Over 1,500 participate at kindergarten sports day
Last month over 1,500 children and guardians took part in the Duang Prateep Foundation's sports day for kindergartens affiliated to the Duang Prateep Foundation. A total of eight kindergartens took part in the event, which was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bangkok South. Sean Brady, the president of the rotary club was guest of honour and formally opened the sports day. Other supporters included students from Ramkhamhaeng and Assumption universities, who assisted with the administration of the event, and the Merchant Court Hotel who donated some snacks. The sports took place on the grounds of Nonsi Wittaya School.
The day was full of colour, excitement and noise, with young and old competing to the best of their abilities in a sporting fashion. There were cheerleader groups, there were many different kinds of races for both the children and the guardians and there was also tug-of-war. At the end of the day there were plenty of exhausted children and parents.
The photos show some of the action at the Sports Day
There were other special events for children to mark the end of the calendar year. One annual highlight is the Christmas party at the British Embassy Social Club, the Queen Vic. This year ten children from the children's centre in Locks 1,2,3 of Klong Toey Slum joined with children of British Embassy staff at the party, where they were entertained by a magician, were treated to sumptuous meal and were delighted with a visit from Santa Claus.
Donation for lab for hearing impaired children
Last month staff from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Jaiyos visited the Duang Prateep Foundation to donate 316,000 to be used on a sound laboratory for children attending the Special Education Project for Hearing Impaired Children. The money had been raised by Deloitte employees and management, with the company matching every baht raised by staff through fund-raising activities.
The sound lab will enable the children to record and listen to their speaking efforts and show a visual record of their speech on the screen. The new facility will be a great teaching for helping the hearing-impaired children with their speech patterns. It is likely that the formal opening of the new facility will be sometime soon after the start of the new academic year in May.
The photo shows Niti Jungnitnirundr (3rd right) Jamie Hunter (2nd right) and Laksami Chaithongsri (right) from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Jaiyos making a donation to DPF Secretary General Prateep Ungsongtham Hata (2nd left) and DPF Australian volunteer Mark Bennis. With them are some of the children who attend the Special Education Project.
Nithan Caravan at World Scout Jamboree
Staff from Nithan Caravan were busy at the end of December and beginning of January at the World Scout Jamboree, which took place at a naval base near Pattaya on the coast east of Bangkok.
Six staff and volunteers from Nithan were at the jamboree site for almost three weeks, with the actual jamboree running for 12 days. Nithan Caravan were performing every morning and afternoon throughout the duration of the camp. As well as performing, they were giving lessons in the use of puppets for drama. Untypically for Nithan, they had to perform and work in English for this international event. It was a busy period for Nithan, but they enjoyed the interaction with scouts from all around the world.
Equipment for the disabled from Canada to Bangkok
A large donation of equipment for the disabled arrived at the Duang Prateep Foundation last month from British Columbia in Canada. The donation was coordinated by long time Duang Prateep Foundation benefactor Sue Holloway, with the assistance of many others in Canada, Hong Kong and Thailand.
The equipment came from the Mount Newton Centre on Vancouver Island. Three airlines provided a free freight service for the equipment. Air BC flew everything from Victoria to Vancouver, Air Canada flew the equipment on from Vancouver to Hong Kong and Thai Airways provided the last leg from Hong Kong to Bangkok.
In total there were 119 items for the disabled in the containers, including 14 wheelchairs, 50 walkers, 9 pairs of crutches and 26 canes. The Duang Prateep Foundation will distribute all the equipment from Canada to disabled and elderly slum dwellers.
For many people with mobility problems, the provision of a wheelchair, a walker or a cane can transform their lives, giving a fresh freedom to move around independently. Coordinating the collection of the equipment and making arrangements with the three airlines was a time-consuming process but the work has proved well worthwhile.
The photo shows Mrs. Pat Berger North (right) of the Mount Newton Centre with Dan, her assistant (centre) and Mr. Badger Berger North, her husband (left), with some of the equipment which had been collected over the last year for donation to the Duang Prateep Foundation.
