On a recent visit to Japan, DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata was able to have a meeting with the Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi. During the fifteen minute discussion, Prateep urged Foreign Minister Kawaguchi to encourage Japanese support for non-government organisations which are working to help child refugees and children of migrant labourers from Burma. Minister Kawaguchi said she appreciated the work NGOs are doing to help child migrants. Prateep also met six senior Japanese parliamentarians, including former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata, for a wide-ranging discussion, which lasted some ninety minutes.
The photo shows Ms. Prateep (left) with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
Also last month, DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata travelled to Germany for the Thai Summer Festival at Bad Homburg. The two day event brings 10,000 people to the Kurpark in Bad Homburg. The festival takes place around a Thai pavilion, which was donated by King Rama V - King Chulalongkorn - who stayed for three months at Bad Homburg in 1907.
Prateep joined the Thai Ambassador to Germany and the Mayor of Bad Homburg in speaking at the opening ceremony. Over the two days, Prateep spent much time at the information stand of the Freunde der Duang Prateep Foundation e.V., the organisation which raises money in Germany to support DPF activities. Many visitors to the festival took time to talk to Prateep, not just about the work of the Duang Prateep Foundation, but also about her role in the Thai Senate. The next Thai Summer Festival in Bad Homburg will take place in 2004.
The photo shows Prateep (left) with the organiser of the Freunde der Duang Prateep Foundation e.V., Juergen Goepfert (right) at the opening of the Thai Summer Festival.
Art session at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha
Last month art teacher Chatchada Kruakaew took six older members of her art project to Wat Phra Kaew,(the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) for an art session at Thailand's best known temple. The artists, who were aged between twelve and sixteen, were inspired by the colourful and ornate temple buildings.
The photo shows one of the young people busy on an art work at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha
In July, the art teacher was also sponsored by the DPF to organise a weekend of art activities in Songkhla province, in the South of Thailand. Fifty-eight children took part in the two day art programme.
Chatchada also participated in an art for all project, which was arranged by Chulalongkorn University and supported by the UN. The objective of the project is to provide art opportunities to disabled youngsters. A one-day seminar on art for all took place at the UN, which was followed by a camp for some four hundred youngsters over five nights near Kaeng Krajan Dam in Petchburi Province. Most of the children at the camp were disabled. Teachers at the camp came from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Norway. One of the objectives of the camp and the seminar was to establish a network among art teachers in Southeast Asia to cooperate on projects to help the disabled.
Nithan Caravan perform at UNICEF
On the 1st of August Nithan Caravan provided a special performance at UNICEF Bangkok, as part of a programme of events to celebrate Asian Youth Day. The show was about the sexual trafficking of children, which deeply moved several of the young people who saw the show. The audience consisted of 25 representatives from the Asia-Pacific Youth Network, who were conducting a workshop on human rights in the run up to Asian Youth Day. The workshop was the culmination of the 'Speak Your Mind' campaign, which has involved many Asian youths over recent months. Previously twelve youngsters from twelve Asian countries drew up an Asian Youth Charter, which was presented to Kofi Annan at the UN special assembly in May. On Asian Youth Day on the 1st of August, youths presented the charter to a member of the Thai government.
In July Nithan Caravan visited Baan Lung Alung, a home and school for hill tribe children in Chiang Rai Province, in the north of Thailand. The visit was to follow-up on the dramatic techniques workshop, which took place at the Duang Prateep Foundation in June, and which was attended by teachers from Baan Lung Alung.
In the coming months, Nithan Caravan representatives will be visiting all the participants in the dramatic techniques workshop, to see how they are using the lessons learned at the workshop in their work with children.
DPF provides Aids training to migrant labourers
DPF Aids Project staff have recently been providing training programmes for migrants about Aids and tuberculosis, in a programme sponsored by the International Organisation for Migration. So far seven one-day training sessions have taken place in a programme of ten sessions, with each session attended by thirty people. Each session is for a different national or ethnic group. Sessions have been arranged for migrants from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Africa and the Middle-East among others.
Aids Control Project staff also report that the matrix sessions, which are arranged for former addicts who have attended rehabilitation programmes, continue to be well attended. Several former addicts are meeting with volunteers and DPF staff on a regular basis.
