Overview
Once known as Siam, the Southeast Asian constitutional monarchy of Thailand is the only country in the region that has never been occupied by a European power. Myanmar (the former Burma), Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea border the country, which is the world’s 20th-most-populated.
Though agriculture provides an income for many Thais, earning a consistent living through farming is difficult because of an unpredictable climate and varied rainfall as well as poor soil conditions. With little income for family support, parents must make difficult choices. Children suffer from a lack of nutrition and little access to education. Regular health care is often neglected.
ChildFund has served children in Thailand since 1959.
Nourishing Children and Youth
ChildFund Thailand supports Early Childhood Development centers where young children receive nutritious meals and participate in cognitive development and early learning activities. Parents receive training in proper hygiene, food preparation and child care.
Our Breakfast for Kids campaign is a supplementary food program that helps children learn to make better food choices on an ongoing basis.
We also help children and their families create their own sources of food through our Food Safety Program in which small farms are created on school grounds. Children learn basic farming techniques using tools ChildFund provides, and the harvests are used to create free school lunches.
Education
So that more children can receive an education, we provide parents with school uniforms, shoes, learning materials, even transportation to and from school. For older children, we offer career development and youth-leader training to prepare them for a productive future.
A “mobile library” initiative trains children as librarians who travel from village to village each month. These traveling libraries provide books for children and their parents as well as story-telling sessions, puppet productions, art projects and creative writing assignments to help support basic educational efforts.
Health
Hope for a life out of poverty often starts with good health, so we regularly monitor children’s growth and provide them with basic health services such as dental care, immunizations and training on disease prevention, including AIDS.
We’re helping communities in remote areas have access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Water filters, safer latrines, clean water containers and cisterns, along with proper hygiene education, help reduce preventable diseases and conditions such as diarrhea and intestinal parasites.