Pattaya’s Child Protection and Development Center will be rolling into more neighborhoods following the donation of a “mobile training unit” from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Japanese Embassy.
Human Help Network Thailand Director Radchada Chomjinda accepted the colorful van from U.N. officials in Bangkok July 9. Accompanying her were deputy directors Samphan Akrapongpanich and Suppaya Maneecharoen, along with Kanchanat Meemanas, the director of the Drop-In Center and other staff members and volunteers.
Officials from Pattaya’s Child Protection and Development Center take possession of a “mobile training unit” donated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Japanese Embassy.
In her thank you speech, Radchada explained how the mobile unit will come into play in the CPDC’s mission.
“We are a non-government organization operating in Pattaya since 2009. Our aim is to help young people who have been physically and mentally abused on the street where they have lived or in disadvantaged communities where trafficking, drugs and crime are endemic.”
She said the van will help them visit schools, youth organizations and poor areas where children are at risk of being abused or involved with crime and drugs.
The unit comes equipped with a library.
“It also gives us the opportunity to provide information and support those who are already in trouble,” she said, noting the unit comes equipped with a library and multimedia equipment.
“We try to devise ways and means to make our visits to the troubled areas more interesting and less threatening to the parents and children we talk to and it is in this area where the mobile training unit excels,” Radchada said. “It is a mobile support unit for our social workers and outreach workers that can carry teaching and media equipment, which is essential to provide awareness and a help-line to those who are the most vulnerable.
The mobile unit has multimedia equipment that social and outreach workers can use to provide awareness and a help-line to those who are the most vulnerable.
“Our outreach workers go to the places where street children are known to take shelter or employment. The children are often begging, drug dealing or selling themselves. Our social workers patiently earn the trust of the children before offering them help and support,” Radchada explained. “The children are encouraged to return to their families or, if this is not possible, we offer a secure and safe environment at the CPDC on the outskirts of Pattaya. Any hard evidence we discover relating to child trafficking or criminal networks is passed on to the police and appropriate organizations.”
She also invited U.N. and Japanese embassy staff to visit the CPDC.
“We have 65 kids at the moment,” she said, adding there also are “10 chickens, three pigs, two vegetable plots that need some work, a number of very friendly dogs, some frightened cats, and not so sure how many fish are in our pond.”
