Duang Prateep
Foundation Monthly News for January 2001
Contact details
Address: Lock 6, Art Narong Road, Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110,
Thailand.
Telephone: (66 2) 671 4045, 249 4880, 249 3553.
Fax: (66 2) 249 5254
Email: <dpf@internet.ksc.net.th>
News from the Duang Prateep
Foundation
Slum fire destroys
forty houses
Last month a fire in
the Locks 4, 5 6 community of Klong Toey slum destroyed 40 houses and damaged a
further 21 houses. The fire is believed to have been started due to the
careless use of a candle by some drug addicts using a vacant property. The
Duang Prateep Foundation initially assisted those affected by the fire with the
provision of clothing and emergency food supplies. The families made homeless
have been granted permission to rebuild on the same sites as their previous
homes and the foundation is now assisting with the provision of gypsum panels
and roofing materials. The DPF’s Sponsorship Section provided 1,000 baht
emergency assistance to 32 children affected by the fire, so that their school
attendance was disrupted as little as possible.
The attached file
<fire.jpg> shows the aftermath of the fire in Locks 4 5 6 community.
Year end fun for
kindergarten children
Children at the Duang
Prateep Kindergarten were able to enjoy several special events near the end of
the year. Early in December, the Duang Prateep Kindergarten celebrated Sports
Day, with events for both children and parents. It was an occasion with excited
cheerleaders, fast run races and teams of parents joining in the tug-of-war. As
always the Sports day was a popular occasion for the two hundred and seventy
children at the school as well as parents and staff.
Later in December, a
group of ten children went to a party at the Foreign Correspondents Club of
Thailand. Children from other welfare organisations also attended the event,
where they were able to enjoy a performance by the Duang Prateep Foundation’s
Nithan Caravan puppet troupe along with other entertainment and refreshments.
The same day, twenty children from the Duang Prateep Kindergarten and the
Special School for Hearing Impaired Children attended a party at the British
Embassy Social Club. Children from the Duang Prateep Foundation performed three
dances at the party and enjoyed the food and visit of Father Christmas.
The attached file
<sports.jpg> shows some of the action at the Sports Day.
New Year party at
Kanchanaburi New Life Project
Foundation
Secretary-General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata and her family visited the New Life
Project at Kanchanaburi for a three day stay over the New Year holiday. Duang
Prateep Foundation art teacher, Chatchada Kruakaew, went along as well and
organised several art activities for the twenty-six children at the project.
The kids also had a great time cooking Thai desserts and the New Year was
celebrated with a lively party.
The attached file
<newyear.jpg> shows DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata (left)
with her husband Tatsuya Hata (second left) and children and friends at the New
Life Project for Girls.
Dutch artist hosts
art workshop
Well known Dutch
artist Josh Welkamp visited the Duang Prateep Foundation last month to host a
special workshop for members of the Slum Children’s Art Club. The topic of the
workshop was etchings and the seven children who attended the event had a great
time while being introduced to techniques with which they had no previous
experience.
Later in the month
Japanese volunteers at the foundation sponsored an outing for art club members
to Angsila, on the coast East of Bangkok. Thirty-six children and adults went
on the outing. The trip to the coast inspired plenty of colourful art works.
Ambassador visits
DPF
Baron Berthold von
Pfetten-Arnbach, the Ambassador to Thailand for the Sovereign and Military
Order of Malta visited the Duang Prateep Foundation last month. The Ambassador
was welcomed to the foundation by the Chairman, Dr. Sumet Jumsai na Ayudhya,
and the Secretary General, Prateep Ungsongtham Hata. Baron Berthold von
Pfetten-Arnbach made a donation to the foundation on behalf of the Order of
Malta.
World Aids Day
campaign
Aids Control Project
staff were joined by motorcycle taxi drivers, police other DPF staff and
volunteers in a World Aids Day campaign. A total of 150 people campaigned at a
major five-way intersection at Klong Toey market. In an action which lasted all
morning, condoms and Aids literature were distributed to everyone passing
through the busy intersection.