Outing for New Life Project youngsters
Last month the seventy youngsters undergoing rehabilitation from drugs at the New Life Project for Boys in Chumphon Province went on a one-day outing to Ranong Province. The youngsters visited temples and natural features in the West Coast province.
A new dormitory at the Chumphon New Life Project is now nearing completion and will be opened in March, prior to being used from April onwards. The dormitory will provide a home for 80 youngsters and will help to reduce the long list of people waiting for a place at the project.
Community meetings and camps
In December, eighty community leaders and youth group leaders went away with Duang Prateep Foundation staff for a two-night stay in Chonburi Province. The aim of the meeting was to review work in 2002 and plan activities and topics of interest for 2003.
The Sponsorship Section took twenty families on a two day camp to Nakhon Nayok. The purpose of the camp was to bring families close together and discuss aspects of child raising. There were also craft activities taught, which the whole family could join together doing and hopefully use to boost family income levels.
The Fathers and Mothers School, which was set up last year by the Aids Control Project, arranged meetings with youth groups in different communities. A total of roughly eighty adults and eighty youngsters met in ten different community sessions, to discuss matters of common concern and how to solve problems. Topics such as refuse, drugs and floods were raised for discussion. The Aids Control Project staff hope to spread the dialogue between parents and youngsters to other slum communities. They also hope to build on the initial dialogue to get young and old working together in their communities.
News from Thailand
King urges national war against drugs
Last month His Majesty the King used his annual birthday address to call for a national war on drugs. The King expressed his concern about burgeoning problems related to drugs and the difficulties facing authorities involved in suppression operations.
The drugs issue appeared to grow more serious by the day, costing the state and taxpayers huge amounts of money, he said.
Plan to declare Klong Toey a "crisis area" wins backing
The National Environment Board agrees with an immediate plan to declare Klong Toey District a "crisis area" for three years in a move to sweep illegal storehouses of toxic chemicals. When the declaration takes effect, state officials will be authorised to inspect any building suspected of stocking dangerous substances close to a residential area.
The plan was proposed in the wake of a fire that razed an illegal insecticide plant which also released poisonous gases in the air and destroyed 22 houses in Rim Tang Rot Fai community in Klong Toey early in November. Chemical leaks also polluted waters in the nearby sewers. Clean-up operations took days to remove soil contaminated with toxic chemicals.
Villagers had once warned officials to inspect the plant but they could not go ahead because they lacked a warrant to do so. If it is a designated zone, officials can immediately check any suspected buildings without holding a court warrant.
Fence to keep land free of determined squatters
The Port Authority of Thailand is spending 10 million baht to fence out squatters from part of its Klong Toey land while it prepares the area for commercial development. PAT had hired engineers from the military to build a fence which would permanently keep out encroachers. It was reported that when the fence is complete, the authority would take tough action to relocate the remaining families living on the site.
City hall aims to house all low-income people by 2006
Bangkok city hall will set up a new office to oversee housing development for low-income residents. The Office of Housing Development will be established next year to provide cheap plots, apartments or houses for the lower-end market and to people evicted from their land due to city projects.
The Office of Housing Development would be commercially-oriented, like the city administration's market and pawnshop offices. The new office would complement works of the community development office, which is working to improve the well-being of city residents, especially people who have been evicted and those in slums. It would help deal with households who have encroached on government or private land, City hall believes that under the new office and scheme, there will be housing for all low-income Bangkok residents by 2006.
UNICEF reports 21,000 children HIV-positive
Last month UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2003 report pronounced that about 21,000 Thai children aged 14 and below are HIV+, a further 290,000 Thai children have lost one or both of their parents to Aids.
Former prime minister and Unicef Ambassador for Thailand Anand Panyarachun said the time had come for another major campaign to raise people's understanding of the disease, as many people still treat sufferers as undesirable. Drug abuse, sexual violation, and cruelty are also important problems facing Thai children, said Anand.
Getting adults to listen to children and have inter-generational dialogue is also a priority for UNICEF.
Anand said the efforts to not only focus on encouraging children to participate and share their views but also seek to change the mind-set of Thai adults to be more open to new practices have become priorities for Unicef.
