The Myanmar nurses dodging drones to graduate from a secret jungle school | Global development
Ihe remarkable, but secret, ceremony took place earlier this week for a graduating class of 21 nursing students in Myanmar. Hidden from the spy drones of the country’s military junta and working despite internet blackouts, the students had trained as part of a clandestine health system, which has been evolving in Myanmar since the February 2021 coup crushed a pro-democracy uprising and sparked civil war.
“Safety is never guaranteed,” says Khun Sue Reh, 23, who on Monday was part of the group that graduated with the specially designed three-year nursing diploma.
In addition to the usual classes and exams, students face airstrikes on the hospitals where they train, government spy drones, roadblocks and internet shutdowns.
The UN estimates that since the coup, 18.6 million people in Myanmar have required humanitarian assistance, 3.2 million have been internally displaced and more than 55,000 civilian buildings have been destroyed. More than 200,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, including Bangladesh, India and Thailand.
A parallel secret health system has emerged, treating those who cannot risk government-controlled hospitals or who live in the vast parts of the country beyond the regime’s control.
Khun and his colleague Rosetta were already students when the coup took place and felt compelled to join the opposition Civil Defense Movement (CDM).
Khun says being part of the MDP “allowed me to stand up for my beliefs, participate in peaceful change, and take responsibility for the future of my country.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Rosetta says. “I couldn’t continue working as usual while many people around me were facing so many difficulties. »
As a nursing student, she visited community mobile clinics that provided basic services to displaced people.
“From the beginning, nurses joined the movement – myself included,” says April, a Burmese nurse educator.
“We started with peaceful protests. Then later the junta cracked down on these protesters. They beat them, they used guns, and there were casualties.
“So nurses and doctors mobilized and opened secret clinics in the community. This is how we started providing services to people injured during the protests.
“Later the situation got worse, we could no longer work in the big cities and we had to disperse across the country. »
April contacted colleagues in the UK and together nurses from Myanmar and Britain held video masterclasses on topics such as how to deal with injuries caused by the protests.
When the junta began controlling access to the internet and data prices rose sharply, videos filmed in the UK were smuggled on USB sticks across the country.
In Myanmar, access to basic health care, from vaccinations to medicines for chronic diseases, has been severely disrupted by the war, with around 1,900 incidents of violence or obstruction recorded since 2021. Hospitals and clinics have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 170 workers have been killed and 909 arrested. Around 70% of incidents are attributed to the Myanmar armed forces.
April and her colleagues realized that the training videos already in circulation weren’t enough.
“What became clear very quickly was that this wasn’t going to work, and instead we needed to record an entire undergraduate degree from start to finish,” says Marcus Wootton, associate director of international nursing at the UK’s Royal College of Nursing (RCN), who became involved in the project.
Dozens of international scholars recorded lectures for the 58 modules required for the Myanmar curriculum – from neonatal care to tropical diseases – and the Phoenix Bachelor of Nursing Science degree was born.
April and her colleagues “created a nursing school completely inside the jungle.” Facilitators in a Starlink internet-enabled basic class guide students through pre-recorded sessions, complete with hands-on activities.
“They don’t have clean water, they don’t have shelter, the living conditions are really rudimentary,” Wootton said. “They are constantly at risk of drone attacks. They are constantly at risk of air attacks. Bombs have landed right next to the classroom.”
“We had to move students, we had to move campuses, because of the risk of fighting.”
They work in poorly resourced hospitals, April says. “Even products like paracetamol are very difficult to obtain in bulk because the junta blocks all routes to get these resources to jungle hospitals. From basic necessities to large equipment like MRI scanners, even portable ultrasounds are not very easily available.”
Khun says: “During my clinical internship in the first semester of final year, the hospital was directly attacked by an airstrike. » He had to evacuate with patients.
Rosetta said there were times when she studied in temporary shelters, hiding from government drones.
Internet connections are limited and heavily monitored, students say, and study sessions must be carefully planned to avoid attracting unwanted attention.
“It’s also the emotional stress, for me and for many of us,” Khun says. “Many of us feel fear and worry not only for ourselves, but also for our family, friends and community. »
He adds: “I hope people outside Myanmar understand that our lives here are not just about struggle. We have dreams, we have hopes and we are determined, and we want to contribute to a better future.”
There is no compromise on quality. “This is an international standard qualification,” says Wootton, who describes the new nurses’ achievements as “extraordinary”.
There are five cohorts currently studying, and others are on a one-year program for graduate nurses who want to progress to university level.
In a thank you letter to the MRC, one of the students wrote: “The name Phoenix itself is powerful to us. It symbolizes rebirth from the ashes of destruction caused by the coup.
“Our cohort represents the rebuilding of Myanmar’s ethical healthcare system, built by students committed to compassion, democracy and professionalism. We are living proof that education and hope cannot be extinguished by violence.”
