Former board chairman and generous supporter of Safe Child Thailand, Crispian Collins, has been awarded an M.B.E. for his work for charities in the UK and the international voluntary sector.
We are pleased to congratulate Crispian, who as a Safe Child Thailand board member for many years was instrumental in our new organisational strategy and a champion for care reform in Thailand.
Well done and thank you, Crispian! To learn more about alternative care, click here.
Ties 4 Thais is a brand new fundraising day on Wednesday, November 25th 2020, designed to bring your school together to raise money for vulnerable children in Thailand.
How does it work?
Sign-up to take part and download your Ties 4 Thais Poster below. Invite your students to donate £1 each to express themselves in a bright and individual way using ties. Neck ties, bow ties, hair ties! Anything goes!
Where does the money go?
Safe Child Thailand is a small charity that works with local partners in Thailand to keep children safe from harm. We have ensured hundreds of thousands of children enjoy their right to a secure home, an education and vital medical care.
The money your class raise will ensure that vulnerable children in Thailand can receive the education they deserve.
Thailand has been cited as a success story in containing the coronavirus outbreak, having gone more than 40 days without any local transmission of Covid-19.
Yet its economic outlook is grim and according to World Bank Poverty projections the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 are likely to be significant.
The service sector is a main component of the Thai economy (including hotel and restaurant sectors) accounting for 24.9%[i]. The country is also very dependent on exports; accounting for more than two-thirds of the country’s GDP[ii].
With annual tourist arrivals forecast to drop to 8 million, just one-fifth of last year’s total, analysts such as The Bank of Thailand forecast deep contractions for Thailand’s economy this year. This is to be Thailand’s biggest GDP decline ever, surpassing even its plunge during the Asian financial crisis two decades ago.
The government responded early to the crisis, by introducing a stimulus package. This includes provisions to protect employment earnings. But there are major challenges in reaching out to the most vulnerable. To apply for the income support, people have to access the internet and hold a saving account. This, and 47% of 15-year-olds in rural areas being functionally illiterate, has excluded all too many of those from the poorest communities.
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, Thailand remained one of the most unequal societies in Southeast Asia. More alarmingly, Thailand topped the world ranking in terms of its wealth gap. In 2018 the bottom 50% of Thais had only 1.7% share in the country’s wealth. The coronavirus outbreak will only deepen these existing inequalities. If Thailand’s economic history offers any guide, income distribution will worsen in the coming months.
Poverty forces people to make unbearably tough choices. With a dark economic outlook, rising inequality and poverty the most common reason parents choose to put children into care, sadly, the year ahead will see many more children at risk.
[i] “Thailand at a glance”. Bank of Thailand. 2013.
[ii] 16.316 trillion baht (US$505 billion) in 2018
