Dr. Cynthia’s Clinic

By: Tawni Johnston and YiQi Xin

The refugee clinic was absolutely inspiring. From what we were told, the clinic has grown annually. There were a few buildings that we were told we’re not there last year. They have many different departments within it, even departments that you wouldn’t expect to see there such as optometry. It’s amazing how much they are able to do for such little. They have limited resources and limited staff, but they never turn patients away. This was unbelievable that they are able to do this because in the United States, people are turned away all the time.

In this clinic they are saving people and the well-being of their patients is their reward rather than payment. It’s really great to see that people actually care enough to spend their own money to live in a developing country and do this kind of work with little or no payment at all. The staff knows how crucial medical care is for some of the people who go there. The people walk miles after miles across the border (which is very dangerous) in order to receive medical treatment. This makes us realize how much the people need this clinic. The clinic asks their patients to pay 30 baht when they come, but if they cannot afford it the patients only pay what they can. We were stunned to find out that even if the patients couldn’t pay anything at all, they were still accepted into the clinic. This gave Tawni great insights into what a doctor really should be like. One quality that a great doctor should have is devoting themselves to their patients and their work. it would be so great to be able to do something more for a community in need, such as this.

The refugees in the clinic were physically suffering, but did not get impatient at all. This showed us how respectful the people are here and how grateful they are. The people coming to clinic have had rough lives and just being able to come to a clinic for any type of medical treatment makes their life better and makes them happy. This showed us how doing something like this really can make a difference. Just being able to learn about the clinic taught us so much and changed how we saw things. It also made us really appreciate the life that we live and to want to help other communities that could use the help.