Myanmar charity worker who built a lifeline for the poor loses it all after military coup

For more than a decade, Moe Gyi devoted his life to helping people in need in his hometown of Pyay in central Myanmar, organising blood donors, running a free clinic, operating ambulances, and leading emergency rescue operations.Then the military seized power in 2021, and the humanitarian work he had spent years building made him a marked man. Soldiers raided his charity office, confiscated vehicles, and destroyed equipment. Facing possible arrest, he fled his home and eventually crossed into Thailand.Now 56, Moe Gyi lives in exile in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, separated from the organisation he founded and the communities that depended on it. When floods, landslides, or earthquakes strike Myanmar, he follows the news and longs to help. But he cannot safely return.“I can’t do anything for them. I can’t even go back into my own country,” he told Myanmar Now during a recent interview.His loss extends beyond the clinic, ambulances, and rescue equipment taken by the military. He also lost the trained volunteers, practical experience, and network of humanitarian organisations he spent years developing.His story illustrates how Myanmar’s coup disrupted a network of charitable groups that provided essential medical care, emergency response, and funeral assistance for people unable to afford private services. A calling born in hospital corridors Moe Gyi began his charitable work around 2009, when he was temporarily ordained as a Buddhist monk. He encountered impoverished families searching for blood donors for relatives in hospital. With organised blood-donation groups scarce, families often visited monasteries and religious schools hoping to find donors.Although he could not donate blood himself, he decided to make it easier for others to give the gift of life.In 2010, he launched a blood-donor initiative with 28 people. It eventually grew into the Moe Myittar Charity Association, based in Pyay.The organisation expanded to help people who could not afford medical treatment, struggled to reach hospitals, or needed assistance paying for funeral expenses. Its services grew to include emergency rescues, free medical care, and disaster response.The association’s free clinic became a lifeline for low-income residents, treating about 100 to 120 patients daily, according to Moe Gyi. Many suffered from chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Some relied on the clinic for medicines they could not afford to buy regularly.The organisation also acquired a fleet of vehicles and specialised rescue equipment, including hydraulic cutting tools used to free people trapped inside wrecked vehicles.For years, its work connected Moe Gyi to volunteers and communities across Myanmar. But that all ended with the coup. The Moe Myittar Charity Association’s free clinic provided treatment to at least 100 patients every day (Photo: Supplied) A raid that changed everything As the military violently suppressed anti-coup protests in 2021, the Moe Myittar clinic treated injured demonstrators, including people with gunshot wounds to the head and injuries to their eyes.The escalating crackdown made it increasingly dangerous for doctors to work and difficult for the clinic to continue serving regular patients.On April 4, 2021, soldiers raided the association’s office while Moe Gyi was there handling administrative work. After noticing people photographing the premises, he warned his colleagues to flee, but several stayed because they were scheduled to help with a funeral that afternoon.Soldiers entered the office, ordered about eight people to kneel, and beat them with rifle butts, Moe Gyi recalled. They searched the building and compound, confiscated some equipment and medical supplies, and destroyed other items.The damaged equipment included the hydraulic cutting tools used to rescue trapped accident victims. Among the seized items were about 18 vehicles belonging to the association, he said.Moe Gyi remained at the office throughout the raid. A military officer did not immediately arrest him but told him to say goodbye to his family and report for arrest voluntarily, according to his account.He considered turning himself in, but his family and colleagues urged him not to, fearing he would be tortured. Reports of detainees dying after severe abuse had heightened those concerns. So he went into hiding. Some of the vehicles seized from the Moe Myittar Charity Association when it was raided on April 4, 2021 (Photo: Supplied) From rescuer to fugitive Moe Gyi travelled upriver along the Ayeyarwady River by motorboat before seeking refuge in villages near the border between Bago and Magway regions.He was well-known there for his charitable work. When residents caught wind of his predicament and his presence among them, many hastened to help, some venturing into forests at night to forage for food to bring to him.