Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn (right) leads a
committee working with local charities to assist low-income youths.
Manoon Makpol
The Pattaya Child Protection Committee worked with local
charities to assist a dozen low-income youths encountered when bureaucrats
surveyed the city’s slum areas to determine factors putting kids at risk.
At an Aug. 31 Pattaya City Hall meeting, three committee
members reviewed their efforts to boost the quality of life for the city’s
poor children with Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn and representatives from
local aid groups.
Research done by 21 groups showed most at-risk youths
came from poor families that migrated to Pattaya to look for work and
settled in isolated areas of the city that soon turned into slums.
Committee member Theeraporn Srichan said many children in
these ramshackle enclaves of temporary houses are often physically,
emotionally and sexually abused, flock to drugs and are neglected by elders
focused on finding enough food for themselves. Divorce and abandonment
exacerbate their problems, she said, often leading to children being dumped
on relatives and not being registered with the government for education and
health care.
She said during their research, bureaucrats came across
12 children in dire straits and worked with charity groups to place them in
the custody of the state and document their cases. She said more time is
needed, however, to determine if the intervention was a positive for the
youths.
The committee is continuing to discuss the problem in hopes of drafting a
plan to address quality of life issues for at-risk youths.
