THE FIRST In 1989, 19 young girls aged 12-14 were assisted
by the newly established
OF Daughters Education Program to
attend high school. They were all from poor MaeSai
HUNDREDS families and were at risk
of entering the sex industry. The following stories belong
to three 20-year-old women who were among DEP's initiates.
Pimjai was scared when Sompop Jantraka, DEP's director, first
came to her village. She'd heard the DEP project was funded
by a Japanese agency, and she was afraid, like many of her
friends, that it was a trick - that Sompop was really an agent
with plans to sell her in Japan. The then 13-year-old was
also unsettled by Sompop's bohemian appearance: long hair,
moustache, and flowing beard. However, her parents insisted
that she join DEP, reassured that four other girls in her
village were also going to stay at DEP's hostel. Pimjai completed
three years of secondary education with DEP help and then,
along with a few other DEP girls, opted to enter a six-month
hotel training course. Now 20, she has been working as a waitress
at the Shangri-La Hotel for six months and using her earnings
to fund a home study course offered by Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng
University. She has just completed her first year and expects
to earn her bachelor's degree in 2000. She is majoring in
mass communications and hopes to work in broadcast media.
"If it weren't for DEP, I wouldn't be here today," She says,
a confident smile lighting her face.
Tippawan's mother and stepfather own
a noodle shop and farm rice. Making ends meet seemed more
important than sending her to secondary school, especially
when so many local girls her age were working. "Before, people
didn't see the importance of studying," she explains. In1989,
when Tip was 12, her mother was pursued to allow her to continue
her studies with DEP help. "I was so glad," Tip says, "because
I wanted to continue with my studies; being so young, of course
I didn't gave any skills to do real work." Tip completed junior
high school with the assistance of a DEP scholarship. In addition
to the standard government curriculum, she was taught about
social issues, public speaking, and self esteem. After finishing
grade 9, she worked briefly in an office and used the money
she saved to travel with a friend "to see something new."
She says. She returned to DEP three years ago, first working
as a staff assistant and then moving on to her current position
as a preschool teacher. "Ideally would like to help Sompop
with his research - if only I had the time." The time constraint
to which she refers is her family; her husband (Tippawan's
high-school sweetheart) and a two-year old son. "I would like
to stay on at DEP. Most of my friends quit
school after grade 6, and a lot of them went on to be prostitutes.
This was basically the only alternative outside of the home.
Sompop helped me avoid that fate, and now I want to return
the favor in any way I can." She goes on to explain that "DEP
has given me the opportunity to learn things that kids in
regular schools donft learan. Now I know about problems like
child labour and prostitution. At DEP we learned the importance
of being responsible for ourselves and, as a result, I think
that we were more mature than other kids. Most children and
young adults can't discuss or don't really understand these
issues at all."
Sukunrat's is an often repeated story. Born into poor, landress
family in Chiang Kong, near the Laos/Thai border, she had
a traumatic childhood. Her parents divorced just after she
was born, and several years later, her sister drowned. Sukunrat
attended the first three years of primary school before being
sent to live with her father in Mae Sai. As with many Thai
farming families, the father could not afford for Sukunrat
to continue her education after primary school.
Sukunrat was
at risk of being lured by sex industry agents with stories
of glamour, wealth, and big city life. The alternative for
a young, uneducated girl was poorly paid laboring position.
When Sompop heard of Sukunrat's plight, he visited her school,
consulted with her teacher and father, and offered her a scholarship.
She completed three years of high school and learnt, through
DEPfs program, about social issues and life skills that would
protect her from potential exploitation. At 16, Sukunrat joined
the three-year Youth Leader ship Training Program. With a
combination of English language skills and experience afforded
by her training at YLTP, Sukunrat, then 19, was invited to
attend an international conference in the United States of
America in 1996 to represent to Thai youth. When she returned
to Thailand, she enrolled in the Pan Pacific Hotel Training
program at the Grand Hyatt Erawan. She excelled and landed
a job as a receptionist in a five-star hotel in Chiang Rai.
Last month (September 1997) Sukunrat was involved in a motorcycle
accident. The thoughts of all her DEP sisters were with her,
as she fought for recovery in the Intensive Care Unit, unconscious
and with head injuries. Thankfully, Sukunrat is now recovering
at home in Mae Sai and has made rapid progress. We all wish
her speedy recovery.
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TAILORED Fifteen kilometers from Mae Sai, in a small, abandoned
school building, live sixty young
FOR women working at gaining
a better future. In May this year DEPDC's vocational training
TAINING project moved. The girls and their teachers now live
and learn together in old classrooms and roughly built bamboo
dormitories. Previously many of these girls lived at DEPDC
sites across the province. As sites were amalgamated, the
need for more room became apparent. The girls are developing
strong bonds and greater self-confidence. "At the other location,
the girls didn't go to regular school like the other kids,
which was bad for their self-esteem," explains Pranee, the
program Coordinator. "Now, they have their own program exclusively
for vocational training so what they learn is tailored to
them." The girls study subjects such as sewing, fashion design,
weaving, typing, Thai, English, Japanese, beauty care, baking,
and life development skills. They are also enrolled in the
non-formal education system which enable them to achieve a
basic Thai education. "Being here is a great improvement over
the old location; now we have so much more space, and independence,"
says Pranee. "Being on our own has fostered a greater sense
of teamwork for both staff and the girls. Our goal is to teach
girls confidence and tangible skills so they can return to
their communities to work and use their experience to inspire
others." Lengths of fabric are needed for the sewing classes.
