Malteser International Annual Report 2007 - Ordine di Malta

Thailand
International staff: 6
(plus 1 CIM expert)
National staff: 36
Aid for 95,000 people
Malteser International has been
working in Thailand since 1979.
Funding: ADH, CIM, ECHO, UNHCR,
IRC/USAID, own resources / private
donations
Partners: Health and education
authorities, Karen Refugee Committee,
SAN, SEAMEO
In 2007, the international donor countries
started a dialogue to look intensively
for solutions in respect of the tragic
refugee situation on the border between
Myanmar and Thailand that has been
going on now for two decades. As a
result of the dialogues, about ten states
have agreed to support the resettlement
of interested refugees in third countries
within the next three to five years.
Furthermore, they want to assist the Thai
authorities with development projects to
enable them to take over the care of the
remaining refugees in the middle and
long term.
In two refugee camps along the border
with Myanmar, Malteser International
secures the medical assistance as well
as the water and hygiene supply for
currently more than 33,000 refugees –
most of them belong to the ethnic group
of the Karen from Myanmar. Every day
new refugees, fleeing from attacks and
human rights violations, are still coming
to the two camps.
In the villages in the mountains of the
District of Mae Sariang in the north-west
of the country, Malteser International
furthermore provides scholarships for 94
children whose parents died of AIDS.
In the south, the reconstruction work
after the tsunami continues. Next to
the rehabilitation of infrastructure, the
work concentrates on the improvement
of the basic healthcare and on income
generating measures for poor and
disadvantaged groups like the ‘Morgan’
(sea nomads). Another focal point of the
work is the psychosocial care for children
and young people who still suffer from
the consequences of the tsunami.
The tsunami programme in the south
of Thailand will be completed in the
midyear of 2008. On the border between
Thailand and Myanmar in the north of
the country, Malteser International is
planning an additional project to train
new medical staff in the camps in order
to respond to the consequences of the
resettlement of refugees. Furthermore,
the organisation wants to enable the Thai
authorities to take over the responsibility
for the healthcare in the camps and the
neighbouring countries in the mid-term.
Vietnam
International staff: 1 (DED)
National staff: 5
Aid for 35,000 people
Malteser International has been
working in Vietnam since 1966.
Funding: AA, BMZ, DED, World Child
Future Foundation, own resources /
private donations
Partners: local health authorities,
women unions in the districts
Vietnam is a country of two paces.
While the general poverty rate in
Vietnam drastically decreased during
the past decade, the percentage of
people from ethnic minorities among
the poor increased. The gap between the
upcoming urban regions and the rural
poor areas − mainly the mountain regions
with ethnic minorities − is growing.
The main problems of the population in
these areas are a lack of food, bad health
conditions, a high rate of 45 percent of
undernourishment among children under
five, a high rate of maternal deaths, a lack
of clean drinking water and sanitation
facilities and of knowledge about disease
prevention and practically no income due
to ineffective subsistence farming.
For these reasons, Malteser International
is implementing a poverty
reduction programme in Central Vietnam.
The work focuses on basic healthcare and
educational campaigns, income generating
measures and trainings for participatory
village development. Furthermore,
Malteser International renovated a decayed
health centre and established
gardens with traditional medical plants
affiliated to health centres and so now the
Jörg Worms
Thailand:
Training of
midwives in a
refugee camp at
the border with
Myanmar
30
Asia