Welfare officials reviewed successful examples of intervention to help homeless and endangered children as Pattaya’s Subcommittee on Children Protection held its first meeting.
Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn, the panel’s chairman, told executives from area orphanages, shelters, public health offices and police stations about the rescue of a year-old Thai-German girl being neglected by her mentally ill mother and alcoholic father. The child was moved into protective care by social worker Arunrassamee Bunkerd of the Pattaya Social Welfare Department to the Chonburi Children and Family Home.
Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn presides over the child-protection committee’s 1st meeting.
The deputy mayor also updated attendees on the case of homeless woman Manee Sunklang, 32, and her 9-year-old child. She was picked up again wandering Pattaya Beach and moved to the Hand to Hand Foundation shelter.
The meeting concluded with a report about the Experimental Classroom Management for Personal Status project, which seeks to give homeless people proof of citizenship so they can qualify for health and welfare services.
From October 2011 to August, 14 homeless individuals were approved and certified as Thai nationals while three who could not produce proper documentation were denied. One female applicant is still waiting for approval and 12 people are undergoing DNA testing. Five died while waiting for their paperwork to go through.