Donations of funds or of easy to sew cotton would be greatly
appreciated. A total of 1000 meters is required per year ($U.S.
1500). Requests to fabric wholesalers on our behalf would
be also be appreciated.
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OMELETTE "Quick,
run up the road and buy some eggs." Pam sends two small girls
off on their
FOR bikes with a 20 Baht note. The same scene,
witnessed at dinnertime in a hundred
LUNCH different countries... only Pam is a teacher in Thailand
and she's in the middle of cooking her pupils lunch. Pam runs
a small school for displaced children in Mae Sai, the school
had up to 80 young primary aged students. With the demise
of that organization, DEPDC stepped in to help. Placing Pam
aged 20, as teacher and providing funds to maintain the service
to the 18 children unable to find alternatives. The school
operated from a small garage-like room not far from one of
the unofficial border crossing. Most children are from minority
groups living on both sides of the border. Pam explains that
the children are there for different reasons: they donft have
formal nationality status, are illiterate and uneducated and
much older than children starting at government schools or
don't have the funds for the uniforms, fees, books and other
cost of formal education. The small, one teacher school has
been running for three months, teaching basic reading, writing
and life skills. From the energy in the classroom it's clear
the children enjoy school and appreciate it as an opportunity
theyed never otherwise have. One girl is engrossed in copying
her work from a textbook; others are playing knucklebones.
On the notice board are pinned cute, colored-in drawing of
rabbits and sheep. A money box in the shape of a blonde-haired,
story book character is used for a lesson in economics: the
children encouraged to bank the few Baht theyfd otherwise
spend on sweets. Cooking is an activity the older children
participate in and learn, plus itfs a way of ensuring all
the children are well fed. Most, but not all children bring
rice and any other food their families can contribute and
DEPDC funds the main dish - today itfs omelets. Pam, herself
from the Burmese Shan ethnic group, enjoys working with the
children. A graduate of DEPDCfs Youth Leadership Training
Program, she completed the Pan Pacific Hospitality course
before deciding shefd like to teach. It was while she was
returning from the hospitality course in Bangkok that the
police pulled her off the bus and detained her in jail - having
no identity papers means she canft travel without formal permission.
Not having Thai identity also means she will fin d it difficult
to obtain formal teaching qualifications. Pamfs skills as
a teacher are obvious when you see how eagerly her pupils
come to school and pick up their books to learn.
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"UNITED WE STAND" Mekong Study Centre - building networks
in the economic quadrangle.
A lesson shared is lesson learned.
"We should never undervalue experience," says Sompop Jantraka,
director of DEPDC and the newly established Mekong Study Centre,
based at DEPDC's headquarters in Mae Sai. The Mekong Study
Centre is Sompop's way of reaching out to other groups working
against child exploitation in the Upper Mekong Basin area.
His experience, he says, along with that of the staff and
researchers at DEPDC, is there to be shared and used. "If
we seriously want to do our best to combat child prostitution
and child labour, we must support other organization working
in the field, in order for them to become as strong as possible,
as quickly as possible," he says. Thailand, Burma, Laos and
Southern China have been grouped in the Mekong Study Centre's
zone, as parties in the "economic quadrangle". Massive development
is planned for the Upper Mekong River Basin area before the
year 2000, and these changes will impact more than 200 ethnic
minority groups who will soon be forced to adapt their traditional
lifestyle in response to the developing economy. When cities
are built in place of land once used for food crops; when
money is required in order to buy food to live, one inevitable
response is that more children be sent to work. The children's
penance for this enforced 'modern' lifestyle is slavery. History
has a way of repeating itself. Anticipating that other organizations
working in these four neighbor countries will want to share
their knowledge and experience, Sompop has organized a Protecting
Children's Rights seminar, to be held at DEPDC between November
17-20. "United we stand" is his philosophy in instigating
the seminar. Recognizing that a cohesive network of organizations
can yield more influence than any organization alone, Sompop
hopes to build relationships, giving smaller organizations
greater clout, particularly at government level, to help influence
their country's policies. Most countries currently forbid
the use of child labour and child prostitution, but the steps
taken fall short of meeting the needs of exploited children.
The presences of strongly united organization working for
the rights of children are vital. Already the MSC is involved
in various research projects in the area including identifying
high-risk children and the collection of information on the
economic, cultural and social situation of high-risk communities.
Apart from researching and reporting, the MSC will analyze
development policies and their effects on the quality of children's
lives - particularly pertaining to child labour, prostitution,
drugs and health - and will exchange information; built networks
and aggressively work towards eliminating child prostitution.
As well as NGO's and professional working directly in the
field of child labour, several academics and international
funding organization have been invited to attend the seminar,
in the hope that it will encourage greater cooperation between
all parties. "I would like these organizations to experience
something of our lives in order to understand how we need
to operate," Sompop says.
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