July 12, 2006

I was sitting on the floor of the office of the Woman’s League of Burma, having finished the morning part of the second day of a three day counseling training with a group of 15 women from several organizations who have come together to form the Violence Against Women project. Bo Kyaw, my new all-time favorite translator and I were talking about the role plays we’d done thus far and he mentioned that the woman who’d been my first “client” was, Thida Htway, a former political prisoner. He thought she’d been imprisoned for two years and turned to check this with her. She answered that it had been four years and moved over to join us. She shared that she’d been kept awake for eight straight days upon captivity and had experienced electric shock. She then mentioned that she’d been kept in solitary confinement for the next 20 days, a 4x6 ft cell with no light. It was a matter of fact report delivered by an energetic, compelling woman who I’d guess is in her mid thirties. The story was difficult for me to hear and when she described another technique that she’d experienced that I didn’t quite understand, I chose not to ask Bo Kyaw to translate for me. I asked why she’d been arrested and learned that she’d served as an underground source of information for groups resisting the regime. As we talked it came up that she’d received a Human Rights Award from Trinity College. I’d noticed that award three days earlier when I was looking at about seven such plaques that are on display at the museum, looking for Myo Myint or Khun Saing’s names. I told her how close I lived to Trinity and she told me that part of the award is that she can attend there for free if she were to chose to do so. Bo Kyaw later explained that although she was doing important work for her organization, she’d has lost her confidence because she’d been on track as student and now believed that she was too old and couldn’t regain that opportunity.

I thought about her situation and approached her the next afternoon, telling her that I and BBP would like to help her take the next step in her life. Danielle and I have discussed connecting with her and we will sort this out together.

A version of how the counseling center at Mae Tao Clinic came to be:
In January, 2006 there were 15 rape victims who presented to the clinic. Two of these were referred to Khun Tee, a bright, articulate man, who is neither a medic nor a counselor, but whose position at Mae Tao is to organize trainings. He may have been picked because he translated for me in the counseling training of November, 2005 or for some other reason. He was overwhelmed by the pain in the cases and “ran away from the clinic”. In March, 2006 I conducted a five day intensive counseling training for 10 senior medics. On the third day, a woman named Shine, who is part of the Adolescent Reproductive Health Team, spontaneously took over a discussion and proceeded to point out the need for a counseling room at Mae Tao. She pointed out the impossibility of using the VCT room (Voluntary Testing and Counseling for HIV/AIDS) because of the lack or privacy. When the time came to end the training for the day she was still rolling, so I had the class form three groups and brainstorm the rationale and methods for accomplishing Shine’s goal. The groups presented, there was unanimity on the issue, but Shine declined to take the lead and instead drafted Khun Tee, who was again translating, to be the person to interface with Dr. Cynthia and the heads of the various medical departments at Mae Tao.

Because of the complexity of the July training, I planned to conduct it away from Mae Tao Clinic where the medics wouldn’t be interrupted by patient care questions and responsibilities. This was a first for this kind of off-site training for the medics, and as the time approached, I was quite worried that something would prevent them from attending. Final arrangements were not approved until the week before the training, but at that time, Dr. Cynthia announced her plan to create a counseling center at Mae Tao Clinic. One could infer that the consistent and increasingly sophisticated trainings played a role in this decision.

I attended three meetings on the counseling center during this trip. Khun Tee and Akiko were at all three, Dr. Cynthia at the second. It will be a joy and privilege to partner with Mae Tao Clinic on this initiative.