SINGAPORE, 27 November 2023: Pandaw Cruises has completed the transfer of its funded medical clinics to local community organisations in Myanmar to streamline funding while urgently appealing for donations as a “full-blown civil war rages in Myanmar.”
Cruise passengers have supported the Pandaw Clinics for the last 15 years, with seven clinics in the Bagan area alone. The specialist river ship cruise operator, which traces its roots back to Myanmar, started the transfer of the medical clinics to local communities a year ago as the ongoing civil war raging through Myanmar made it almost impossible to get funds into the country while contacting local trustees became more precarious.
Seven clinics have survived and thrived under the administration of a Buddhist organisation, including a central clinic on the grounds of a large monastic estate just outside New Bagan. Due to its Buddhist status, the clinics have enjoyed protection from government interference.
Pandaw reports that the religious organisation has now taken over the management and fundraising from local sources to keep the clinics operational.
“The clinics are, we are glad to say, well managed and well-funded, and to hand them over to local control is a happy outcome,” Pandaw Cruises said in a recent press statement.
However, to maintain fundraising efforts for the medical clinics, Pandaw Cruises has formed an association with a Dutch and UK-registered charity called MAM (Medical Action Myanmar) to distribute donations made by Pandaw’s cruise guests since the 2021 military coup. MAM remains the prime channel for forwarding funds to the medical clinics that Pandaw Cruises supports.
About MAM
MAM was established in 2009 with a clinic in a Yangon slum and since then has expanded to 18 clinics that last year provided 350,000 consultations, mainly in remote communities and urban slums. Each treatment costs an average of USD2.50, which includes diagnosis, treatment and medication.
In addition, MAM supports 2,300 community health workers, many in inaccessible areas, who provided 1.6 million consultations last year. It is best known for its motorbike doctors who undertake dangerous journeys over mountain passes across raging rivers in the Himalayas. For more information on MAM: https://mam.org.mm/
On future funding raising
“From our Pandaw Charity Fund, we have been able to financially assist MAM in its invaluable work, mainly through financing the purchase of vital drugs prescribed for free.
“Currently, with a full-blown civil war raging, not just in the hill areas but in the Irrawaddy and Chindwin valleys, with fighting just a few miles from Bagan, humanitarian assistance has become more critical than ever.
“As populations are displaced by the movement of armies and the destruction of villages and small towns from the air, there is a refugee crisis with many people thrown into makeshift camps with little sanitation, food or medical care.
“Never more than now is there a need to help the people of Burma, and we believe that MAM is probably the most direct and efficient way of doing this,” Pandaw’s management stated.
For more information on making a donation, visit https://www.paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3616052
