Duang
Prateep Foundation Monthly News for May 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:
dpffound@ksc.th.com
Over one thousand senior citizens from 43 Bangkok slum communities came to the Duang Prateep Foundation for Thai New Year (Songkran) celebrations on the 11th of April. Songkran is traditionally the time to pay respect to the elderly and this is the tenth year that the DPF has hosted a party for senior citizens.
This year the keynote speaker was Senator Somkit Srisangkhon from Udon Thani in Northeast Thailand. Senator Somkit is 84 years old and a positive role model as an active senior citizen. Senator Somkit advised the senior citizens to eat well, exercise a bit, take good care of themselves and remain occupied.
The guest of honour for the event was Police General Rungrot Yamakun, who was representing the Minister of Defence, General Chavalit. After speeches by Senator Somkit and Senator Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, DPF Secretary General,, there were dance performances for the guests to enjoy. There was then a religious ceremony, with nine monks in attendance, after which the guests could pour water on the Buddha image and on each others hands as a blessing. At the end, food was served before the guests departed.
The attached file shows the scene at the Duang Prateep Foundation during the New Year celebration. The attached file shows DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata pouring water on the hands of a senior citizen.
Twenty-four youngsters aged between nine and fourteen, who receive education sponsorship from the Duang Prateep Foundation, became novice monks at a colourful ceremony last month. The novices were ordained in a ceremony at Wat Saphan, Prakhanong, and they stayed at the temple for one month.
The objectives of the mass ordination were to encourage a greater awareness of religion among the youngsters; to give the novices a safe environment during the school holiday, away from all temptations, and where they would receive good care and attention; and to arrange an event which would bring the community together in the planning and celebration of the special occasion. As is typical for ordinations, preparations included the novices being shorn of all their hair and a parade through the community.
The attached file shows the ordination ceremony at Wat Saphan.
Last month over two hundred people attended a meeting on how to avoid drugs problems among youths, which was organised by the New Life Project and sponsored by the British Embassy. The meeting was attended by youngsters in the care of the New Life Project and their parents and guardians, as well as representatives from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and the communities in Klong Toey.
Speakers at the full day meeting included a representative of the ONCB, a police officer, and a psychologist. Also some of the students at the New Life Project talked about their relationship with their parents. The message from the meeting was that prevention is better than cure, it is important to be positive with youngsters and be good role models and it is important to persevere and not give-up on your children, even if they are in serious trouble.
With the schools and places of higher education closed during April it has been an opportunity to arrange camps and other special activities for children in Klong Toey.
The Aids Control Project took forty-four children on a three day camp in Chonburi Province. The children all came from Klong Toey and were aged fourteen or fifteen. Aids, drugs and sexuality were the main topics of the camp, but there was also time for recreational activities.
The Aids Control Project also cooperated with the police in Klong Toey to arrange a training session for forty young police volunteers aged between ten and twelve. The youngsters have been trained to assist the police in their work. They will be accompanying the police and other volunteers on anti-drugs patrols in their communities and will assist in generally monitoring the drugs situation.
The Art Club Project took forty-nine youngsters on a three day trip to Rayong Province, east of Bangkok. The students were able to enjoy the facilities at the private seaside house of a sponsor. The youngsters enjoyed painting by the sea and after each painting session, the artists came together for a communal evaluation of their work. As well as painting, they also had time to explore the area and play. The attached file shows art works being discussed on the beach at Rayong.
Another camp took over forty youngsters aged between twelve and eighteen to Petchaburi Province. The camp was arranged by youth groups in Klong Toey Slum, with some DPF staff also in attendance. The camp was used as an opportunity to discuss the problems and concerns of young people in Klong Toey.
For Bangkok children, April provides the opportunity to get out of town but children at the New Life Project at Kanchanaburi came the other way and enjoyed a two-day outing to Bangkok, which was hosted by Ms. Prateep Ungsongtham Hata. The twenty-five children aged from four to twelve years old visited the zoo and the famous Bangkok temples Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho. After a night staying at the Duang Prateep Kindergarten, the group went to enjoy the large swimming pool at Siam Park before returning to Kanchanaburi.
Another treat for children was provided by the Amari Atrium Hotel, which invited fifteen children from the DPF’s Sponsorship Section to an Easter Party at the hotel. Hotel staff treated the children to games and food and the occasion was a special one for the children who attended.
Four dentists from the Kanagawa Dental College Alumni Association Dental Volunteers from Japan visited Bangkok last month to provide free dental check-ups and fluoride doses to slum children. The dentists visited the Bonkai and Ruam Jai Pattana communities. Dental volunteers from Kanagawa have arranged several visits to Bangkok in recent years, in cooperation with the Duang Prateep Foundation, during which they have checked and treated dental problems among slum children and senior citizens.