Slum anti-drugs
activist wins UN Award
Last month well known
anti-drugs campaigner Ameena Beedillae was presented with the UN Vienna Civil
Society Award at a ceremony which took place in the Austrian capital. Ms.
Ameena was nominated for the award by the Duang Prateep Foundation. Ms Ameena
is a seventy-four-year-old Moslem woman who has been chairperson of the Anti
Drugs Volunteer Association since the organisation started in 1986.
The UN Vienna Civil
Society Award is given to individuals or organisations who have made an
outstanding contribution in the fight against crime, drug abuse and terrorism
and in fostering social justice and social progress. Ms. Ameena joined other
winners from Chad, Columbia and the UK who were presented with mementoes by the
Queen of Sweden, a certificate by the Austrian President as well as a cash
award.
News from Thailand
ESCAP study paints
bleak picture
The United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) recently
released a comprehensive study on sexually abused and sexually exploited
children in Thailand. The report establishes clearly that poverty,
substance-abuse and family-breakdown were the major factors leading to sexual
abuse in Thailand.
Seventy-seven of the
victims of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of a close relative. Fifty-three
percent of the victims came from homes where at least one parent had a
substance abuse problem. Seventy-seven percent of victims had experienced
abandonment or family breakdown. Fifty-nine percent of child sexual abuse
victims came from families struggling with poverty. Among sexually exploited
children, eighty percent came from families that had suffered divorce,
separation or the death of a parent. Thirty-eight percent of sexually exploited
children had family members with drug or alcohol abuse problems. Thirty-one
percent of victims had experienced sexual abuse prior to entering the sex
trade. Many girls entered prostitution as a direct result of the abuse they had
received. They felt they had no other options once they had lost their virginity.
Only seventy-six percent of sexually exploited children had even been enrolled
in primary school.
Of the sexually
exploited children interviewed, thirty-eight percent had a sexually
transferrable disease. Twenty-four percent of sexually abused children were
malnourished. Among the sexually abused children, eighty-one percent had
developmental disabilities, exhibiting severe emotional and behavioural
problems. Similar problems, as well as drug dependency, were also found among
sexually exploited children. The ESCAP survey also found that care-givers were
severely overloaded and many programmes lacked counselling services.
Anti-addict
sentiment aggravates Aids situation
Despite the
continuing spread of HIV among and through intravenous drug users, authorities
are resisting the implementation of needle exchange programmes, that have
proved effective elsewhere. Addicts remain much more likely to end up in jails,
where infection is rife, than rehabilitation.
The authorities will
not provide free needles to drug addicts, who constitute the highest risk
group, because drug abuse is illegal and they do not want to be seen to be
promoting drug
consumption. Campaigners against Aids, including the World Bank, point out that
prostitution is also illegal but the provision of condoms has proved effective
in curbing the spread of the virus.
In recent years,
Thailand has been fairly successful in reducing new HIV infections through
public awareness campaigns and the distribution of free condoms. However, at
the same time, the infection rate among intravenous drug users, already high,
has risen to well above 40%. A report by the World Bank on Thailand's Response
to Aids, states that HIV infection among northern military conscripts due to
intravenous drug use increased from less than 2% in 1991 to 27% in 1998. Up to
33% of HIV cases directly or indirectly involve intravenous drug users.
The executive
director of the Asian Harm Reduction Network, says it is imperative for the
authorities to change their attitude and apply a public health approach rather
than treat the problem as a security issue. Addicts should not be regarded as
criminals but as patients who need treatment. To control the spread of the
deadly virus, health workers must have access to addicts.
According to the
Office of Narcotics Control Board, the distribution of free needles is out of
the question. It is not only illegal but can be counter-productive and send the
wrong message to the population, particularly the younger generation.
The number of addicts
has skyrocketed and the Corrections Department, which administers the prisons,
is faced with at least 95,000 drug-addicted inmates even though they have space
to treat only 7,900. The rehabilitation programme has also had little success.
As many as 95% of the rehabilitated addicts return to their habit after
completion of the programme.
