A patient suffering from terminal illness establishes a charity team

A former terminally sick patient found the charity team for patients who suffer from similar diseases, almost begging for financial sources from the streets.

U Ye Zaw, a 40-year-old founder and the president of the charity team, stated that he wanted those patients and the elderly to have a peaceful life as he experienced it.

Zaw explained that before establishing the charity team, he was a patient transferred from Mandalay diocese (35th and 62nd street), a hospital run by nuns in the Saint John Catholic Church, to "Nant Thar Myaing" village in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s Nant Thar Myaing" village is in Mandalay State, Pyin Oo Lwin, Madaayar town, Ye Nant Thar district. Nant Thar Myaing village is at the foot of a mountain and 33 miles away from Mandalay. There are over 670 terminally ill families residing there. Over 670 sick, sick, terminally families live in that village.

According to him, the government constructed a hospital outside the town.

Zaw says that terminally ill patients who got transferred from Mandalay Saint John Church (35th and 62nd streets) mainly were people who got kicked out of the city.

“It was quite challenging when these people arrived at the village because they didn't have anything,” said Zaw.

The situation has led Zaw to start a charity team. He recalled that around 18 or 20 years ago, many of the terminally ill were senior citizens.

"Some of them even died from starvation," he said.

He explained that the charity team started on August 7, 2009, to clarify misconceptions about terminally ill patients.

Many people, Zaw says, are afraid of these patients. “Many people think that this kind of sickness can be spread easily, even through conversation or communication with people who have it.”

“It is wrong. That is a little bit inaccurate," he says.

He claims that patients in the village, including children, are healthy.

What is needed, he says, is that those children who are primarily students need an education. They have to support themselves, he added.

He says that "since parents cannot support them, they end up on the streets and become beggars."

He searches for donors to support the charity team. Zaw invites everyone in the country to visit the little village.

Besides organizing the charity work and operating a free clinic, he also offers religious practices with the connection of the "Bawa Yadanar" monastery.

Since the establishment of the charity team, he says that the government has not offered any help to the village. However, he says that much help has come from other places and communities. He acknowledges the charity team's sustainability because of the support of these people.

"We are living because of them. We can be at peace because of them. We owe it to our donors,” said Zaw.

He concluded, "We shouldn't exclude terminal illness victims because they did not have opportunities or privileges for education or careers like everyone else, and the reason was just that they were born into a family with a terminal illness."