Kindergarten celebrates Buddhist Lent
The kindergarten celebrated the Buddhist festival of Khao Pansa with a parade through the community. Khao Pansaa is the start of Buddhist 'Lent' the traditional time for young men to enter the monkhood and for monks to confine themselves to a single temple for three months. It is a Thai tradition for large carved candles to be paraded through the streets at Khao Pansaa time, a tradition that the Duang Prateep Kindergarten keeps going in Klong Toey slum. Young and old joined the procession arranged by the Duang Prateep Kindergarten.
Women's Network formed
Last month three hundred women from twenty-four communities came together to organise a women's network under the auspices of the Duang Prateep Foundation. The object of the network is to get women more involved in problem solving and more active in their communities. At the first meeting, future objectives were discussed and a committee was formed. At a second meeting, to coincide with Mothers Day in August, the group organised some clean-up activities in their community and held a panel discussion about raising children who have health problems.
Waffles to raise money for DPF
The Landmark Hotel on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok is raising money for the Duang Prateep Foundation, through the sale of Belgian style waffles from now till the end of December. For every purchase of a twenty-five baht waffle, five baht will be donated to the Duang Prateep Foundation.
NEWS FROM THAILAND
Aids remains leading killer in country
Last month, the UN reported that Aids remains Thailand's leading cause of death, with one in every 100 of the 63.6 million population being infected, despite well-funded and comprehensive prevention programmes. The UN credited Thailand for its prevention programmes, which reduced the number of annual infections from 143,000 in 1991 to 29,000 in 2001. However, the report pointed out that Aids remained the country's leading cause of death. Concern was raised that the epidemic could break out of its current pattern and spread further unless prevention efforts were adapted to changing circumstances. Thais remained prone to high-risk behaviour, including drug use by injection and sex without protection.Babies born to HIV-positive mothers being saved
Babies born to HIV-positive mothers in Thailand are now being saved, thanks to a mix of increasingly affordable medications. Without preventive treatment, one in three infants born to HIV-positive mothers become infected during the last months of pregnancy, during labour, or through breast feeding. But the risk of beginning life infected with HIV for such babies born in Thailand has decreased from an average of 30 per cent just a few years ago to only two per cent today, thanks to a collaborative research team of Thai, French, and American physicians and public health professionals.
In Thailand, almost 20,000 HIV-infected women become pregnant each year and if there is no preventive treatment, 7,000 children may become infected. The study is claimed to be unique for its searching for the point where anti-retroviral drugs become most effective, and thus contributing to cutting costs and making treatment more accessible to the neediest patients.
In the new procedure, from the 34th week onward, mothers are treated with a combination of AZT (500mg) and 3TC (150mg) every 12 hours until the onset of labour. After that they are given the drugs every three hours until delivery. To prevent virus transmission via mother's milk, breast-feeding is not permitted. During the first four weeks after birth, babies are also given AZT syrup every six hours.
The procedure is useful for Thailand and other developing countries, both because of the comparatively low cost and because many women do not seek pre-natal advice until shortly before giving birth, so their HIV status is often only discovered when pregnancy is already well advanced.
Drug problems spreading
The Drug Prevention and Suppression Centre chaired by national police chief Pol Gen Sant Sarutanont reported last month that drug problems were increasing across Bangkok. The centre's 2002 report found the spread of drugs in the city's 50 districts had worsened. A total 590 out of 1,628 communities were reported to have drug problems. Of these, 19 communities were in Klong Toey district, home to the most serious drug problems. Another 296 communities were described as having serious drug problems and 275 as having less serious problems.
Princess gives push to anti-drugs campaign
Princess Ubolratana will spearhead a new anti-drug programme to encourage addicts to come out voluntarily for free treatment and rehabilitation, and non-addict youngsters to apply for membership of a drug-free club. The "To Be Number One" campaign was launched last month by the Public Health Ministry.
The project has two parts. The first part, called "Drug Addicts, Raise Your Hand!," encourages addicts wanting to kick the habit to apply for treatment under the project. The second, "To Be Number One Club", is aimed at keeping youngsters away from drugs. The princess will go on field trips in some areas to recruit drug addicts to the programme.
The princess said the club's activities would emphasise a positive approach by giving youngsters other alternatives to a lifestyle with drugs. The princess called on everyone in Thai society to help solve the drug problem, and not to look at young addicts as trouble-makers. Drug addiction, she said, was a kind of mental illness, which was difficult for patients to overcome on their own. Addicts needed support from parents, medical workers and communities to help them kick the habit, the princess said.
