Cha Nay Chuu Needs OUR Help NOW!

Gentle Readers,

I just received the below posting from The Best Friend Burmese Library.  PLEASE help save this boy's life, he deserves a fighting chance!

Cha Nay Chuu - a 14 year old hero

People have asked me what can be done to help the refugees who were in the Ban Mae Surin fire.  As of right now, my best answer is a quote from the article below.


"If you are able to contribute any amount for the care of young, heroic Chaa Nay Choo, please bring the donation to The Best Friend Library at 302/2 Nimmanhaemin Road, Soi 13, Chiang Mai, with a note that the donation is specifically for Chaa Nay Choo (otherwise, donations are added to our “general” Karenni refugee fund, which will be used at the discretion of our partners Free Burma Rangers and the Karenni National Refugee Committee). Donations will also be collected at the “Burma: Realities & Possibilities” lecture by Khin Ohmar next Tuesday at Chiang Mai University, where we will be joined by a representative from the Karenni refugee community.

"Donations can also be made online through PayPal. Simply go to www.paypal.com and send a donation of any amount to donate@thebestfriend.org. Again, please include a note explaining if you would like your donation to be used for Chaa Nay Choo specifically, or for the Karenni refugees in general".


The below article and photo's are:   © The Best Friend Library, Chiang Mai.


Dear members and supporters,

As The Best Friend Library continues to serve as a major collection point in Chiang Mai for donations in support of the refugees affected by the devastating fire that engulfed Mae Surin Karenni Refugee Camp last Friday, 22 March, we would like to introduce you to an absolutely heroic young man named Chaa Nay Choo.

These photos show Chaa Nay Choo as he is today, Saturday 30 March. He is being treated in the Intensive Care Burn Unit at Chiang Mai’s Suan Dok Hospital. He is breathing with the aid of a respirator, is fed through an esophageal tube, and is on a 24-hour morphine drip.  Second- and third-degree burns cover 50% of his small body.


Chaa Nay Choo could have easily escaped the fire unharmed. However, he refused to obey his parents' pleas for him to flee and to follow them to safety. Instead, he and his friends actually continually ran back into burning huts to assist other refugees and attempt to bring them to safety. He ignored concerns for his own safety, and sacrificed his own well being to help others in the fire that left 40 people dead, 400 homes destroyed, and 2,300 refugees homeless.

Doctors tell us that he will remain in the burn unit for at least three months. That is, he will remain in the burn unit if he does not succumb to his burns and the inevitable infections that will result. Although he has made a lot of hopeful progress since he was brought to the hospital in Chiang Mai, his prognosis remains at 50% because he is at very high risk for infections, both internally and externally.

Ten refugees from Mae Surin were brought for treatment to Suan Dok Hospital. Chaa Nay Choo is one of two originally in intensive care. The other victim has since passed away, and his body was returned to the camp on the Thai-Burma border for burial. We firmly believe that improving the chances of Chaa Nay Choo’s survival is worth fighting for.

We now know that no other members of Chaa Nay Choo's family were injured in the fire, but they have been prevented from leaving the Mae Surin Camp to visit him in Chiang Mai because they do not have the required Thai travel documents. We know that Chaa Nay Choo and his family left Karenni State, Burma, six years ago, and have been living in Mae Surin since then.

Without the generosity of The Best Friend’s members and supporters, Chaa Nay Choo would be receiving only the most basic medical care and nutritional support that the International Rescue Committee (IRC) can provide for, because the higher-quality, healthier, more nutritious supplements that will enable his immune system to rebuild itself and fight off infection, and which his doctors recommend, are just too expensive. The 800 grams of Nestlé Nutren Optimum that he can benefit from costs about 400 baht ($13.50 U.S.) per day.

To date, The Best Friend has collected 24,100 baht ($800 U.S.) in monetary donations for all of those affected by the fire, approximately 4,000 refugees. 10,000 baht has already been transferred to Free Burma Rangers, who have operations in Mae Surin, and 5,000 baht has been used to purchase 12.5 days’ worth of the higher-quality nutritional supplement for Chaa Nay Choo, and are already being administered to him at the hospital.

One of our primary immediate concerns and goals is to continue raising support for the care of Chaa Nay Choo. His doctors’ opinion is that he can benefit most from the continued provision of Nutren Optimum, which will help to rebuild his immune system to enable him to fight off infections. The Nutren Optimum can only be provided for him if outside funds can be raised because as a refugee from Burma, he is illegible for any support from the Thai governmental health care system, and the IRC has already determined what it is able to provide for him.

If the total cost of approximately 90 days’ worth of Nutren Optimum (36,000 baht / $1,200 U.S.) can be raised, the doctors’ suggestion is that our next endeavor be to raise money to purchase a generic form of the medicine Buminate (25% albumin). This medicine is very costly, 1,800 baht ($60 U.S.) per 50 mL bottle, and Chaa Nay Choo would require three bottles daily. However, this medicine could save his life. Albumin works to help his body maintain the protein and bind together the nutrients that he is rapidly losing through his wounds. He has already lost a significant amount of weight since he was admitted to the hospital.

Put simply, the immediate goal of this post is to collect an additional 31,000 baht ($1,035 U.S.) that will enable us provide for a full three-months’ supply of Nutren Optimum for Chaa Nay Choo. Any funds raised above and beyond that amount will be used to purchase as much medicine containing albumin as possible. Anything is better than nothing, and all will give Chaa Nay Choo a higher possibility of survival.

If you are able to contribute any amount for the care of young, heroic Chaa Nay Choo, please bring the donation to The Best Friend Library at 302/2 Nimmanhaemin Road, Soi 13, Chiang Mai, with a note that the donation is specifically for Chaa Nay Choo (otherwise, donations are added to our “general” Karenni refugee fund, which will be used at the discretion of our partners Free Burma Rangers and the Karenni National Refugee Committee). Donations will also be collected at the “Burma: Realities & Possibilities” lecture by Khin Ohmar next Tuesday at Chiang Mai University, where we will be joined by a representative from the Karenni refugee community.

Donations can also be made online through PayPal. Simply go to www.paypal.com and send a donation of any amount to donate@thebestfriend.org. Again, please include a note explaining if you would like your donation to be used for Chaa Nay Choo specifically, or for the Karenni refugees in general.

If individuals in Chiang Mai would like to be met at the Suan Dok Hospital Burn Unit to purchase cans of Nutren Optimum for Chaa Nay Choo themselves, rather than simply donating money, this can be arranged by sending an email to chiangmai@thebestfriend.org.

All of the hundred-thousand-plus refugees living in camps on the Thai-Burma border deserve to live lives as freely and healthily as you and me, yet they have been prevented from doing so for decades. Please help us make a positive difference in the life of one or many refugees from Burma today.

Thank you for taking the time to absorb this information, and for considering if you are able to help in any way.

note: This email report includes new information we learned today about Chaa Nay Choo. It is an updated version of the posting on The Best Friend's website at www.thebestfriend.org/2013/03/30/chaa-nay-choo/.