What we do

“Truthfully, I am so proud and I am honoured to be part of this maternal and child health team. I have been working here as an obstetric doctor for more than a decade and I see the positive impact of our work every day.” - Dr Aye Min

The Doctor Rose McGready Foundation will provide vital financial support for the work Rose and her team do with the Borderland Health Foundation (BHF).

Thai Public Health recognises BHF as a key provider of health care to impoverished people on the border, particularly pregnant women and new mothers. This unique partnership between humanitarian and research work means vulnerable people benefit from the latest research findings.

The team operates four permanent clinics in rural areas on the border. These clinics operate a 24-hour birthing service, delivering about 2000 babies every year. Less than 10 percent of these women need to be transferred to a Thai or Myanmar hospital to give birth by caesarean section.

The team also offers 20 antenatal clinic sessions per week and 16 outreach clinics a week, where a clinic team travels lengthy distances along rough tracks to offer healthcare to people in remote areas.

Community health education

Community Health Education

BHF collaborates with Thai Public Health to disseminate potentially life-saving information about malaria, tuberculosis, infectious diseases and maternal and child health.

This work is conducted by volunteer doctors, midwives, nurses and public health educators. They are diverse and flexible so they can respond to the evolving public health needs and ever-changing security situation along the border.

Community health education is generally informal and can occur while women are waiting for a clinic appointment.
Community health education is generally informal and can occur while women are waiting for a clinic appointment.

Outpatient clinics

Outpatient Clinics
Rose pictured with BHF staff heading out on a long and difficult 4WD journey to one of the remote outreach clinics.

Rose and her team support outpatient clinics along the border, offering free health care to people of any ethnicity. The clinics provide in-patient facilities and neonatal care units.

More than 100,000 patients visit the clinics annually, with a focus on families, including pregnant women and children.

Antenatal care is offered in the clinics and on an outreach basis to ensure the most vulnerable have access.

Public health messaging can also be swiftly mobilised through this network of clinics, as was evident with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Life-saving immunisations

Infectious diseases, particularly malaria and tuberculosis, have been rampant among displaced people. Hepatitis B transmission also continues unabated in the community due to abysmally low vaccination rates of infants, but birth and infant immunisation at the clinics is helping to turn the tide.