Support Backpack Healthworker Teams in Burma

In February 2025, Burma Humanitarian Mission (BHM) traveled to Mae Sot, Thailand, to visit the headquarters of the Backpack Health Worker Team (BPHWT)—the frontline organization delivering lifesaving medical care to displaced communities deep within the conflict zones of Burma (Myanmar). What we found was deeply concerning: a vital healthcare network under threat due to a devastating halt in funding.

This crisis is a direct result of the U.S. administration’s decision to freeze all USAID support to refugee and humanitarian programs in the region. Despite a federal court order to resume funding, not a single dollar has been released. The consequences are already being felt across the Thai-Burma border.

USAID funding has long been the backbone of humanitarian operations here, providing 62% of all financial support for refugee services. These funds sustain nine refugee camps housing 88,000 people, aid 200,000 vulnerable villagers in southeast Burma, and support essential organizations like the Mae Tao Clinic, the Child Development Center (CDC), and BPHWT.

For BPHWT specifically, USAID funding made up 43% of their annual budget—over $520,000. This money enabled the training, equipping, and deployment of over 50 backpack medic teams who bring healthcare to people in places no one else can reach. The impact of the funding freeze is both immediate and heartbreaking.

In response, BPHWT is being forced to triage their mission.

• The Medical Care Program will continue as the top priority, ensuring that the most critical treatments and emergency interventions remain available.
• Community health and prevention programs are being scaled back, despite their long-term benefits in building healthier, more resilient communities.
• Training for new medics will be limited, although essential, entry-level training will still be provided to keep new recruits coming into the field.
• Stipends for field medics have been slashed by 30%, dropping from $74/month to just $51. For the people doing this brave and dangerous work, this reduction represents more than a financial burden—it’s a blow to morale and sustainability.

To put it in perspective, last year field medics received $882 per year. That figure is now down to $618. These are men and women who risk their lives every day to serve their people—trekking through jungles, evading military patrols, and carrying backpacks filled with medicine, gauze, and hope.

This situation is not sustainable. And it’s not acceptable.

Now, more than ever, Burma’s backpack medics need our support. With your help, BHM can step into the funding gap and ensure these frontline heroes have what they need to continue their critical work. Together, we can keep healthcare alive in the most forgotten corners of the world.

Join us. Donate. Advocate. Stand with the medics.