The SUEZ Foundation in Thailand
The Projects Office of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
Educational development program for ethnic minority children in the Provinces of Tak and Mae Hong Song.
Since 2002, the SUEZ Foundation, Suez Energy Asia, and its subsidiary Glow provide assistance for educational programs benefiting ethnic minority children (essentially Karens) in the Province of Tak. These programs are implemented through the Office of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
Tak Province is located in northwestern Thailand, more than 400 km. from Bangkok, near the Burma border. It is a mountanous zone inhabited by numerous minorities who live in villages dispersed in small hamlets that are difficult to reach during the rainy season.
There are no public services, neither water nor electricity delivery systems. Because of the terrain, only 8% of the land is suitable for cultivation, resulting in food shortages. The income level is very depressed and, with no health services, children suffer from malnutrition and illnesses. The level of education in the province is very low, with a large portion of the population illiterate.
To facilitate access to education for these needy people, HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has implemented a program of primary and vocational education in the villages which provides children basic education and nutritional supplements.
The overall objective of this program is to improve the level of teaching in existing schools and vocational centers, to provide educational materials and assistance at the primary level, adequate classrooms and, in addition, an elementary system of basic health care, with the means to remedy malnutrition’s damaging effects on children.
The SUEZ Foundation focuses its support in particular on the Mae Om Ki School and its extensions in neighboring villages which, all together, cater to some 500 pupils. Thanks to this support, the school has been able to establish a course in agriculture and distribute lunches and nutritional supplements to the children. It monitors their nutrition as well as illnesses resulting from iodine deficiency. The school was also equipped with educational equipment (computers, television, radios, and a library).
In 2005, a dormitory and a teachers' residence were built and the school's extensions were renovated.
In 2006, additional classrooms were built so the school can accommodate students in the first three years of the secondary level and satisfy the 1999 "National Education Act" requirement increasing the length of obligatory education from 6 to 9 years.
In 2007 and 2008, an extension with five new classrooms and a library was built in the Mae Va Luang School.
Children of the Mékong
Homehak Center for children afflicted with AIDS
Since 2004, the SUEZ Foundation has helped operate the Homehak Center for children suffering from AIDS, or orphaned by it. The Center is located at Yasothon, in northeastern Thailand, Issan Province, near the Laotian border.
This center is operated by the Children of the Mekong, which was created in 1991 by a Thai woman, Suthasinée Noiin, known as Pi Tiou. Her initial vocation was to help young drug addicts dry out and find jobs again. Very quickly she found herself confronted with the problem of AIDS which had begun to ravage Thailand and afflict some of the young people she was treating. This led her to change the mission of the center, which now receives children suffering from AIDS. In May 2000, the center was given tax-exempt status and the Suthasinée Noiin Foundation was created.
The Homehak Center treats 67 children, from 22 months to 18 years of age, 17 of whom are suffering from AIDS. All of them, orphans and patients, find refuge there where they can finally lead a child's life. In addition, many other children in the region who suffer from AIDS also find help at the Center, thanks in particular to a referral program organized by Children of the Mekong.
After considerable struggle, most of the Center's children have been accepted in schools. For those with highly visible sores, however, integration has been more difficult; they stay all day at the Center. Today, thanks to Doctors Without Borders, located two and a half hours from Yasothon, children with AIDS are receiving tri-therapy.
