Akiko Tanaka - Thailand

Akiko Tanaka helped to develop a program to treat victims of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) at the Mae Tao Clinic in northern Thailand. The clinic serves migrants from Burma and others who fall outside of the refugee camp, Thai, or Burmese heath care systems. Tanaka’s work lead to recommendations on how the clinic should care for victims of domestic abuse, rape, and other SGBV cases. Tanaka, a maternal and child health major, says she’s seeing how the well-being of men—or lack of it, as is often the case with refugees and migrants—affects the health of women. “When constrained by lack of resources, security issues, and culture, how can we work to promote the well-being of women, which is part of a community’s overall health,” she said. “This experience really made me think of health in a larger context.”