Duang Prateep Foundation Monthly News for January 2002

Year end fun for kindergarten children

There have been many party opportunities for children at the Duang Prateep Kindergarten with Fathers Day, Christmas and the New Year coming within a few weeks of each other. Fathers Day, which is celebrated on the birthday of the King, was also Sports Day at the Duang Prateep Kindergarten. As the day is a public holiday, many families were able to attend the event, which provided exciting sporting competition for children and their parents.

The Imperial Queens Park Hotel and the Merchant Court Hotel both hosted lunch parties at the kindergarten. Both hotels also brought along a Santa Claus and presents for the children. The social club at the British Embassy invited a group of children from the kindergarten to join children of Embassy staff at a Christmas party at the Queen Vic social club, where Santa Claus also appeared. Students from the Thai Chamber of Commerce visited the kindergarten to organise activities with the children as part of their 'weaving dreams for a brighter future for young children' project.

The photographs show some of the action at the Duang Prateep Kindergarten Sports Day.

Nithan Caravan takes anti-drugs message to Bangkok schools

The Nithan Caravan mobile puppet troupe was in Bangkok during December, taking their mixture of education and entertainment to Bangkok Metropolitan Administration schools. The theme of the performances was the abuse of drugs and the group visited over twenty schools in December, performing on average for about 500 children. The group also performed for youths attending a workshop organised by the United Nations Drugs Control Programme (see story below). In between performing, the staff of the Nithan Caravan are also making puppets, both to use in performances and for sale.

Child fire victims get education sponsorship

One hundred children who lost their homes in a recent fire in their community of Bon Kai (see November newsletter) were given emergency assistance at a ceremony last month. The money, provided by the Sponsorship Section at the Duang Prateep Foundation, will enable the children to continue with their schooling, without being a burden on their families at this difficult time. In total over 300 houses were destroyed in two fires at Bon Kai. The families are living in tents while they start work on rebuilding their homes.

The Sponsorship Section also took eighty young teenagers on a three day camp at Sattahip east of Bangkok. The camp was hosted by the Royal Thai Navy who own the land. In addition to helping the mental and physical development of the youngsters, the theme of the camp was marine conversation. Several activities were provided by navy personnel and DPF staff for the youngsters to learn more about marine resources and how to care for the creatures of the sea. The teenagers also showed great enthusiasm in tackling a military obstacle course.

The photograph shows youngsters from the DPF Sponsorship Programme exploring the sea with Navy personnel.

Teachers and housewives learn about herbs

Several teachers at kindergartens affiliated to the DPF and some housewives attended a two-day course on medicinal herbs, which took place over a weekend at the DPF last month. The course covered the planting and care of herbal plants in pots and how to use the plants and how to extract juice or oil from the plants. The plants covered in the course could be used as a balm and to cure coughs and fevers. The teachers will take what they have learned at the course back to their schools, where they will be able to introduce the techniques to groups of parents and children. The preparation and sale of herbal remedies could provide a welcome source of income for some slum families.

Youth groups start sport competitions

Youngsters from five communities came together last month for a ceremony to start a new sports league in Klong Toey slum. The different communities are competing in volleyball and basketball at different age levels between eight and eighteen. The youth groups are also organising some artistic activities. The sports events are being supported through money which has been provided to youth groups in Klong Toey Slum by the government's Social Investment Fund.

UN workshop visits DPF

Last month the United Nations Drugs Control Programme organised, as part of their Global Youth Network, a Workshop on Needs Assessment and Programme Planning for SE Asia. The four-day meeting, which took place in Bangkok, brought together 22 youngsters from 8 countries. The three representatives from Thailand all came from the Duang Prateep Foundation. The workshop programme included a performance by the Nithan Caravan and a visit to the Duang Prateep Foundation. At the DPF, the workshop participants took part in discussion groups with twenty local youngsters. The visitors were also able to meet DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata.

DPF management review

The Duang Prateep Foundation has recently started a management review process. Near the end of last year, over twenty-five of the staff at the foundation were interviewed by Bert Cesar, a management consultant from the Netherlands who has volunteered his services to the foundation. Last month there was a full day presentation and discussion about the interviews. As a result of the discussions three committees have been set up to look at the financing, administration and long term strategies for the Duang Prateep Foundation. It is the first time the Duang Prateep Foundation has undertaken such a comprehensive review of management and operations in the 23 years of the foundation's existence.