"We must begin with parents. They should allow children to air their views. Thai teachers also tend to have inferiority complexes. They certainly do not know everything but want everything that they say to seem right. Indeed, they can benefit by listening to children" Anand said.
Gamini Abeyesekera, Unicef representative to Thailand, said Thai children are finding that having their ideas in the media is a way of changing the mind-set of adults into accepting their participation more.
Drugs rehabilitation scheme set for launch in 13 provinces
The country's first comprehensive drug-rehabilitation scheme has taken another step closer to being launched after the government approved a 90-million-baht budget for community-based projects in 13 provinces. As a direct result of the recently promulgated Drug Rehabilitation Act, addicts under the scheme would be treated as patients rather than criminals. It is intended that local communities will play a vital role in the anti-drug effort, from prevention to rehabilitation, in conjunction with the Probation Department and the Health Promotion Foundation.
Bangkok is among the thirteen provinces selected for the initial phase of the scheme. At least 26 model communities, two in each selected province, will serve as designated rehabilitation centres in the trial period, which will last for three years. The government will later establish similar communities nationwide.
Drug users down by 700,000 on last survey
The defence minister reported last month that the number of known drug users now stood at about 2.5 million, down 700,000 on previous figures. It was also reported that drug use among young people had also declined. Of the 2.5 million drug addicts, 300,000 were school and university students, down from 600,000. The government rated a rehabilitation programme for young drug addicts a success and would continue funding it as only 20% of participants had returned to drugs.
National Human Rights Commission complains at drugs suppression effort
The National Human Rights Commission says the drugs suppression effort is being waged at the expense of gross human rights violations, including torture and the summary execution of suspects, most of them minority hilltribes people.
The commission complained about an early morning raid by 200 police on a Hmong village in Chiang Mai which discovered 68 methamphetamine tablets. A commissioner, said the raid was heavy-handed and trampled on the rights of a minority group.
Relatives of people arrested in other drug cases had filed complaints with the commission accusing police of conducting illegal searches and imprisoning suspects without evidence. Police had also been accused of torturing and killing hilltribe villagers in supposed "extra-judicial shootings". More than 100 complaints had been filed by relatives and suspects arrested on drug charges. Most complainants alleged police beat suspects to extract confessions.
Air much cleaner than decade ago
Air quality in Thailand has improved significantly in the past decade according to a World Bank environmental report.
In the Thailand Air Quality Environment Monitor 2002, environmental engineers from the World Bank found that lead, dust and carbon monoxide in Bangkok and other urban centres had decreased to an acceptable level.
The bank praised the government's policy on phasing out leaded gasoline, improving diesel quality and using clean technology to reduce pollution.
The exception to the good news is the high level of dust with a diameter of less than ten micro-metres, which comes mainly from diesel engine emissions and open fires. In Bangkok fine particle dust levels have been recorded at 120 microgrammes per cubic metre, above the standard of 100 microgrammes per cubic metre. The tiny specks of dust can enter the respiratory system, causing allergies, lung cancer and heart disease.
Conflict to intensify, say NGOs
Non-governmental organisations say they are on a collision course with the prime minister and the government is in for long and intensifying battles this year.
The warning came after harsh police action put an end to a rally in Hat Yai by opponents of the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline. The various branches of NGOs banded together to demand the government be brought to account. They plan a signature campaign to oust Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a petition to the Senate for an inquiry into the melee.
Mr Thaksin disagreed, standing by his principle of upholding "righteousness". Some rotten eggs among the NGO members had given the whole network a bad name, he said. Mr Thaksin claimed the protesters had provoked the Hat Yai clash and that accounts of what happened had been distorted by the media
Pilot project to improve worker skills
The Labour Ministry has started a pilot project to set up schools at workplaces to help improve workers' skills in a bid to increase Thailand's competitiveness. A pilot project will be launched at an industrial estate, in Chon Buri, and then expanded to other provinces. Employers joining the project will be asked to provide places for study, teaching equipment and textbooks.