OOY'S FIGHT As a participant
in the UNICEF funded Youth Leadership Training Program, Ooy
is
TO being
trained to be a community leader of the future. She is 18
years old, speaks
BE THAI three
languages and would like to work in the dramatic acts. She
is finishing secondary school on weekends and is involved
in a variety of activities building leader ship characteristics
and learning about Thai society, human rights and the media.
Along with the 20 other participants she leads DEP daughters'
activities, develops different forms of media(puppetry, drama,
newsletter) to convey information to children about the dangers
of child labour, AIDS, the sex trade and human rights. She
is currently working with an environmental organization in
Chiang Rai on a work experience placement for four months.
Ooy is denied the right to call herself a Thai citizen because
she was born into an Akha hill tribe and is unable to present
a certificate of her birth. Despite many attempts to wade
through the bureaucracy, she and her family are yet to able
to travel freely, vote or gain access to many of the rights
available to Thai citizens. "Although they say that all
men hold equal rights, in really is not true. "Say Ooy."
I donft understand why they would want to limit our rights
when we have helped the society we live in with intention
far truer than those who are only good with words. I want
the same rights as others. I want freedom of deeds and thoughts.
Although I am not Thai by raw. In my mind I am a Thai who
loves her country as much as anybody and will never do anything
to betray it.
Although I have been denied the right to
be Thai, I will not give up. I will keep on fighting
although I sometimes feel there is not hope." Ooy knows
that there any many people in the same situation as her family
but feels luckier than most as she can express herself clearly.
She has written to various authorities about this problem
including a popular columnist in the English language newspaper,
"Bangkok Post", who has twice called for action
to assist people like Ooy facing discrimination due to lack
of identity papers.
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CO-OPERAID CO-OPERAID,
Switzerland, has generously offered to sponsor the small
SPONSORS kindergarten
at DEP's Mae Sai site to allow it to improve the education
and
PRE-SCHOOL service
offered to over 50 local children every week day. The Education
and Development Program for Patak Children is run by DEP graduates
who know work for their community, teaching and caring for
children every weekday. The school was originally an inform
day care centre for children who were collecting at the Mae
Sai DEPDC site as they had no school or community centre to
go to and their parents were working all day. It has now become
a structured school teaching Thai, literacy, mathematics,
songs, games, dancing, sport, cooking, hygiene and socialization
skills. These children, aged from 2 to 14, live in the nearby
village of Patak and are from the Thai lue, Lua and Akha ethnic
groups. Their families have moved from Burma to Thailand without
citizenship or residency status in this country. They also
have problems with language, poverty and potential exploitation.
Due to their lack of money and status parents are often unable
to send their children to schools and supply them with expensive
text books and uniforms. The school has been approved by the
provincial government and the children can be accredited with
formal certificates by the school. Co-opraid is a small fundraising
organization that works with project partners in seven countries
in Asia and Africa. It rules on individual donations and recently
received a grant from the Swiss government. The funds offered
to the school will pay a small salary to the three teachers
and improve the teaching AIDS and resources for the children.
They will provide milk and fruit for the children, text books,
paper and pencils, art materials and take the children on
excursions to surrounding places of interest. Previous funds
have allowed us to provide a building for the school and some
teaching AIDS but resources have been scarce. The generosity
of Co-operaid and it's donors will make a great contribution
towards the protection and education of many children.
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NATIONALITY The
Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities
AND prevents
children from being exploited through child labour or the
sex industry. DEPDC It provides scholarships, training, accommodation
and homes for many vulnerable young women living in northern
Thailand. This organization cares for children of a variety
of ethnic backgrounds including Thai, Burmese, Chinese and
several of the hill tribe groups living in the mountains of
Thailand and Burma. In working with vulnerable children and
communities, DEPDC director, Sompop Jantraka, and his staff
deal with many difficulties faced by these people on a daily
basis. They suffer from an active child exploitation trade,
extreme poverty, unemployment, the high incidence of HIV/AIDS
and of opium and heroin abuse. Less tragically but equally
problematic for many people in this region is the lack of
formal nationality status. Many people from ethnic minority
group are unregistered in their country of birth and have
no identity papers. They may have crossed the border as illegal
immigrants or been trafficked into exploitative labour or
the sex industry. Some belong to families that walked across
the mountain tops and were born in isolated villages. Many
of these people now suffer from discrimination and limitation
on their lifestyles. In Thailand, people without identity
papers are restricted in where they live, work and travel.
