The Kophai Community is exporting its award-winning drug-prevention program to other Pattaya neighborhoods.
Thanat Pathumdaeng, president of the Mother of Land fund and the Mother of Land committee for Chonburi, opened a training session for the Nongtabae, Sai, Ban Nernfai and 5 Thunwa communities July 25, showing them how to leverage the Mother of the Land Fund to stamp out drugs at the local level.
The Kophai group was honored by the Mother of Land Fund in 2009 for its strategies in building a stronger community and was named one of Thailand’s model communities. In June last year, the community was named a learning center for other communities, one of eight “empowerment” centers in Chonburi.
Thanat Pathumdaeng, president of the Mother of Land Fund for Chonburi, presides over the opening of a training session to leverage the Mother of the Land Fund to stamp out drugs at the local level.
Kophai’s success was built upon action by a 25-member board. Each member was made responsible for four families in keeping drugs out of the neighborhood.
In March, the Office of Narcotics Control Board said it wanted Kophai to begin networking with other communities to get them to implement a similar system. The latest four groups bring the total of communities following the Kophai model in Pattaya to 10.
