The Christian Leprosy Mission of Eastern Shan www.leprosymission.org
The Waymaker Trust in Maraland www.waymakertrust.org
Health and Hope UK www.healthandhope.org
Having visited NE India and Myanmar several times in the past, Dr Nick has built up a good working relationship with a number of charities working there. They remain uppermost in our thoughts but since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1st 2021 it has not been possible to offer them in-country support. Instead we have had to focus our attention on the wider Mara community which extends into NE India and now includes a significant refugee population. The provision of sewing machines and other start-up equipment previously enabled the Waymaker Trust to set up a vocational tailoring project aimed at disadvantaged Mara women and when they met in November 2023 the Trustees agreed to fund another women’s development project in Maraland where poverty levels remain extremely high. The new project has provided better facilities and has improved maternal healthcare by supplying clean childbirth kits to pregnant Mara women (see Autumn 2023 news update). It has also enabled more than 80 children to attend a school that has opened up in the brand new OAA funded community centre in Lungcawi village (see Spring 2025 news update).
Dr Nick first travelled to Myanmar with Claudine in 2017 to Eastern Shan State to see a CLMES project that had provided clean water, a hydro-electric power supply and new primary schools in 4 remote Lahu hill-tribe ‘leprosy’ villages. Before leaving they were told that the grant had been insufficient to build a school at another hill-tribe village called Salabo (see top photo above) so they undertook to fund that themselves.
In 2019 Dr Nick was able to return to Salabo village to officially open the new school and he then went on to visit Mawlamyine Leprosy Hospital run by the Leprosy Mission. On the same trip he made the long and arduous 48 hour journey to Lailenpi Town in Chin State close to the border with India in conjunction with the charity Health and Hope where he spent some time working in a medical clinic called the ‘Hope Clinic’. As well as seeing patients he took part in training sessions with the local doctors, nurses and Area Co-ordinators who supervise the many community village health workers supported by Health and Hope all across southern Chin and northern Rakhine State. During the rainy season this part of Myanmar is very prone to cyclonic storms.
In 2020 Dr Nick made a further visit to Lailenpi and again spent time seeing patients in the Hope Clinic and mentoring the local primary healthcare team. It was through his connections with Maraland and the Mara people that he became aware of the grassroots women’s development organization called the Waymaker Trust who are committed to improving life prospects and healthcare for women in this remote, impoverished and often forgotten corner of the world.
overseasaidalliance.org 