In the Mae Sai district they are not permitted to travel.
In the Mae Sai district they are not permitted to travel more
5 kilometers beyond the MaeSai/Tachilek border crossing. Police
patrol the roads, routinely stopping cars and buses to check
for illegal travelers. Many people risk detection and arrest
everyday. Stories of unfair and even abusive treatment of
girls attempting to repatriate after being trafficked encourages
district and covert action to return them home from Thai or
foreign cities. Many of these girls and women also face debt,
social obstruction, poverty and may bring back new children
with no formal nationality status. Many children of minority
groups, such as those attending the preschool at the DEPDC
site in Mae Sai, or many of the DEP daughters, born and bred
within this country, face discrimination and racism in the
wider community. Mandatory education is not enforced and there
are often difficulties accessing proper schools, resulting
in poorer exploitation is rampant. Access to public health
system is expensive and reports of non-Thai's being treated
badly in official institutions is common. Paying bribes and
fines to police when unable to produce ID cards on demand
is the norm and is expensive. For children without formal
identity the issues of poverty, lack of self determination
and vulnerability are increased. The thousands of children
sold or lured into child labour and the sex industry in Thailand
are further discouraged from escaping or terminating their
contacts. They are held against their will and live with the
fear of being turned over to the authorities if they misbehave
or caught and arrested if they escape. Sompop and staff attempt
to avoid much of this by assisting girls and their families
to collect date and raise funds to apply for citizenship.
In proving their place of birth and collecting appropriate
documents many people must pay official at each step of the
process. Incorrect information is frequently given and the
process becomes complex and difficult. DEPDC is now moving
into the near by countries of Burma and Laos, researching
the situation of children and setting up a network of people
wanting to fight child exploitation. By crossing international
borders a better understanding of these problems and therefore
of processes to address them can be gained. Meanwhile, without
the rights available to Thai citizens, residents without papers
may have a strong sense of cultural identity but exist in
a shadowy, ambiguous state of not belonging.
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MUSHROOM It's not
quite drawn in Mae Sai and the cool, dark night is host to
a silence heard at
GROWING
no other time. Despite the perfect sleeping conditions, staff
and girls of the Youth leader ship training program at DEPDC
are awake and preparing to travel the 15 km to an open fields
in a small village beside the Myanmar border. They are branching
out into a community development scheme growing chemical-free
mushrooms. The mushrooms are grown in bales of straw under
plastic and must be harvested daily for sale in the Mae Sai
morning market. The scheme intends to bring stafffs skill
and knowledge plus the girls work ethic to struggling community
that experience many problems often leading to poverty and
child exploitation. The project has set up growing facilities,
is teaching growing and harvesting techniques and marketing
skills. With time it is hoped that the village community will
take over this activity and develop it into a viable business.
Staff are currently applying for financial support to assist
the project in itfs early stages.
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FROM DAUGHTER Kingkao
was once a young shy teenager facing a tragic future. She
was at TO TEACHER risk of being sold into the sex trade agents
were most active in scouring northern Thai villages for poor
families with daughters. Instead she became one of the first
participants in the Daughters Education Program. In 1989 she
was 12 years old, living with her aunt and uncle and about
to finish primary school. Her village had already lost most
of it's young women to the sex industry and Kingkao was at
risk of joining them. Sompop Jantraka kept her and nineteen
other children away from brothels by paying for their schooling
and accommodation for the next three years . Like many others,
Kingkao married at 15 and left formal education, having child
18 months ago. She continued studying through the non-formal
weekend education system and is soon to finish secondary school.
