Life on the Thai-Burma border

2010 looks set to be a crucial year for Burma, with the military government planning to stage the first elections for twenty years.

Western nations are pursuing new policies of pragmatic engagement and rethinking their sanctions against the reclusive state.

However progress may seem like a distant prospect for ordinary Burmese people, who rely on neighbouring Thailand to trade goods or access basic services like health care.

In the first part of a series looking at life in the region, the BBC's Rachel Harvey reports from the border town of Mae Sot, in the far north of Thailand.

She finds out about the different ways people manage to cross from one country into the other.

Generation Wave is a group of hip-hop loving, young Burmese people, dedicated to overthrowing the military government.

Rachel Harvey visits them at their safe house in Mae Sot.

Dr Cynthia Maung, is a Burmese refugee who fled her homeland after the 1988 student uprising.

More than two decades later, the clinic she set up in Mae Sot has developed into a comprehensive health care facility, serving a growing community of people.

It offers a lifeline for thousands of Burmese migrant workers and others who often illegally cross the narrow river border in search of help.

First broadcast 1-3 February 2010