“The villages were places where I had helped people before,” he said. “When they learned that I was in trouble and had fled there, they wanted to repay the kindness I had shown them.”But their generosity also created a security risk. As more people learned where he was staying, he worried that his hiding place would be exposed. This meant that he could not stay in one place for long, but had to move from village to village to avoid being caught by junta authorities.With help from trusted contacts, including a Buddhist monk and local residents, he relocated to a safe area within Bago Region. Then, in 2022, he left the country completely, taking shelter in Mae Sot, a Thai border town that has become a refuge for people fleeing Myanmar’s political turmoil and conflict.He was now relatively safe, but faced a situation that had made the decision to go into exile a difficult one. In Thailand, he was separated from the work that had occupied much of his adult life. Emergencies continued in Myanmar, but he could no longer respond as he once had.Once, he witnessed a traffic accident in Thailand and wanted to help. But concerns about possible complications and a language barrier prevented him from intervening.“I wanted to run over and help. I really wanted to help,” he said. “But I couldn’t speak the language, and I couldn’t communicate with anyone. I just kept thinking, ‘I can’t do anything to help.’”For a man who had dedicated years of his life to assisting others, this was a deeply troubling thought.“Deep down, I just couldn’t find any peace.” A volunteer doctor conducts a health check on a Buddhist nun at the Moe Myittar Charity Association’s free clinic (Photo: Supplied) A wider collapse in humanitarian work Moe Myittar was not the only charity organisation targeted after the coup.On March 3, 2021, police in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township brutally assaulted volunteer medics from the Mon Myat Seikhtar charity who had been helping injured protesters. Later the same day, junta forces raided the office of the Free Funeral Service Society, beating staff members and damaging vehicles and equipment. Three members of another Yangon-based charity group, including its chair and founder, were also arrested later the same month.Later that year, soldiers raided the office of the Myoma Metta Social Assistance Association in Hlegu Township, arresting four people and confiscating two ambulances. Days later, five people connected to another local charity, the Lu Nge Metta Association, were arrested.In January 2022, the military and police raided a charitable clinic in Dawei, in southeastern Tanintharyi Region, arresting seven volunteers and seizing an ambulance, medicines, and medical equipment.Such arrests and raids forced many charity workers into hiding and led some organisations to suspend operations. Declining donations and difficulties withdrawing money from banks further weakened their ability to provide assistance.The damage extended beyond individual organisations. Before the coup, charity groups coordinated across regional boundaries to respond to emergencies, sharing contacts and mobilising assistance when disasters struck.Moe Myittar was part of that network. Through contacts with a charity organisation in Mandalay, rescue efforts could be coordinated across Sagaing Region and Shan, Chin, and Kachin states, according to Moe Gyi. Other groups helped connect responders in central and southern Myanmar.Now he worries that conflict and insecurity have eroded the trust and communication that made such cooperation possible.The loss of vehicles and buildings is visible, he said, but the loss of trained personnel, accumulated experience, and established relationships may be even harder to repair. Moe Gyi and his wife make miniature bamboo houses, a skill they hope to teach others as a way to generate income (Photo: Supplied) Preparing for a different future Despite his displacement, Moe Gyi has not abandoned his desire to help others. Now settled in Chiang Mai, he remains interested in humanitarian work and is considering how he might contribute in the future, depending on Myanmar’s circumstances and the needs of its people.He has begun learning painting and handicrafts, hoping to pass those skills on to others and help create opportunities for them to earn a living. He and his wife have been making miniature bamboo houses, a craft that could develop into a small business.The work is far removed from the emergency rescues that once filled his days, but it reflects the same impulse that led him to organise blood donors more than a decade ago: finding practical ways to help people with the resources available.“Since I can’t do anything for them right now, I’m using the time I have here to prepare for the things that need to be prepared,” he said.He does not know when he might return to the work he built in Pyay. The clinic that served people who could not afford treatment is no longer under his care, and the vehicles and equipment his team used to respond to emergencies are gone.But the experience he gained building relationships, training volunteers, and organising aid remains with him.For now, Moe Gyi is trying to prepare for a future in which he can once again put those skills to use, even if the work looks different from the life he was forced to leave behind.

Myanmar charity worker who built a lifeline for the poor loses it all after military coup

Forced into exile, Moe Gyi, the founder of the Moe Myittar Charity Association remains committed to helping others in any way he can

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