Now aged 19, she is working as a teacher in the school for
young local children at the DEP Mae Sai site and hopes to
continue her part time the Chiang Rai Teacher College next
term. She loves working with the children at DEP and hopes
to one day be a qualified teacher. The transformation from
potential victim to competent, respected teacher of children
was possible because of the confidence instilled into DEP
daughters and Kingkao's own strength of character. While several
of her childhood friends have died of AIDS after working as
prostitutes, Kingkao is a healthy, intelligent mother, teacher
and role model. Having the opportunity to remain at school
and to work as a DEP staff member has meant that instead of
becoming another tragic static has become an example for other
young people and a future community leader.
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VIP VISIT Thailand's
former prime minister, His Excellency Anand Panyarachun, now
the ambassador for UNICEF Thailand, visited the Mae Sai site
of DEPDC on 13 January 1997. The visit allowed Mr. Anand the
chance to talk with children sponsored by UNICEF and to hear
their stories, thoughts and problems. Several girls representing
various DEPDC programs, Such as the Youth Leadership Training
program, Vocational training and the DEP scholarship program
addressed the delegation that included Mr. Anthony Hewett,
UNICEF Area Representative, De Kitiya Phomsadja Assistant
Project officer, UNICEF CEDC and Dr Saisuree Chutikul, senator
and advisor to the Parnament Secretary, office of the Prime
Minister. Girls who work in the streets of Mae Sai as beggars
or photo models were also present and given the chance to
talk about their concerns and problems. Mr. Anand listened
carefully to each child and was interested in their opinions
and comments. Also present for the occasion were the governor
of Mae Sai, several teachers from the Mae Sai Secondary School,
the Education Minister and local police. After the discussions
and a walk around the site, Mr. Anand and the girls posed
for photographers before contacting his tour of the region.
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Sompop's Word from director of DEPDC
Last year I was fortunate to visit many organization and individuals
in the United States of America, courtesy of United States
Information Service and the Us Embassy. This trip enabled
me to learn about the activities of many organizations in
the States and to see the concern for exploited children by
Americans. I also had the opportunity to share my own experience
in setting up the DEP program and to tell many interested
and encouraging people in Thailand and neighboring countries.
Since making contact I have been able to keep in touch and
elicit support from many of these people. Thank you to all
those who helped to make this a successful visit. One highlight
of my USA visit was the chance to locate Rebecca Perham who
was my Peace Corps Volunteer English teacher back in 1972
She has been a strong influence on my life since then and
I was happy to have the chance to meet her again. It feels
like returning to a mothers hugs! She has since become very
interested in our work at DEPDC and has been working to set
up contacts and help us to raise the issue of child exploitation
in the United States. She has spoken to groups an written
for newsletters on our behalf and her tireless work in greatly
appreciated. As DEPDC enters its eight year, there are many
changes ahead. The Thai government has increased the number
of scholarships for children to remain at school and we are
able to link more and more children into these scholarships.
Although there are never enough to go around we can now assist
more children, boys and girls, to remain in school instead
of entering the sex trade of other forms of exploitative labour.
Many of the 2000 cases presented during our recent selection
exercise are able to link into government or other forms of
scholarships. This allows DEPDC to concentrate its available
resources on those children already supported by us. We are
talking on another 70 girls into the vocational training project
and will be assisting many Chiang Rai families to find alternatives
to their children dropping out of school, meeting with parents,
teachers, monks and community leaders have shown us that the
number of children leaving the countryside to enter child
labour and to work in the sex industry is enormous. Many villages
have no young women left and drug abuse, HIV and poverty remain
major problems for many families and children are still bearing
the brunt of such hardship. Always struggling for resources,
we have decided to concentrate on becoming a referral point
for these families to link into existing, improved services.
In setting up the Mekong Study Centre for children I am able
to network with other people fighting child exploitation in
neighboring countries in the Mekong Basin. My research has
already uncovered some dedicated activists in Laos and I hope
to share my experience and research the situation of children
in both Burma and Southern China. These countries are now
experiencing problems that I began to fight in Thailand in
the 1980's. By sharing my knowledge and the experience of
DEP with others I hope that together we can all prevent many
children from the tragedy of entering brothels or seedy workhouses.
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