Urgent Support For Child Patients in Myanmar

Hello everyone, my name is Saw Edwin Oo.

For this carefully planned project and long-term pathway, I have with me Ms. Naw Dwe Meh Oo Noe, Ms. Precious Nant and Ms. Naw Moo Eh who are joining me as teammates for this cause.

As we continue navigating through the final years of 2023, we are hoping to establish a small, legal, non-profit child support team in Yangon, Myanmar that seeks to provide financial assistance and medical opportunities to various child patients in the country of Myanmar.

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This fundraiser's main goals are to:

1. Collect funds for the children in need.

2. Collect start-up capital to support our team's operational costs and needs, and continue maintaining monthly operations after they've begun in the year 2023 or later.

The first benchmark is 2000USD.

5000USD is the ultimate goal for the operational years 2023 and 2024.

50% (1000USD) of the collected 2000 USD will be used as a form of financial investment for our team's personal workspace in Yangon, Myanmar: rental costs, electricity costs, water costs, and internet costs.

The remaining 50% (1000USD) will be carefully distributed to the first few patients on our list while we continue looking for additional funds locally in Myanmar or from international sources (outside of GoFundMe).

If more clarity is required, please feel free to contact me and the team.

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We currently assist our child patients in 2 ways. *Note: These children are usually from outside of Yangon. They are mostly from villages in various, unreached parts of Myanmar.

1. Linking child patients and their families with connections (partnered organizations) that help them receive proper treatment for their medical conditions.

In this type of scenario, one child patient with a cleft lip usually requires 1,500,000 Myanmar Kyats for them to receive proper treatment in Yangon, Myanmar. These patients are classified under "Patients with mouth-related concerns."

Other cases include children with abdominal issues. These types of patients usually require 3,500,000 Myanmar Kats for them to receive proper treatment in Yangon, Myanmar. These patients are classified under "Patients that require immediate medical assistance."

2. Helping child patients receive proper medical checkups for their medical conditions.

A patient requiring medical checkups for their conditions usually requires 100,000-150,000 Myanmar Kyats. Some patients with more severe issues require 300,000 or more.

100,000 Kyats, and even 1,000,000 Kyats are not insanely high in number to entry level. or middle managerial level employees in other parts of Southeast Asia and the United States of America, but to these children and their families, these amounts are a year or two's worth of labor. Some families truly cannot afford this type of necessity.

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Out of the 2000 USD that we're currently trying our best to raise, 50% will be carefully allocated for the needs of the first 3 patients on our list.

The list & our plan:

1. Ms. May Badi Aung Aung (2 years old) - Mouth / Cleft Lip [1,500,000 required] 450 USD

Timeframe: Oct - Nov 2023

2. Ms. Lin Let Thu (4 years old) - Hand Osteoporosis Patient No.1 [150,000 required] 45 USD

Timeframe: Dec 2023

3. Mr. Mg Htet Myet Thu (3 years old) - Mouth / Cleft Lip [1,500,000 required] 450 USD

Timeframe: Jan - Feb 2024

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1. (October & November 2023) We are hoping to assist Ms. May Badi Aung Aung who is 2 years old. Her guardian is her mother. She has a lip cleft and is need of surgery. BCMF (Burma Children Medical Fund) is our partner for this patient.

Out of 1000USD, roughly 450 USD will be provided for their transportation, surgery costs, and other expenses until the child's treatment has been completed.

The funds will be withdrawn at a local bank in Yangon and spent at the hospitals where the child patient receives his/her treatment. Other costs will of course include transportation, food, housing, and other variables that we've already taken into consideration while finalizing our budget plans and constraints.

550 USD remains.

2. (December 2023) We are hoping to assist Ms. Lin Let Thu who is 4 years old. Her guardian is her grandmother. She has hand osteoporosis and fortunately isn't in need of immediate surgery.

We wish to help her receive a proper medical checkup. We are planning to help her receive proper treatment in the year 2025 once we're done with the remaining 8-9 patients on our current list that need medical assistance in the year 2024.

Out of the remaining 550 USD, roughly 45-50 USD will be provided for their transportation, checkup costs, and other expenses until the child's checkup has been completed.

The funds will be withdrawn at a local bank in Yangon and spent at the hospitals where the child patient receives his/her treatment. Other costs will of course include transportation, food, housing, and other variables that we've already taken into consideration while finalizing our budget plans and constraints.

500-550 USD remains.

3. (January & February 2024) We are hoping to assist Mr. Mg Htet Myet Thu who is 3 years old. His guardian is his mother. He is the second mouth patient on our list with a cleft lip. BCMF (Burma Children Medical Fund) will once again be partnering with us for this patient.