News from Thailand

Thailand hosts international Aids conference

Aids has been in the spotlight, with Thailand hosting the Fifth International Conference on Home and Community Care for Persons Living with HIV/Aids, which took place in Chiang Mai in the middle of December. Staff from the Aids Control Project at the Duang Prateep Foundation were among 3,000 experts, non-governmental organisation delegates and people living with HIV/Aids who attended the conference.

The participants took part in an Aids march to draw global attention to the care needs of people living with HIV/Aids. A Thai who has been infected for more than a decade spoke at the opening ceremony and called for a review of the relationships between developed and developing countries with regard to the issues of care needs and access to medication. He cited Thailand, where he said some 300,000 people had succumbed to Aids because of inadequate medical services or inability to receive anti-retroviral drugs, which have been priced beyond the reach of most patients. However, the Thai Ministry of Public Health recently agreed in principle to include the anti-retroviral drugs in the Bt30 medical scheme.

It was reported at the conference that a two-year study of some 300 HIV-positive women in Thailand, which was co-conducted by HIV-positive women themselves, had found that many women continued to have unprotected sex, despite knowing of their HIV+ status. Of the women who had sex some 61 per cent used condoms most of the time.

It was also reported last month that a Public Health Ministry survey found that between 14,000 and 17,000 pregnant Thai women are HIV-positive. The ministry's prevention programmes had reduced the mother-to-child transmission rate from 25-30% to 6-8%. About 13,000 HIV-infected babies are born in Thailand each year, the number of babies born with HIV was 1.3% of the approximately one million babies born each year.

Bridge people head back to old haunts

The Bangkok Metropolitan Adminstration's intended new life for the city's "bridge people" has proven unpopular. After only eight months, most of the 162 families at one of the resettlement communities, in suburban Thung Kru district, have moved out. Most have shifted back to town to live with relatives and friends. Others have returned to live near their former homes under the bridges, which were more convenient for their daily working life. Their new homes, built on 31 rai of land at Pracha Uthit 76 road, are left unoccupied most days of the month. Only a few people return every now and then to take care of their property. A resident said the resettlement community was simply too far from the city centre where he worked. He said he had just spent more than an hour waiting for a motorcycle taxi to pick him up at the village to get out to the main road. Motorcycle taxis were the only public transport available. This had become a problem for both school children and adults. People wanting transport out of the village had to wait a long time. They all missed the convenience of city living.

Child prostitution figures controversy

A Unicef report released last month, "Children on the Edge:Protecting Children from Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in East Asia and the Pacific", stated that surveys indicate that 30 to 35 per cent of all sex workers in the Mekong sub-region (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Laos and the southern Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi) are between 12 and 17 years of age. The report noted that the sex industry has become such a huge money spinner in the region that the International Labour Organisation estimates that in Thailand alone, it accounts for between 14 and 16 percent of gross domestic product.

According to another report prepared by ECPAT International last October for the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, the number of child prostitutes in Thailand increased by roughly 20 percent in a single year - between 1998 and 1999.

Thailand ranks third after India and the US in the number of child prostitutes according to Unicef, which put the figure for Thai child prostitutes as being about 200,000. However, the chairman of the Senate committee for women, youth and the elderly suggested that Unicef is exaggerating the number of child prostitutes to justify a funding increase. The number of prostitutes under 18 had been put at only 30,000-60,000 by the Thai Red Cross and the Public Health Ministry. The number of adult and child prostitutes together came to between only 90,000 and 200,000, including 18,200 foreign prostitutes.

Foundation says that 38 children died from abuse last year

Thirty-eight children were killed last year from physical abuse mostly committed by parents or people close to them, according to a Children Protection Foundation report. The 38 deaths were among 164 child abuse cases recorded by the foundation this year, up from the 126 cases reported last year. However, the foundation believes that the true number of child abuse cases was far greater, with many going unreported. The report states that 80% of abused children were victims of brutality in their own homes. Apart from the 38 children who died, a further 45 had needed treatment for serious injuries. Very young children were among those most at risk with 62 of the reported cases involving children aged under four.