Last month the Duang Prateep Foundation collaborated with UN organisations on an exhibition titled Uniting for Human Security in Asia and the Pacific. The exhibition, which was opened by the Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was a feature at the fifty-seventh United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) annual meeting. The exhibition was arranged by ESCAP, UNAIDS, the UN Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) and the DPF. At the opening ceremony, short speeches were given by Mr. Kim Hak Su, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP, Ms. Kathleen Cravero, the Deputy Executive Director of UN AIDS, Dr, Sandro Calvani, the Regional Representative of the UNDCP and Ms Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Secretary General of the DPF.
Also last month, the Deputy Executive Secretary of UN ESCAP, Ms. Kayoko Mizuta visited the New Life Project at Kanchanaburi, where she was welcomed by DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata.. Ms. Mizuta has previously visited the NLP Project at Chumphon.
The Chairman of the Duang Prateep Foundation, Dr. Sumet Jumsai na Ayudhya was recently named as an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Dr. Sumet is the first Thai to have been elected as a Fellow of the Institute. Dr. Sumet will take part in an investiture ceremony at the AIA National Convention in Denver this month.
At the end of this newsletter, there is an article from The Nation newspaper about the Duang Prateep Foundation and internet use among slum youths.
About 30 Klong Toey residents protested last month against plans to close the local port police station. The station has been run with financial support from the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) but the government’s policy to privatise state enterprises forced the PAT to cancel the budget for the station. If the station is decommissioned, the responsibility over its area of jurisdiction is likely to be split between three police stations, all of which are more than 15 km away.
Delegates at the 57th ESCAP meeting agreed that a comprehensive effort and strong political will are needed to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. The ESCAP resolution on Aids emphasised the relationship between Aids and poverty, declaring that poverty reduction is an integral part of reducing vulnerability to HIV and the impact of the disease. Earlier in the meeting, Dr. Kathleen Cravero, the Deputy Executive Director of UN AIDS, warned that there are signs that the virus could escalate in Asia and could surpass the spread of Aids in Africa. Contributing factors for the spread of the virus include poverty, political instability, rapid social and economic change, population migration and a booming sex industry.
Thai, American and French experts are discussing new ways to protect babies from Aids during pregnancy and at birth. Current measures reduce the rate of perinatal transmission to 6%. There is now hope that the use of Nevirapine applied just before delivery could reduce the perinatal infection rate to 2%.
The national committee to protect and solve Aids problems last month requested a 100 million baht fund, to facilitate the distribution of condoms to people whose behaviour put them at risk of HIV infection. The rate of new HIV Aids infections is declining every year in Thailand but the situation is still critical. Distributing condoms to groups which are perceived to be high-risk, such as soldiers, police and students, could help in reducing infection rates.
Plans to cut back on lunch subsidies for children at Bangkok Metropolitan A
dministration (BMA) administered schools have been put on hold to allow for a survey of needy students. Under the previous Bangkok governor, children at BMA schools were entitled to free lunch, text books, writing materials and two complete uniforms. The present governor wants cuts of up to 70% in the educational welfare budget. After a public outcry, the governor has agreed that the policy will be changed to reflect the outcome of the survey.
Thousands of Assembly of the Poor members returned home last month after a two-year long protest outside government-house. The ending of the camp came after the new government signed an agreement with representatives of the Forum of the Poor. Committees representing the state and villagers will be set up to tackle problems facing the poor in twenty-five cases. Many of the problems to be solved, result from forced eviction because of dam construction and other development projects.
Plans to fight drug use under the new government will focus on prevention among high school students and rehabilitation of addicts. It is believed that there are currently about 3 million drug users in the country, of whom an estimated 300,000 are addicts. 170,000 of the addicts are living without rehabilitation, while 50,000 are undergoing compulsory rehabilitation and a further 80,000 are undergoing voluntary rehabilitation. To help rehabilitate addicts, the Ministry of Public Health plans to train soldiers, local administrators, police, monks and local residents to serve as staff in a series of four month group psychological treatment programmes to be known as personality improvement camps. The goal of the programme is to treat up to 7,000 light addicts each year through rehabilitation and up to 8,000 critical addicts through hospital programmes. The prevention part of the plan is aimed at encouraging life skills at the primary and high school level by training students about the art of living.
Planned business area scaled down
A plan to develop the Rama III road area of Bangkok into a new business district has been scaled back, much to the relief of the many slum dwellers in the area, who were facing eviction. The altered plan will result in the relocation of only a few slum dwellers to facilitate the construction of a road . The new plan also focuses on turning the river front into a green area.
