OUR HISTORY

Community Partners International — led by an international team of doctors, educators and management experts with more than a decade of on-the-ground experience in Burma/Myanmar — develops local-global partnerships to improve the health and wellbeing of Burma's women, children, families and communities.

In 1989, with the help of a map sketched on a napkin, Dr. Ben Brown arrived at Dr. Cynthia Maung's refugee clinic in Mae Sot, on the Thailand-Burma border. When he returned home, he founded Planet Care, volunteering his time to support Burmese people living in Thailand. Dr. Brown's commitment to Dr. Cynthia and the clinic inspired Bob Condon, founder of a Berkeley-based investment firm, to start his long-term involvement managing the development side of Planet Care.

In 1998, Dr. T. Lee accompanied Dr. Brown to Thailand. Impressed by the impact of Planet Care in Thailand, Dr. Lee looked across the border to the needs of the internally displaced communities living without health care inside Burma. Soon after, he founded the Global Health Access Program (GHAP) with three U.S.-based health colleagues to fill gaps in health care that have contributed to Burma's ongoing health crises.

After many of years of working side by side, in 2006 Planet Care and Global Health Access Program (GHAP) merged, melding GHAP's health expertise and Planet Care's fundraising and management expertise. In 2010, Planet Care/GHAP and the Foundation for the People of Burma came together to form Community Partners International to strengthen local capacity in health and education. In 2012, to respond most effectively to the rapid political and cultural changes in Burma, CPI divided its work into two nonprofit organizations: Partners Asia carries on the mission of Foundation for the People of Burma; Community Partners International and our field branch, GHAP, continue to focus on public health initiatives and training.