Healthier communities, from the ground up
Dr. Myo Myint Aung talks about his dreams to impact public health in his home country of Myanmar.
April 7 is World Health Day, which marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948. To observe the day, we're posting three stories about amazing international students at the University of Washington who are working and studying (and making a difference) in health care around the world.
A participant in a Kitchen Garden Project for female-headed households. Photo by Myo Myint Aung.
Dr. Myo Myint Aung has known that he wanted to work in the field of medicine for as long as he can remember. “My father is a medical doctor, so I had a vision and a commitment and passion for health care since I was young,” Myo says. Growing up in Myanmar (Burma), Myo attended the University of Medicine Magway and began to practice at a clinic. Yet he still wanted to do more to make a positive impact, not only for his individual patients, but for people and communities across the entire country – especially the 60-70% who live in rural areas.
Since then, he has gained years of experience in the field of public health. After working as a medical officer leading a mobile clinic team to provide emergency health care after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, he moved into coordination and management roles to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate public health projects. Most recently, he was a project manager for a $3.5 million food security project with Mercy Corps Myanmar, working with communities and farmers to improve nutritional practices and promote sustainable agricultural production.
Striving to further develop his knowledge and skills, Myo arrived in Seattle last September to begin a two-year Master of Health Administration program at the University of Washington. He loves the academic environment at UW, saying that the problem-based and team-based learning approach – rather than just memorizing from a text book in order to write an exam – is relevant to the real-life work that he'll continue once he returns home.
As part of the food security program Myo managed, landless casual laborers owned a livestock bank. Photo by Myo Myint Aung.
When asked about the biggest health concerns affecting his country, Myo says that the most significant issue is access. “Because of the lack of infrastructure at the community level, which I mean is lack of essential drugs and capable human resources like doctors and nurses and even public heath professionals at the ground level...we don't have many resources in the poor resource-constrained areas. The people don't get access to the health care services like maternal child health services, water sanitation, environmental health. That's one big problem.”
In addition, securing financing for public health initiatives is a struggle. With recent political changes, the government now contributes more to the health care system than it used to. However, Myo says that more support is still needed to address health, especially in border and rural areas. He also believes that for the time being, at least, many public health issues cannot be solved by the government system alone, and current public health initiatives are also not meeting the needs of all communities. His dream, therefore, is to develop new, innovative programs that will ensure health care access for more people.
Kids from Labutta who benefited from a Maternal Child Health Program. Photo by Myo Myint Aung.
“We need to set up something like a self-sustaining, entrepreneurial social enterprise model of a health care system,” he says. His vision is a program that works across sectors to improve people's livelihoods. He hopes to use his experience in direct care as well as program development, monitoring, evaluation and administration to create an effective approach that can then be replicated.
“I would like to start locally in a small town to try to develop that kind of integrated model. Then we'd do intensive monitoring and evaluation activities and try to communicate the results of the program to the ministry of health officials.” By integrating such grassroots initiatives with the existing hospital system, more comprehensive services can be provided to communities around the country.
This won't be an easy task – many resources and support for health care are concentrated in urban areas, and because of the income gap and the lack of infrastructure, access remains a huge challenge. But Myo is optimistic for the future. “Our country is now in a phase of transition politically, so it is really hard to predict what will happen in terms of policy and infrastructure. But somehow with the knowledge and experience that I get from this UW MHA program, I think that even if it is small, we can still make a difference at the community level. I plan to start with whatever I can and then hopefully I can expand with programs in other parts of the country.”