Health facility in Yangon gives life and smiles back to children with disabilities
Yangon (AsiaNews) - Minn Aung suffers from Athetoid cerebral palsy. In 2012, he was brought to a care facility for the disabled in an "almost hopeless" situation. A year later, he shows clear signs of progress, enough to be able to stand up and even take a few steps with assistance.
The story of the 10-year-old boy is one of many that found a happy outcome at the Yangon Disabled Resource Centre founded in 2006 thanks to the efforts of volunteers from New Humanity. Run by the Myanmar Ministry of Social Affairs, the centre is the only one in the country that caters to orphans and children with disabilities, who are often marginalised in many Asian nations.
In recent years, it has undertaken a three-year pilot project. Since it was created, it has expanded and now has 63 patients, 38 boys and 25 girls, 15 and 16 years of age, who receive health care, education and pre-vocational training. New Humanity is responsible for health care side, including physiotherapy, with substantial benefits for the children.
In Myanmar, only 60 per cent of the population has access to health care and qualified personnel is in short supply. For people with disabilities, things are worse because they are often stigmatised, and relegated to the margins of society.
Minn Aung, 10, is one of the children living at the centre. An orphan, the boy also suffers from cerebral palsy. When he was brought in the first time, he was in "critical" conditions, confined to his bed and unable to get up on his own.
Through daily physical therapy, he began to improve slowly. After several months of treatment, he is able to sit up on his own on the floor or in a chair, and change position "from lying to sitting, from sitting to standing." Indeed, he has improved so much that he now can "stand up and take a few steps" with assistance.
Encouraged by the centre's volunteers and staff, he "has also begun to talk." Now he can even smile, happy about his improved physical conditions, a source of "great joy" for the volunteers as well.
New Humanity is an apolitical, non-profit organisation founded in 1992 that operates in Cambodia and Myanmar. It develops access to education, fights social exclusion of the disabled and promotes agricultural development.
Its activities in Cambodia began on 23 October 1992 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education to promote development in rural areas.
Its volunteers have been present in Myanmar since 2002 as well, when a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed with the Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture to develop an integrated plan for agriculture, health care and social assistance.
Currently, it has a central bureau in Yangon and two in Shan state, in eastern Myanmar on the border with Thailand.
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