in a tiny cottage. She earned a designation as an “Asian Hero” by TIME magazine in 2003, and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts.
To help in the cause, the FBA and Network 355 have enlisted the help of such mainstays as Elle Magazine, Lindt Chocolates, and Sapporo Beer.