Poorer health forcing Thais to spend more on medicines
Thai people are getting sicker according to a national health survey which showed that last year each family spent nearly 300 baht a month on medical costs. The survey was conducted by the National Statistical Bureau (NSB) before the 30-baht medical care scheme was expanded nationwide in October last year.
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said the goal of the government's universal health coverage policy in its second year will emphasise three factors of health promotion: physical exercise and proper diet, reduction of health-threatening diseases, and development of medical services. She said the NSB survey from August to October 2001, showed that a large number of Thais still suffered health problems, and that each family had spent 3% of its overall expenses for medical treatment, or about 296 baht a month.
TB spreading fast
Last month medical academics expressed concern about the rising number of tuberculosis cases, as well as the rapid spread of the disease, particularly in prisons and crowded communities. Over the past 10 years the number of people infected with TB has been on the rise and more than 14 million Thais have been diagnosed as being TB-positive, about 12 per cent of whom are Aids patients. Furthermore, the number of infected people is increasing by about 100,000 every year. The spread of TB is very rapid in overpopulated areas, with high population density, poverty and drug abuse being key factors that quicken the spread. In the past, TB was found to be spread mostly among older people in rural areas, but now the pattern has changed with more working people in urban areas being found to have the disease.
Most poverty problems not hard to eradicate
Most poverty problems could be overcome within 10 years if the government, grassroots communities and non-governmental organisations learn to cooperate, the country's chief development planner said last month.
Chakramon Phasukvanich, the National Economic and Social Development Board chief, said the goal could be achieved if state agencies put effective measures in place and get full cooperation. The government would meet half way with local people and NGOs in raising as many Thais as possible above the poverty line in 10 years.
The state would provide basic utilities, health care, education and transport systems. At the same time communities should be allowed to decide for themselves what should be done to improve living standards.
"Problems should be solved from bottom-up, not top-down,'" Mr Chakramon said.
Economic growth may climb to 5%
Thailand's economic policy planners have revised upward their economic growth projections for this year to 4.55 per cent, based on projected recoveries in electronics and petrochemical exports in the second half of this year. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) Secretary General Jakramont Phasukvanich said the economic think tank had previously forecast full year economic growth of 3.54 per cent. But after tracking export cycles, the NESDB now believes that the growth rate will be 4.55 per cent.
The Finance Ministry's website also indicated that it expects economic growth to reach at least 4.5 per cent this year. In the second quarter, which ended June 30, the economy grew 5 per cent compared to the same period last year, driven largely by exports, tourism and the construction sector, the Finance Ministry's Fiscal Policy Office said. The office added that it had revised upwards its full year growth projection from 3.7 per cent to 4.5 per cent.
World Bank praises Social Investment Fund's performance
Months before it winds up, the Social Investment Fund (SIF) has won high praise from its creditor, the World Bank. It was reported last month that the World Bank was impressed with the smooth and transparent way the fund was run.
The US$120-million fund was set up in 1997 to ease the social impact of the economic crash, the fund closes in October. More than 12 million people had benefitted from finance approved by the fund. As of June 18 this year, more than 3.8 billion baht or 83% had been disbursed. The SIF has not only helped ease the impact of the crash, it has also strengthened communities and brought them together.
Unions attack short-term job contracts
Unions are upset about the increasing popularity among employers of hiring workers on short-term contracts.
Short-term contracts are popular among garment, petroleum, automobile and plastic manufacturers, which results in workers being denied pay and conditions to which they should be entitled. In many automobile factories, about 40-60% of workers were hired on a short-term basis.
Short-term contracts allowed employers to exploit the law by withholding compensation or welfare benefits from workers hired for less than 120 days. Some employers had allegedly asked workers to fill out resignation forms before they were hired. Some told workers they would get permanent jobs with better welfare benefits if they worked hard during the period. Many short-term workers work as if they are iron men in the hope for permanent jobs as promised by employers.
Thailand slips four places on UNDP index
After making good progress over the past decade, Thailand has dropped four places to 70th on a UN Development Programme index ranking 173 countries according to life expectancy, levels of education and per capita income. The Human Development Report ranked Thailand fourth in Southeast Asia behind Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.