Out of the remaining 550 USD, 450 USD will be provided for their transportation, surgery costs, and other expenses until the child's treatment has been completed.

The funds will be withdrawn at a local bank in Yangon and spent at the hospitals where the child patient receives his/her treatment. Other costs will of course include transportation, food, housing, and other variables that we've already taken into consideration while finalizing our budget plans and constraints.

50-100 USD remains.

Of course, we're not just going to sit still and use up all the funds while the first few months of 2024 pass by. We will still be actively searching for funds. By February 2024, we will have succeeded in assisting 3 out of 12 patients. We don't entirely know how things will unfold so there are chances for new patients to get registered into our current list while 2024 continues to unfold.

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Ms. Precious Nant is our contact person in the United States of America who's mainly overseeing all the donations for our child patients that come from that part of the world.

She is the full legal person who will be receiving the transfers directly from GoFundMe.

I, along with Ms. Dwe Meh Oo Noe and Ms. Moo Eh are part of the team that's currently based in Yangon, Myanmar where we are also trying our best to gather funds for the children in need through local pathways.

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About us:

This organization (or more specifically - small team of willing vessels) seeks to serve as a bridge between the patients, their families, and other medical fund entities who provide assistance in the form of arranging funds for medical treatments (checkups & surgeries) and provide support services to patients before, during, and after their treatments.

The organization aims:

1. To help at least 5 patients (and their families) receive surgery and medical support within its first operational year.

2. To help 5 patients (and their families) receive proper medical checkups within its first operational year.

Amounting to 10 patients in total.

The usual process:

Upon receiving the contact information of a new patient, the team begins contacting potential donors and sponsors who wish to take part in aiding them financially.

After and during the allocation of funds, the team also begins contacting other partnered organizations that specialize in arranging medical appointments for child patients who require medical assistance.

Once the bridges have been built and the needed funds have been gathered, the patient(s) and their families are invited/requested to come to Yangon where a temporary living space is provided throughout their entire length of stay – from the moment of arrival to moments where they receive proper checkups and surgical treatment, to the final moment of departure.

While staying in Yangon, Myanmar, they are able to receive proper treatment and medical checkups.

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Patients continue to arrive in large numbers, seeking treatment due to the state of Myanmar at this moment in time (2023).

It is crucial that we maintain not only a standardized quality in how we serve, but also in how we reach out to, and build meaningful relationships with the child patients and their families that we will come to serve.

As of this moment in time, September 7 2023, we have succeeded in helping 15 patients receive proper medical assistance. We are also still in touch with various child patients and their families until this point in time.

The patients have [mostly suffer from] different types of physical disabilities and abnormalities related to the heart, lungs, anal and genitalia-related deformations, skull, scalp, mouth area, severe bodily disfigurations affecting the hands, feet, stomach, and eyes.

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A. This new initiative’s first structural goal is to legalize our “organization” since it is important for us to have a licensed brand when reaching out to partners and respected donors/supporters for the children.

B. Secondly, also another matter of importance is the fact that we need to quickly acquire a working space as soon as possible in order to avoid any unwanted difficulties for the patients if their required surgeries are delayed beyond the year of 2023. An adequate working space (personal office) allows for us to continue our tasks in a proper working environment, allowing for higher levels of mental focus & emotional stability. Rather than wandering from one place to another, having a secure base of operations makes all the difference.

The team members are currently based in different parts of Yangon which makes it quite difficult for us to keep in touch with each other and our patients. It also makes it difficult for us to gather in one place to plan out our next steps going forward.

A proper work environment is, at this moment in time, the most important necessity going forward.

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What are the needs that will be met by this organization and the projects undertaken?

As of this moment in time there are 12+ people in our existing list of child patients that have reached out to us for assistance. There were difficulties encountered within each passing day but prior to this moment in time, the daily and monthly tasks related to responding to these child patients were already continuously carried out by Ms. Dwe Meh Oo Noe, Ms. Moo Eh, and Mr. Saw Edwin Oo for a total of 13 months. We now wish to continue forward as an officialized small non-profit organization (or team for a better word) with a legal license to continue our services in the country of Myanmar.

The “work” and tasks are already there, the current needs as of this moment in time can be summarized into three main categories:

(A) Legal registration of the organization

(B) Acquisition of an adequate workspace that can also be used as a living space for the organization’s members while staying in Yangon, far away from their families and home states

(C) Acquisition of important equipment and furniture to be used in the new workspace

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Budget listings and careful financial plans have already been established on our end. Confidential files within our possession are of course shared with only trusted individuals and supporters.

If requested, we are willing to share more detailed accounts of our budget, yearly plans, organizational (or team) structure, and established goals.

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Thank you for your time! Please feel free to contact the team.