- Basic educational programs which stress the development
of critical judgement, health knowledge and sex education.
- A scholarship program aimed at keeping 100 at risk girls
and boys in school for a minimum of six years in order to
improve their skills and build up their self-esteem.
- A shelter for counseling, psychological support, and legal
services.
Objectives
This program is a preventive program for girls and boys aged 10 to
23 years old and their families who will be dehumanized by a slavery
trade which is well organized and connected around the region, therefore,
we seek alternatives for children at risk. This program aims to :
- Prevent girls at risk from being lured and
forced into sex-related industry, hence reducing child prostitution
and sexploitation in various villages of Chiang Rai, Lampang, Nan
and Phayao Provinces.
- Empower the girls and their families to develop practical skills
and right attitudes to sustain and improve their quality of life.
-Initiate revolving funds to provide a village-managed credit source.
-Build up a network of people and non-governmental organizations
to combat the trafficking of women and children for sex related
industries.
-Encourage the Thai government to achieve its recent announcement
to eliminate the trafficking of child labour and slavery trade.
Education Support
With the assistance of donors in Thailand, Yokohama YMCA, YMCA of
USA, other YMCAs overseas and the Y's Men International, the program
has been able to give scholarships to children between 10-22 years
old who live in various villages of Phayao and nearby provinces. The
allotment of scholarships is done in coordination with the community
leaders and volunteer teachers in each locality. Since 1993, a total
of 1050 scholarships have been awarded on an urgent basis to children
attending schools of different levels, collage and university.
Children Development
As Physical care and formal education are not enough to lead to the
development of a psychologically healthy child, the project organized
a workshop on Youth and Tomorrow which consisted of 5 small subgroups
of target children. The theme of the workshop was composed of two
broad subject:Youth and Self-esteem and the Importance of Family.
The aim of the workshop was to address specific problems of target
children and then help each child to think logically, communicate
needs and feelings, develop a conscience and to sort out perceptions.
Apart from attaching importance to education, training and learning
to develop the potentialities of the children, the key to development
of children and families is a good environment. This type of environment
helps to create self-consciousness and to make the children and families
realize the value of themselves, the importance of the family as an
institution and the intelligence of the local communities. Only then
will the children have an opportunity to choose a useful and happy
living according to their personal conditions.
To provide such a good environment, the program received special support
from the Yokohama YMCA and Mr. Uthane Taejapaiboon, Bangkok YMCA Advisory
Board Member, in setting up the Project center, "Phayao Center",
at Tambon Pin, Ampur Dokkamtai, Phayao Province.
Building Facilities
So far the Center has been provided :
-One multi-purpose
pavilion built with assistance of a Youth Work Camp Phayao-Yamanashi
Prefecture under the coordination of Yamanashi YMCA, It is the
first building of the center.
-Three houses which can accommodate
8-10 children in each house. These houses were all constructed
through Work Camps by different volunteer groups from concerned
Christian in Singapore under the coordination of the Girls' Brigade,
the Yokohama YMCA and the Yamanishi Prefecture respectively.
-As the number of
Children increased and with the need of a center for training
purposes, a two-storey building was constructed under a grant
from the Japanese Government through the Japanese Embassy in Thailand.
It can be used for both accommodation and skill training purposes.
Parental involvement in the Community Development
Process and Initiation of Revolving Fund
Parental involvement in training programs is aimed at economic self-sufficiency,
nutrition, primary health care, and community development.
The program held various activities to develop the ability and learning
in different fields for children and parents of 50 families in Ampur
Dokkamtai and Ampur Jun of Phayao Province. Training was given in
standards of behaviour in group living, basic factors in boosting
production, study and observation tours, exchanges of living experience,
mixed farming, and laying plans for developing themselves and their
families. These activities were a continuing effort to awaken the
thinking of the target groups to raise their levels of understanding,
values and morality simultaneously. Experts in various subjects joined
to set questions and offer viewpoints, so as to encourage the children
and their families to plan the solutions of their basic problems in
the future.
From the seminar on "The Development of Children
and Families", it could be seen that the target groups had a
very limited understanding of the process of child development and
planning for family development. More than 85% of the families considered
"receiving" as the main point of development work, while
several other families regarded increasing income for the household
as essential. The importance of education, especially for girls, to
the process of child and family development was considered minimal
or irrelevant. The consecutive training sessions are hold on various
subjects, including mixed farming free of poisonous substances. Then
a concluding seminar was held to sum up the lessons learned together
with the target groups. It was found that there was greater degree
of awakening among many families and children under the scholarship
program.
As a concrete result of the concluding seminar,
seven activity groups were set up to promote self-reliance, namely
:
1. Mushroom Growing Group
2. Fish, Frog & Pig Raising Group
3. Crafts and Embroidery Group
4. Organic Farming Group
5. Food & Herb Processing Group
However, the above mentioned activity groups have
a diversified number of challenges to achieve, though they were confronted
with problems concerning soil, water supply and specialized knowledge.
In order to allow the self-reliance program to move ahead, the program
has allocated the support of three rais of land, consisting
of a field and two fish ponds, to the target groups. The project support
has given them opportunities to study, experiment and engage in group
activities, so that they can realize their potential to slove their
problems jointly. In addition, the program has also allocated an amount
of money as a revolving fund to be used in the group activities and
to encourage opportunities to seek additional income in the future.
A revolving fund aims to stimulate savings, provide
loans for individual families, and create capital for village development.
