20th Anniversary Book about Mae Tao Clinic...LETTER FROM DR. CYNTHIA MAUNG: "The role of health workers is much more than doing medical things. They need to rebuild the community as well…learn to work together, negotiate, build trust and empower the people. We want the young people to feel that they are the people who can make change. They are the people who can mobilize their community to know basic health rights. We especially hope the younger generation will get involved ? as leaders. When I look at the clinic, I see people working very hard. Sometimes, there?s a lot of pressure both psychologically and fi nancially. Staff have been away from their family for many years, and they always hope to go back home. The people we serve have the same feelings. I think everybody has sad feelings: When can we go back to our homeland? But the problems in Burma cannot be solved quickly. Even if the SPDC collapses or the political opposition wins the election, the country is still traumatized by landmines, prostitution, street children, broken families. People have lost their dignity and identity. Health services and education are not accessible to the people. All this cannot be fi xed within a few years. So we will expand as long as we need to provide health services for people from Burma. Wherever and whenever there are poor people in the community, we will continue to serve. We at the Mae Tao Clinic invite you to join us in providing health care and building the community on the Thai-Burma border or wherever there is a need in the world. We hope you feel empowered by the clinic?s successes, rather than impressed or overwhelmed. We want you to understand that you, too, can take on such projects. The key is to start small and grow. We leave you with lessons we?ve learned over the past 20 years in hopes that our shared experiences may be helpful as you go forward to serve" -- Dr. Cynthia Maung and the Founders of the Mae Tao Clinic