A Nurse Committed to CDM
We checked in with a nurse practitioner currently on CDM. She shared the following personal story with us, indicating her dedication to the Civil Disobedience Movement. However for her and others to continue to stay at home and not support the military takeover in this nonviolent resistance, they need our support.
“If the military tries to force me to come back, I will quit my job.”
“I was still in training when the coup happened. I was assigned to work at the Ayeyarwaddy Covid Center (in Thingagyun, Yangon) as part of the Covid response team. The Covid center closed down on the 13th after the coup happened. At the end of the month, they arranged transportation for us back to Pyin Oo Lwin to the hospital where we were stationed, but I told them that I would be joining the CDM and would not be coming back to the hospital.
Starting at the end of February, I stopped going to work. I had been given the first dose of the vaccine at the center already so they called me back at the end of March, telling me to come get my second dose and come collect my salary, but I decided not to get the second dose or take any salary.
My father is from the army – he is retired now. My mother works for the Ministry of Education and she is also part of the CDM. I went back to my hometown and I am living with my parents now. So even though I don’t have any income now, at least they are feeding me.
If the military tries to force me to come back, I will quit my job. To be honest, I just wanted to finish my training and graduate –I only had four months left until my graduation! I am scared to be arrested but I want to do what I believe is right. A lot of my friends also joined the CDM and went back to their hometowns. We talk occasionally to exchange news about how our colleagues are doing, who has been arrested and about the political situation mostly.
I have friends who are also really strong. They were working in the hospital in Mandalay but they joined the CDM and they are out joining the protests there. My friend at the 1,000-bed hospital in Nay Pyi Taw is also really strong – that friend just turned off their phone and went dark so that no one could find them, so that they could fully participate and join the revolution.
I think the CDM is effective. In my community I know a lot of people who are doing CDM from the MOHS (Ministry of Health Services) and even though the military tries to keep the hospitals running, it is not working out very well for them! If people come to me to ask me health questions, I answer them and try to help them as much as I can but I don’t want to go back to the hospital.
I heard that some people are going back to work now. However only one person whom I know personally has gone back to work, a friend of mine in Nay Pyi Daw who works in the OG (OBGYN) hospital. I heard some people went back because they are suffering financial hardship and need to take care of their families. Some went back because the military was sending letters to their parents, and the parents are pressuring their children to go back. Others are scared. The options seems to be either to go back or to quit.
The other day a few of the girls from the Mawlamyaing hospital called me. They said some of their friends had decided to go back to work and they asked me if I would be going back and I told them that I wouldn’t. They are my juniors, so I wanted to be strong for them. Then they also told me that if I didn’t go back, they wouldn’t go back either. I want to keep doing CDM for as long as I can because I think it is very effective.”