Sem Pringpuangkeo Foundation

Background

Fund for Education Support to AIDS Orphans

It is well known that at present Thailand has the second largest number of HIV infected in Asia after India. The Thai Ministry of Public Health has reported that there are already 800,000 HIV infected in Thailand as a whole and over 30,000 who have full AIDS symptoms.

At present, many thousands of AIDS infected people are dying, especially in the upper northern regions of Thailand where the proportion of AIDS patients is highest.

Many of those who are infected by AIDS are of working age, just starting their families and often with small children, or with school age children. When parents lose their lives, the burden of supporting these children falls upon the grandparents or relatives who themselves are very poor or with low income.

The Communicable Disease Control Department of the Ministry of Public Health estimates that at present there are already 10,000 AIDS orphans and in the year 2000, or within a few years from now, there will be about 120,000 AIDS orphans in Thailand.

Being aware of the above situation, Dr. Sem Pringpuankeo, M.D., established the Sem Pringpuangkeo Foundation realising the need to find a way to ease the existing situation which will be a great problem to the society.

As the government and non-government agencies may not be able to solve this problem on a long-term basis, it is believed that with financial help from the public, practical and helpful solutions may be applied.

With your contribution, you could help to create a better quality of life for these orphans, to give them the opportunity of an education, in order to become productive members of the society in the future.

Return to the Sem Pringpuangkeo Foundation main page