Preface: "Ten years ago, health workers from the Mon, Karen, and Karenni States in Burma came together as the Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT) in partnership with the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand. The need for mobile healthcare services grew out of increasing military attacks against civilians in eastern Burma in the late 1990s, coupled with a lack of local, official healthcare. These circumstances prevented a large proportion of the population from receiving basic primary and preventative healthcare services. Since 1998, BPHWT has stayed true to its founding mission: to equip internally displaced persons with enough knowledge and skills that they are able to address the health problems of their own communities and work towards the development of a sustainable health infrastructure. The Back Pack Health Worker Team established key principles that have guided our work since the inception of the organization: to provide healthcare services to all, regardless of ethnic group, age, gender, religion, or political affiliation; to focus on communities where access to primary and preventive healthcare services is severely limited; to collaborate with local organizations and communities; to improve health through a multi-sectorial development and integration approach; and, to foster inter-ethnic unity and trust, thereby promoting democracy in Burma. Over the past ten years, BPHWT has expanded from 32 teams serving 64,000 people in the eastern border region of Burma to 80 teams serving over 187,000 people in eastern and western Burma. Over time, the scope of BPHWT?s services and programs has expanded as well. BPHWT has trained more than 1,300 multi-ethnic health workers who are currently living and working in their communities in Burma, providing primary and preventive healthcare services and enabling communities to address and prevent health problems. As BPHWT has grown, so has our reputation, and we have gained support and assistance from an expanding base of local and international health and education professionals and donors. As BPHWT looks towards the next ten years, we will continue to focus on strengthening and expanding our community-based primary healthcare system in Burma. Whether the future brings continued conflict or peace and democracy. BPHWT remains committed to our community-based approach, aimed at empowering local populations and bringing ethnic groups together in the name of improving health for all."