More money needed to help chronic poor

Non-governmental organisations have urged the government to channel money to anti-poverty programmes in an attempt to meet the poverty reduction goal set out in the Ninth National Development Plan. About 6.9% of the population are considered chronically poor and 10 million people have a monthly income less than the official poverty line of 868 baht, according to the National Economic and Social Development Board. The Ninth National Development Plan is aimed at reducing the proportion of poor people to less than 12% of the population by 2006, from the current 15.98%. A study found abject poverty was associated with large household size, the household head having little or no schooling, and lack of land ownership.

The number of poor in Thailand has risen from 6.8 million to 10 million - 16 per cent of the population - as a result of the 1997 financial crisis, according to the Deputy Labour Minister Ladawan Wongsriwong. The deputy minister said that a majority of the Asia-Pacific region's population is expected to be living in urban areas by 2025, increasing the urban share of poverty. Urban areas could become home to as many as two-thirds of the region's people living in poverty. Urban poverty reduction will require much greater attention from governments in the region, according to the minister.

Thailand’s education rating slips

Thailand this year ranked 44th out of 49 countries evaluated in terms of educational competitiveness, a nine-rung slide from last year's 35th place. This news came despite the fact that the country is one of the biggest spenders when it comes to education budgets. As the second biggest spender on education among the 11 Asian countries surveyed, Thailand spent far more of its money on the construction of school buildings or enhancement of school property, as well as the purchase of educational equipment, rather than on developing teaching methods that would benefit the Kingdom's children. Thailand has earmarked about 4.4 per cent of its gross domestic product for education, or about 22 per cent of government expenditure.

More than 16% of Thais using drugs

Research carried out by several universities, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board and the US Narcotics Affairs Section has revealed that 7.3 million Thais, or 16.4% of the population, use drugs. The sample for the survey was 39,000 people aged 12-65 from Bangkok in 40 provinces. Last month it was also reported that about two million people are under close watch by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) for suspected involvement in drug trafficking. International studies show the majority of drug users in Asian countries are in their prime - below the age of 45 - and are gainfully employed in the work force.

SchoolNet project reported a flop

It was reported last month that a six-year project to provide Internet access for some schools failed because most teachers lacked the necessary skills. The director of the secretariat of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre said the SchoolNet project, in operation since 1996, was a flop and most of the target schools were still just using their computers to print reports. The report stated that teachers either do not know anything about the internet or do not know how it can be used for teaching and learning. Students are taught only how to use Excel and word processor programmes. An adviser to the Education Ministry, said the ministry would spend 300 million baht next year to buy computers for primary and secondary schools nationwide.

Seven million at risk from hazardous materials

The illegal transportation of chemicals poses a threat to 7 million residents of Bangkok and neighbouring provinces. An MP warned last month that vehicles illegally transported a variety of hazardous substances through residential areas in the provinces. If an accident occurred, the results would be disastrous, with more than 200 extremely dangerous substances routinely moved around densely populated areas in these provinces. Information collected by the Industrial Works Department shows that Greater Bangkok is home to over 500 chemical factories.

Six chemical makers and 10 transport companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to make transportation of chemicals safer. Companies signing the memorandum would have to use high-quality materials to contain and transport chemicals. Regular safety checks would be run on trucks and containers, and the condition of drivers. Staff would be trained in rescue and cleaning operations, while emergency centres would be set up at five different sites.

Victims of chemical accidents will be assured of compensation if a proposed third-party liability bill for chemical and related industries becomes law, possibly some time this year. The Department of Industrial Works will soon submit a draft bill of liability to parliament. Once it becomes law, about 2,000 factories which use chemicals in their manufacturing processes would be required to obtain third-party liability insurance.

Victims of chemical accidents currently have to file suits with the Civil Court to demand compensation, but court action is complicated, time-consuming and costly, and victory is uncertain.

Bangkok to set up trash trading centres

Bangkok city hall is to set up a network of garbage trading centres as part of a waste management scheme. The centres would help local communities earn money from sorting garbage while huge amounts of refuse would be reduced through recycling.

Ten centres will be established next year, and each centre will have 30 garbage banks. Once the network is put into place, the centres will act as the middleman between the community and recycling plants, he said. Each centre, to be run by community members, will take garbage from the community and sell it for recycling.