Plan Thailand Progress Report 2009

A YEAR IN

THAILA09ND SUMMARY REPORT

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• Basic commodities like rice have risen in price making it harder for the poorest to get enough to eat

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• Just 64% of secondary-age children are enrolled in school

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• Promoting the rights and protection of children and improving their access to education

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GOOD REASONS why Plan works in Thailand

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• Increasing awareness of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases

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• Helping poor families to increase their incomes

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• Helping communities Strengthening communities’ capacities to manage their own development, and governance skills for women and children • Helping communities to make the most of their resources to build a secure food supply

THAILAND

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Youth media projects have been very successful.

Country Office Programme Unit

THAILAND FACTS INDONESIA

Capital: bangkok Population: 62 million Language: Thai Climate: The climate is tropical and characterized by monsoons. There is a rainy, warm, and cloudy southwest monsoon from mid-May to September, as well as a dry, cool northeast monsoon from November to mid-March. The

southern isthmus is always hot and humid.

Economy: Major exports include Thai rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, jewels, automobiles, computers and electrical appliances. Thailand is the world’s no.1 exporter of rice, exporting more than 6.5 million tons of milled rice annually. Rice is the most important crop in the country.

Thailand has the highest percent of arable land, 27.25%, of any nation in the Greater Mekong sub-region.

About 55% of the available land area is used for rice production. Substantial industries include electric appliances, components, computer parts and automobiles, while tourism makes up about 6% of the Thai economy.

“However difficult life may be for Thailand’s poor, the relative prosperity in Thailand continues to attract migrants from Myanmar and Cambodia, many crossing the border illegally to eke out a living.

But soaring oil prices have raised the cost of basic commodities, threatening the welfare of migrants, ethnic minorities and the rural poor whose lives were already precarious” – Minty Pande, Plan’s Country Director

A YEAR IN

THAILAND 09 SUMMARY REPORT

FOCUS ON: HELP TO THOSE AFFECTED BY DISASTERS Although it’s been several years since the tsunami, many of the poorest families have still not been able to rebuild their lives.

Plan’s work includes providing the poorest children and those affected by the disaster with access to education and developing teaching programmes for emergency situations.

We promote children’s rights, particularly those of the Moken ethnic minority and children from Myanmar (also known as Burma), helping to protect those at risk of harm and offer psychological and social support for children, teachers and families.

LEARNING TO BE ACCEPTED

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u is 12 years old and is settling in well at her new school. She’s made friends and is coping well with the lessons.

A hole for a catfish pond is prepared.

The Bigger Picture

Plan is working with children, families and whole communities to address the problems that Thailand faces. This report can only tell a small part of that story. As a further insight, last year we also: • Improved the quality of education for children by supporting training for 411 teachers • Enabled 230 people to increase their opportunities to make a sustainable income by offering training in business skills • Staged a televised concert raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, which 2,000 young people attended and many more watched • Gave 445 parents in Phuket the chance to learn more about the care and development of very young children through a series of seminars Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these positive results. So on behalf of the communities, partner organisations, and most of all the children we work with – thank you!

Speaking about her eight-year-old child, one mother said: “I don’t want him to end up like me, working hard in the rubber plantation earning so little” To learn more about Plan’s work in Thailand visit plan.org.au/ourwork/asia/thailand

Produced for Thailand by the Australian National Office.

“At first I was a little nervous,” she says, echoing the sentiments of many children when they first start in a different class. Nu has more reason than most to have felt apprehensive, however: she is a migrant from Myanmar (also known as Burma) and her classmates are Thai.

Nu is one of hundreds of children who live with their families along the coastline or in the rubber plantations of Phang-nga, southern Thailand.

Poverty and oppression have pushed an estimated 1.5 million Myanmar citizens into Thailand. Yet many face discrimination and exclusion from Thai society. With little work available to them, they scrape together an income working in menial jobs.

If that wasn’t enough, they were also among those who were hit hardest by the tsunami of December 2004.

Quality education Parents from Myanmar told Plan workers that they did not want their children to follow the same route they had taken. Speaking about her eight-year-old child, one mother said: “I don’t want him to end up like me, working hard in the rubber plantation earning so little.”

Like many parents, she has a vision of a more productive future for her child – one in which he is accepted by Thai society and given the same chance of a quality education and a fulfilling job as his peers across the country.

Plan is working with local partner organisation the Foundation for Education and Development (FED) to make that vision a reality. Together, we are supporting nine learning centres offering more than 200 Myanmar children a decent, basic education.

“With the support from my Thai teacher, I was able to adjust and could get along with them. My Thai friends are all good and I like them”

Our assistance includes repairs to the centres, providing books and learning materials and supplying school uniforms. The centres are extremely popular, as a visit to one would show.

Enthusiastic, noisy children sit jammed on their benches listening to their teacher.

Towards integration A crucial aspect of the curriculum is learning Thai.

Htoo Chit, Director of FED, explains: “If they want to survive in a new society, in the Thai work force, they have to have a Thai education. They must learn some Thai for better job opportunities, those that are less laborious.”

Children need a certain level of Thai language to be accepted by a Thai school, so they have Myanmar and Thai textbooks and learn in both languages.

Boys and girls are now being enrolled from the centres into Thai schools in the area. For these children, education has involved more than simply learning in class. Nu has had to get used to being older than her classmates and to making friends in a language that is not her mother tongue.

She says of her peers: “With the support from my Thai teacher, I was able to adjust and could get along with them. My Thai friends are all good and I like them.”

Nu knows her new education is the first step towards integration into Thai society, with all the opportunities this could bring to leave poverty behind. “I hope many children like me can also come and learn here,” she says.

Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy purposes.

plan.org.au