Objetives and Activities

In Pattaya, street living children daily confront issues no child should have to live with: lack of adequate care, food, shelter, abuse, loss of parents and uncertainty about the future.  Children living in the slums also are at constant risk of abuse and exploitation and our experience demonstrates that many children we meet in the streets had run away from abusive situations while living with their families in slums. The large majority of these children go to school but lacking a structured environment where to study they tend to lose interest in education and drop off.

We at CPDC work to ensure that traumatized children grow into psychologically healthy individuals. the following are the planned activities for 2010:

Strengthen the Rehabilitation and Development program: The CPDC will provide a safe residence for children who chose it, with prior screening from the Drop-in Center. Victims of sexual abuse, as well as children at direct and immediate risk of sexual abuse will be offered safe shelter, counseling and tools to regain their childhood and be eventually reintegrated into school, their families and communities.

Establish a Drop-in Center for street children and children at risk of sexual abuse: The CPDC will build accessible facilities in downtown Pattaya, addressing street children’s immediate care, and open to an unlimited number of children. The Drop-in Center will provide the first step in rehabilitation, providing children with the basic necessities: food, stable residence, clothing and medicine. The Drop-in Center staff will provide advice on behavioral changes and consultation for long-term care.

The Drop In centre will be rented and set up in middle 2010 Nevertheless, CPDC will start implementing larger scale outreach activities from January 2010, using a pick up truck as mobile base and reaching children in the streets daily (and during evenings). This will help establishing a stronger relationship with the street children and other children at risk of abuse, a fundamental initial step for a solid outreach protection program built around the Drop in centre.

Children met at the Drop in centre will receive counselling and safe shelter if needed and accepted. A case file will be opened for each child and a personal plan designed together with the child, including possibility for family reintegration, repatriation (in case of migrant/victim of trafficking) and referral to other programs when appropriate.

Establish a Child Protection Outreach program: specially trained CPDC team members will contact local populations of street children and children living in slums. The workers will educate children about their vulnerabilities living on the street: focusing on human trafficking, drugs, crime and sexual abuse.

The outreach team will focus on child protection, and will gather information about child sex offenders directly from the children in the streets and will constantly liaise with the Royal Thai Police, Interpol and foreign police, in order to facilitate the arrest of suspects and will assist victims of abuse during the investigation and trial phases, directly and in partnership with NGOs offering legal support to victims.

A Hotline will be established for children to report situations of abuse. CPDC will directly investigate and report to the Royal Thai Police.

Establish a day program for children at risk living in Pattaya’s seventeen slums. The program will provide recreational and remedial education activities at the CPDC center for children over 6 years of age and will operate a mobile unit working in the slums with younger children (3-6).

It will educate children on the risks of abuse through videos, games, and other materials shared by child protection foundations in the region: M’Lop Tapang Cambodia, Stairways Foundation Philippines, both grantees of State Department and/or US AID funding.

This program will start in January 2010. A minibus will pick up children from the 17 slums. An average of 100 children per day will use the facilities at the centre for 3+ hours.

  • support classes for children from Pattaya slums at risk of dropping out of school
  • Support education classes for youth who dropped out from school (or never attended school) in order to ensure literacy and life skills
  • IT and English classes for children from the slums and children and youth who stay at the CPDC protection centre
  • Sport activities for children from the slums and children and youth who stay at the CPDC protection centre
  • Extra curricular activities (vegetable garden, theatre, music) for children from the slums and children and youth who stay at the CPDC protection centre
  • Counseling and medical care (first aid) activities for children victims of abuse and in need of specialized help (also through art therapy)
  • Life skills (child protection, prevention from use of drugs, etc) will be provided to every child and youth in an active and participatory manner (training of CPDC staff will be provided by senior Social worker from M’Lop Tapang, one of the  best Cambodia’s programs for children at risk)

Education Activities: In its years of work with the vulnerable children and youth of Pattaya, CPDC has seen that education is the fundamental – and most formidable – key to achieving our goal of protecting children.  The two components of our educational strategy are the “back to school” program for children who had dropped out of public school, the “informal education program” for those who have never had the chance to study in public school but can eventually be reintegrated and literacy classes for older kids who cannot.  The three programs share a focus on arts, music and sports, as means to help children work together, to respect common rules, to learn.

CPDC will support 100 children and youth from 6 to 16 years of age who are able to go back to public school or access government run vocational training (15 and 16 years old) by providing supplies and uniforms, helping them to enter public school and offering remedial classes at the centre. CPDC will follow the children throughout the school year, ensuring regular studies and helping families communicate with the teachers.  All children who complete primary education will obviously be supported throughout secondary and high school.

Beneficiaries of the back to school program will be all the children and youth staying at the centre – former street living children – as well as children who live in the slums and cannot go to school – or are at immediate risk of dropping out – due to economic conditions. These children will be identified by CPDC’s outreach workers who visit the 17 slums regularly.

Remedial education is very much needed in order to help children recover the years lost and successfully progress through the education system. Remedial education will be offered to not less than 100 children: each child residing at the centre and the children living in the slums who need support in order to improve their school performances to satisfactory levels and access further education.

These children will typically be 6-10 years of age and they will be selected by CPDC’s outreach workers and will visit the centre once or twice per week.

While focusing on their education, we need to consider that for older children it is important to acquire skills that will help securing viable jobs. English, IT classes therefore represent an important component of our educational program and are combined with other practical activities such as gardening, arts, and sports.

Vocational training and job training activities: The vocational trainings will include: produce and life-stock farming, mechanic and hospitality training, handicraft production and carpentry experience as well as literacy support if needed, as well as IT training, English language training and soft skills. The center’s empowerment initiatives will help limit street children’s extreme vulnerability to trafficking, physical and sexual abuse on the streets. The center’s program will ensure viable skills and concrete income generation opportunities so former street children can forge a better life.

The vocational training program will be accessible by youth (14 years of age and above) – former street children and victims of abuse – living at the Residential Center.

The Thai government offers significant opportunities for vocational training and it is not intention of CPDC to overlap with existing programs (i.e. mechanic training). For this reason the center based training will focus on providing vulnerable youth with basic skills which will then enable them to access advanced training at the government centers. At the same time, given the location of the CPDC center (outside the main area of town), small mechanic work will represent an income generation opportunity for the trainees.

Similarly, the hospitality related training provided at the center will be instrumental in providing the required skills to access advanced training at government facilities or within hotels. At the same time the establishment of a small roadside cafe (at the center) might provide small income generation opportunities for youth in training.

The program will be accessed by 10 youth in 2010, 20 in 2011 and 30 in 2012.

The community will be involved in the training program (i.e. requesting volunteers from the hospitality industry to conduct training sessions).

Similarly, job placement (the main indicator of success for our training program) will be ensured through the cooperation with local hotels and restaurants (i.e. the Diana group of hotels, which has also in the past hired trainees from CPDC).

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