100,000 needy seniors go without help
The Public Welfare Department reported last month that more than 100,000 needy senior citizens are left to fend for themselves, because the department could only afford to assist about 10% of 5.8 million senior citizens nationwide.
Railway police extend education project
The railway police is extending its programme to try and keep children and youngsters off the streets, by providing playground activities and school classes to slum children in a Bang Sue district community. Three old train carriages provided by the State Railway of Thailand will be renovated into a library, a recreational room and a computer room.The Bang Sue project is the continuation of a successful project which was launched at the main rail terminus 18 months ago.
Labour Minister Dej Boon-long has rejected the inclusion of unemployment insurance as part of a social security plan, citing employers・opposition and the country’s economy as factors. The minister disapproved the proposed Royal Decree, that would have provided unemployment insurance for workers made redundant and extended social security coverage to every factory with at least one worker.
Home-workers met at a seminar in Bangkok last month and urged the speedy drafting of a law to protect them. The home-worker industry is said to be worth 40 billion baht a year but the workers say that they are exploited and exposed to health and safety risks. Many home workers also find themselves cheated or ripped off by middlemen.
Last month the government launched an organic farm village project in a bid to promote environmentally-friendly agriculture. With state support more farmers were expected to switch to alternative agriculture, up from a present total of 30,000 small scale organic farmers. Under the project, subsidies and technical assistance will be provided for three years. The Deputy Agriculture Minister raised the prospect of Thailand becoming a major organic farm producer, a market which has grown at more than 20% per annum in recent years.
The following article originally appeared in The Nation newspaper Byteline supplement of the 1st of May. The article appears here with the permission of The Nation. The copyright of the article remains with The Nation and the article cannot be used or reproduced in any form without the written authorisation of The Nation.
THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Noi has a dream. Like many other children of her age, she wants to be a news presenter.
If Noi had been born in more fortunate circumstances, she may have received a good-enough
education to achieve her goal. But given her poverty, the aspirations of the young girl, who lives in a small old shelter in the Klong Toei community, sadly seem far-fetched.
Like other slum children in her community, Noi does not have enough money for further study.
She has had to quit school in order to find work to take care of herself and her grandmother.
However, despite leaving school, Noi has never lost her curiosity to learn new things. Recently, the word "Internet" has entered her vocabulary after she heard many people talking about it. "I have heard about it, but I don't know exactly what it is," she confessed. "I just know that it will take you to wherever you want."
Normally, the Internet remains something with which underprivileged children like Noi have no chance to get in touch. While the use of the electronic medium in Thailand continues to grow - with an estimated 2.6 million users so far - the technology has not yet broken through to this group of children. A classic case of the so-called "digital divide".
But it is not all doom and gloom, as things are about to change for Noi and her Klong Toei friends, when two non-profit organisations - the Hand-in-Hand Foundation and the Duang Prateep Foundation - bring a whole new world to this group of underprivileged youngsters: the world of cyberspace.
Now, instead of just clinging to a dream, Noi and friends will soon have a real chance to get connected to the World Wide Web. The foundations are working on a plan to set up a computer and Internet centre in the community to help train children in the new technology.
The centre, to be opened in the second half of the year, will allow underprivileged youngsters to get in touch with computers and the Internet, and teach them how to use the new high-tech tools.
At least five Net-connected computer systems will initially be placed in the centre to draw children to the world of cyberspace.
The two foundations hope that the establishment of the centre will also help youngsters in the area take up more valuable activities, which will as a result protect them from social and criminal problems, said Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, founder of the Duang Prateep Foundation.
Prateep said Klong Toei children would have the right to participate in the Internet and be trained at the centre free of charge.
Training them in basic computer and Internet skills is, however, just the first step for the project.
"What we plan is to train children to present radio programmes on the Internet," Prateep said.
"We want to use the Internet as a medium to allow children to express their ideas on any issues, as well as report their way of life and problems to the outside world."
Internet radio will be a channel for people to take more care of the problems in society, she added. Meanwhile, Internet radio programming is also expected to deliver useful information to people in the community, thus helping to improve their health care and quality of life.
"Children will be trained not only in computer and Internet technology, but also in news reporting and presenting radio programmes. Importantly, they will learn what good things they can do for their community," Prateep said.
For Noi and many others like her, this was once all just something far removed from reality.
But in the near future, her dream looks to be coming true, as the chance to use the Internet and develop herself into a news presenter beckons.
BY JIRAPAN BOONNOON
The Nation