The Soi Kophai Community is the first neighborhood in Pattaya to join HRH Princess Bajarakitiyabha’s “Say No to Violence Against Women” campaign.
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.
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.
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.
