Global Health Council - Networking Broadcast, June 10, 1999
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GLOBAL HEALTH COUNCIL CONFERENCE REGISTRATION ALERT
USA TODAY ARTICLE ON DR. CYNTHIA MAUNG, 1999 JONATHAN MANN AWARD RE-
CIPIENT
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GLOBAL HEALTH COUNCIL CONFERENCE *REGISTRATION ALERT*
Final Pre-Registration Deadline
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO COLLEAGUES
There's still room at the center of your world.
For three days, June 20-22, 1999, global concern for health issues,
poverty and development will have a focal point: The 26th Annual Con-
ference of the Global Health Council at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in
Arlington, VA, USA.
Join former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, WHO Director-General Gro Har-
lem Brundtland, UN Foundation President Timothy Wirth, economist Jef-
frey Sachs, PAHO Director Sir George Alleye and hundreds more of your
colleagues and peers as they discuss global health issues. The packed
schedule of presentations ranges from reports on health-care develop-
ment and humanitarian assistance to workshops on public speaking, coa-
lition building and lobbying. Participants may earn up to 19.5 continu-
ing education credits.
A highlight of the conference will be President Carter's presentation
of the first Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights to
Dr. Cynthia Maung, the Burmese refugee doctor who has been hailed by
world media as "the Mother Teresa of Southeast Asia." There is still
room for more participants to join the conference, but pre-conference
registration closes at 5 p.m. on June 11, 1999. After that time you can
only register at the higher, on-site rate.
For more information about the conference, visit the Global Health
Council's Web site at:
www.globalhealthcouncil.org
The easiest way to register is to print the registration form from the
Web site and fax it to +1-202-833-0075, Attn.: Natasha Hsi, Conference
Coordinator. For further registration information, visit the Web site,
call Natasha at +1-202-833-5900 or
mailto:nhsi@globalhealth.org
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USA TODAY ARTICLE ON DR. CYNTHIA MAUNG
AWARD BORDERS ON DANGER FOR REFUGEE DOCTOR
By Steve Sternberg Tues., June 8, 1999
They call Cynthia Maung the Mother Teresa of Southeast Asia for minis-
tering to the medical needs of an oppressed Burmese minority straddling
the Thai-Burmese border. It is risky work, in part because the 39-year-
old doctor herself is a Burmese refugee, continually forced to dodge
the military that ran her out of Burma in 1988 during an orgy of vio-
lence in which thousands were killed and thousands more fled to Thai-
land. Now, Maung has been selected to receive the first Jonathan Mann
Award for Global Health and Human Rights, a $20,000 prize honoring the
man who created the World Health Organization's global AIDS program.
Mann died with his wife, researcher Mary Lou Clements-Mann, in a 1998
Swissair crash.
The problem: Maung is still a woman without a country. The award is
scheduled to be given to her by former president Jimmy Carter on June
22 at the annual conference of the Global Health Council (GHC) in Ar-
lington, Va. But if she leaves Thailand to accept it, she risks being
turned over to the Burmese government on her return. "She's at risk
from both sides," GHC president Nils Daulaire says. "If the Burmese
catch her, she's identified with the enemy. If the Thais chose to, they
could ship her back across the border."
The Burmese won't grant Maung travel papers, Daulaire says, because she
is an embarrassment to them. Thai law bars granting travel documents to
stateless individuals. Even if Thailand were to waive the law, Daulaire
says, government officials fear an international incident. "They do not
want to come into direct conflict with Burma," he says. Yet "everybody
realizes that without medical care, this (region) would become a fes-
tering sore, which would be bad for the health of the Thai people as
well. So they are willing to turn a blind eye to her operations."
Maung's troubles began soon after she graduated from the University of
Rangoon Medical School. In two months in 1988, the Burmese junta killed
thousands of students and religious leaders and pushed a local minor-
ity, the Karen (pronounced CAR-en), into Thailand, so they could ex-
ploit a region rich in teak and rubies.
Maung trekked through a jungle swarming with malaria-bearing mosquitoes
and pelted by monsoons to reach Thailand. In 1989, she established the
Mae Tao clinic in the Thai jungle. The clinic now serves 20,000 people
a year.
Eventually, she established satellite clinics on both sides of the bor-
der, but attacks by the Burmese army forced their closure. Now she dis-
penses care from mobile units. Daulaire says the U.S. State Department
has been helpful in trying to end the impasse. "They say as long as
there is a document on which they can affix a stamp, they'll admit
her." The challenge is getting the document. How to do that remains an
open question. In the meantime, Maung, who must be contacted through
intermediaries, reportedly was delighted with the award, funded by GHC,
the Francois-Xavier Bagnaud Association, Doctors of the World and Human
Rights Watch.
Maung reportedly plans to use the money to improve her clinic. "She's
thrilled," Daulaire says. "We're told that she's amazed that a global
organization would recognize her work and that someone of the stature
of Jimmy Carter would present her with a prize."
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