Media urged to
send safer sex messages
Health authorities
have urged the media to join the fight against the spread of HIV/Aids by
launching a public-awareness campaign targeting young people. Speaking at a
seminar about Aids-awareness, Communicable Disease Control director general
Somsong Rakpao said young people aged between 15 and 20-years-old, who are
greatly influenced by the media, are the group most vulnerable to infection.
The director of the
Health Ministry's Aids division, Anupong Chitwarakorn, said that the national
campaign promoting condom-use, especially among men frequenting brothels, had
been quite successful. According to a survey, only 20 per cent of men were visiting
prostitutes, a sharp decline from the 30 per cent previously recorded. However,
there is concern that one-night sexual relationships are on the rise.
The Ministry of
Public Health’s epidemiology division has estimated that up to 289,000 people
have died of Aids since the disease was found in Thailand in 1984. It also
believed that about 500,000 people infected with HIV might not be aware of it.
Move to ease entry
to primary schools
THE National
Education Commission is planning to restrict primary schools from holding
entrance exams for grade one students after research found that it put the
children under great stress and affected their learning abilities. A study
found that students aged six and seven years old were not ready to compete
academically and should not be forced into exams, because of the adverse
effects of the stress on them.
Poor to get free
schooling
The Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration, the Education Ministry and private schools have
agreed to subsidise education for poor students, a ministry official says. The
city will pay tuition fees as well as the cost of two uniforms and give free
lunches and free milk to each student attending primary and secondary schools.
The city now subsidises only those who have to be sent to private schools for
lack of places in city schools. The city will give "education
coupons" with which to pay private-school fees.
Educational reform
gets radical
Sweeping education
reforms due in 2002 should not only rationalise and decentralise regulation of
education but also produce better teachers. Education decentralisation will be
based on the 1999 National Education Act, which was drawn up with the purpose
of guiding education reform in Thailand. The operational plan on education
reform based on the Act will be completed by March next year, while reforms
will take full effect in 2002.
The aim is to improve
Thailand's quality of education and teacher performance. After the year 2002,
the Education Ministry, the Ministry of University Affairs and the Office of
the National Education Commission will join together as the Ministry of
Education, Religion, and Culture. Each school will have a school board, this
will allow locals to play a bigger role in managing education and in drawing up
curricula to suit local needs. The pay scale for new teachers will be at a par
with that of medical graduates, starting at 8,190 baht a month.
Zero growth likely
in fourth quarter
The economy is likely
to register zero growth in the last quarter of the year 2000, the first flat
quarter since the beginning of last year, planners said last month. The
projection was based on poorer-than-expected figures for the third quarter.
Gross domestic product growth in the third quarter was only 2.6%, despite
earlier projections of 3.5-4%. The growth rate in the second quarter was 6.3%.
Key negative factors affecting the economy include the prevailing high oil
prices which affected production costs as well as public purchasing power; floods
in the South; political uncertainty; sagging farm product prices and the
bearish stock market. However, exports were still performing well, particularly
shipments to the United States which expanded by 22.9%, more than double the
11.2% growth rate in the second quarter.
Charter's promises
unfulfilled, say critics
Three years on, the
so-called people's Constitution has been praised by some as the blueprint for a
social revolution. But groups representing consumers, women, workers and media
reformers, among others, say not all of the Constitution's individual promises
have been kept and a lot of work must be done to turn its words into reality.
Despite the many critics of singular aspects of the Constitution and its
implementation, many agree that on the whole it marks a step forward for social
and civil society.
Labour courts
'unjust, need drastic change'
THE 20-year-old
labour courts do not provide justice for workers and are in drastic need of
change, union leaders and legal experts said recently. A move to amend the
Establishment of Labour Court and Judiciary Process Act was launched at a
seminar last month, which heard how the court's judicial-appointments system
has been grossly abused. Conflicting parties never have an equal chance before
the court as most of the evidence is in the employers' hands and very few
workers are willing to testify for fear of reprisal by management. Workers at
the seminar complained that they were often forced or threatened by the court
to accept much lower compensation than provided for by law.
