Vimolrat Singnikorn
The Soi Kophai Community is the first neighborhood in
Pattaya to join HRH Princess Bajarakitiyabha’s “Say No to Violence
Against Women” campaign.
Wirat Noijinda (left), Chairman of the Kophai Community presents
application forms to become a partner network for the campaign to stop
violence against women to Pornsak Thepapornsuwan, Chief Prosecutor in
Region 2.
At an Oct. 15 event, community and city leaders
joined to launch a pilot project to raise awareness about violence
toward women and reach out to assist the community. Led by Mayor
Itthiphol Kunplome, former Tourism and Sports Minister Sonthaya Kunplome
and Pattaya Prosecutor Pornsak Thepapornsuwan, volunteers distributed
dried foods and rice and passed out whistles women can use to call for
help. Free haircuts were also offered.
HRH Princess Bajarakitiyabha, who is doing a two-year
internship at the Pattaya Provincial Court, is Thailand’s goodwill
ambassador with the United Nations Development Fund for Women and
chairman of UNIFEM’s “Say No” campaign in the Kingdom.
She has organized a number of activities already,
including a parade through Pattaya and a day-long seminar. The Soi
Kophai effort is the largest so far, hoping to get the neighborhood’s
730 families / 2,991 residents actively involved.
Wirat Noijinda, chairman of the Kophai Community,
said the neighborhood’s residents are active in a number of community
projects, such as combating drug use and cutting crime. The UNIFEM
project dovetails nicely with those projects, he said.
