Why Some Thai Kids Need Our Help
A report recently released in Thailand suggested that 40 % of Thai children do not live with their parents. Link here A major reason for this is that parents, most often single parents, leave the rural areas and go to cities for work. This leaves the children to be raised by extended family. Usually the grandparents become the caregivers
This not an ideal solution but it is normal in this culture. In Thailand there is huge majority of rural poor. And the parents are driven to provide for their own parents as well as dreaming of a more prosperous furure. Those who move to the city for the sex trade also contribute to the amount of children growing up with proxy parents.
But what happens to the kids with no extended family or compassionate friends? Sadly they become servants, or child labor, some are sold, and a blessed few find their way to good home. We also know of situations where inconvenient children were killed or left in the jungle to die.
In addition to this, there are children with no parents at all. Orphans have the greatest risk of falling through holes in the Thai social network.
A third group of children at risk are children from unwanted pregnancies. In Thailand the teen pregnancy rate is climbing. Women, young and old, who cannot afford, or are opposed to the dangerous and illegal underground abortions that exist in Thailand, are another source of abandoned or exploited children.
Fourthly there are the refugees, who have a much reduced social network available to accommodate orphaned or inconvenient children.
As a developing country, Thailand is still decades from providing any sort of real solution for the majority of these kids. Because of this there is a perpetual need for children’s homes and services; as well as a need for pregnancy counselling and education to break the cycle of neglected and exploited children.
We created Glowing Hearts so we can provide a real family for children in adversity.