Physician Associate Student Sponsorship – In Memory of Laura Florisson

On the 19th October 2020 our beautiful caring Laura left us, after a 10-month battle with bowel cancer. We miss her every day.

One of Laura’s passions was working with Burmese refugees, and we have found a wonderful way to remember Laura and to help bring hope and healing to others currently living in Burma. We hope you will join us on this journey.

Due to a longest running civil war in the world, there is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Burma/Myanmar. According to the UN Special Envoy to Myanmar (2026), 16 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance and over 4 million are Internally Displaced.

Earth Mission (earth-mission.org) is on the front lines, tirelessly working to provide medical care through a special program - the Physician Associate (PA) Training Program. In areas where there is minimal medical support or training, they train PAs for 5 years to bring quality healthcare to those in remote communities. The PAs end up just about as skilled as doctors, and some go on to do a two-year surgical training fellowship. 

As of June 2026, Earth Mission has 41 PA graduates in the field and 61 students in training across the 5-year course. The training costs $9000 AUD ($6000 USD) per student per year for everything. We are currently sponsoring one of these students, Naw Thue, a young ‘Karen’ girl who is in her 3rd Year of training. The ‘Karen’ people are an ethnic group in Burma that are experiencing persecution from the government.

In time with your help, we may be able to offer more scholarships. This is our way of keeping Laura’s loving legacy alive with the people that were important to her.

SUSTAIN Projects Myanmar is an Australian registered charity that has partnered with Earth Mission for over 10 years and can provide tax deductibility for Australian donors.

Kind Regards,

Steve & Jenny Florisson