Precepts-Not-Politics ... stories like this, human lives at risk, are the concern. Was there no better way than turning off the aid at once? How many children and others will die? Assuming these reports are true, it represents the effects in just one corner of the world ...
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No doctors for sick children. This is the reality of Trump’s aid freeze in remote northern Thailand
... When the Trump administration ordered a 90-day freeze on almost all international aid, halting the US’ entire global development network overnight, the camp hospital was forced to shut its doors, sending shock waves through the refugee community.
Video posted by refugees on social media showed patients at the center being lifted from their hospital beds and carried out in hammocks covered in blankets.
Rosella was moved to a nearby improvised health center, along with other patients with chronic conditions. But there are no longer any doctors to treat her.
Numerous aid workers in northern Thailand described widespread panic and confusion following the sudden suspension of aid, especially among those whose work provides life-saving services to some of the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished people on both sides of the border.
Some told CNN they only had a month and a half of funding left to feed tens of thousands of people.
“We have never faced a problem like this before,” said Saw Bweh Say, secretary of the Karen Refugee Committee, which represents refugees in the Thai camps. ... Basic services such as health care, education, sanitation, water and food are provided by international aid donors. In Mae La, and six other camps, those funds come almost entirely from the US – the world’s largest aid donor – through the International Rescue Committee.
Though the camp hospitals are more akin to field clinics, with tin roofs and intermittent power, they are the only source of health care for tens of thousands of people.
“If it’s an emergency, how can we face the situation? That burdens a lot of people here,” said Ni Ni, 62, who has heart failure and kidney disease.
Without medical oxygen, “I will die,” she told CNN via video call from Mae La.
...
An IRC spokesperson said they had to start shutting outpatient departments and other facilities in the camps following the stop-work order. Management of the medical facilities, equipment and water system has been transferred to Thai authorities and camp commanders, though the IRC continues to source medicine and fuel using non-US funds.
Teams of refugee medics, midwives and nurses are working round-the-clock helping to plug the gaps, while families scramble for alternative treatment for their loved ones.
“Karen families donated medicine and oxygen tanks, but that’s not enough,” said Pim Kerdsawang, an independent NGO worker in the border city of Mae Sot.
Compounding their concerns is the cost of food. Feeding more than 100,000 refugees across all nine camps for one month costs $1.3 million dollars, and the organization that provides the food and cooking fuel says it has only enough money to last for a month and a half.
...
The pain created by the US aid freeze goes beyond the refugee camps.
CNN spoke to about a dozen NGO and aid workers in the impoverished border region, some of whom requested anonymity as they feared reprisals from the US government, who said basic services were disrupted and staff laid off due to the Trump administration’s policy.
They include cuts to vaccine, education and resettlement programs, domestic violence shelters, anti-human-trafficking initiatives, safe houses for dissidents, and help for displaced people.
Gassho, J
stlah
~~~
No doctors for sick children. This is the reality of Trump’s aid freeze in remote northern Thailand
... When the Trump administration ordered a 90-day freeze on almost all international aid, halting the US’ entire global development network overnight, the camp hospital was forced to shut its doors, sending shock waves through the refugee community.
Video posted by refugees on social media showed patients at the center being lifted from their hospital beds and carried out in hammocks covered in blankets.
Rosella was moved to a nearby improvised health center, along with other patients with chronic conditions. But there are no longer any doctors to treat her.
Numerous aid workers in northern Thailand described widespread panic and confusion following the sudden suspension of aid, especially among those whose work provides life-saving services to some of the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished people on both sides of the border.
Some told CNN they only had a month and a half of funding left to feed tens of thousands of people.
“We have never faced a problem like this before,” said Saw Bweh Say, secretary of the Karen Refugee Committee, which represents refugees in the Thai camps. ... Basic services such as health care, education, sanitation, water and food are provided by international aid donors. In Mae La, and six other camps, those funds come almost entirely from the US – the world’s largest aid donor – through the International Rescue Committee.
Though the camp hospitals are more akin to field clinics, with tin roofs and intermittent power, they are the only source of health care for tens of thousands of people.
“If it’s an emergency, how can we face the situation? That burdens a lot of people here,” said Ni Ni, 62, who has heart failure and kidney disease.
Without medical oxygen, “I will die,” she told CNN via video call from Mae La.
...
An IRC spokesperson said they had to start shutting outpatient departments and other facilities in the camps following the stop-work order. Management of the medical facilities, equipment and water system has been transferred to Thai authorities and camp commanders, though the IRC continues to source medicine and fuel using non-US funds.
Teams of refugee medics, midwives and nurses are working round-the-clock helping to plug the gaps, while families scramble for alternative treatment for their loved ones.
“Karen families donated medicine and oxygen tanks, but that’s not enough,” said Pim Kerdsawang, an independent NGO worker in the border city of Mae Sot.
Compounding their concerns is the cost of food. Feeding more than 100,000 refugees across all nine camps for one month costs $1.3 million dollars, and the organization that provides the food and cooking fuel says it has only enough money to last for a month and a half.
...
The pain created by the US aid freeze goes beyond the refugee camps.
CNN spoke to about a dozen NGO and aid workers in the impoverished border region, some of whom requested anonymity as they feared reprisals from the US government, who said basic services were disrupted and staff laid off due to the Trump administration’s policy.
They include cuts to vaccine, education and resettlement programs, domestic violence shelters, anti-human-trafficking initiatives, safe houses for dissidents, and help for displaced people.
Gassho, J
stlah
Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō
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