The Thai project has just done something amazing, and we're excited to tell you all about it!
On April 4th, the Thai government launched the first ever national media campaign to raise awareness of foster care and to recruit more foster parents. This was a remarkable event with senior government ministers, foster families, child welfare staff, Care for Children staff, PR agency staff, media experts, national press and... the all important ‘Key Opinion Leaders’ or ‘KOLs’ who, with large social media followings, are the way to get the public's attention.
And it worked a treat!
Flanked by three popular social media stars in Thailand with a joint 'following' of 7 million, the Care for Children project team joined forces with the Royal Thai government to launch the campaign.
To date, there have been 62 media reports across TV, radio and digital media. This has resulted in estimated reach of 2,715,000 people!
So, what does a press launch for a national foster campaign look like? The media produced for the campaign includes:
All of this material is now 'out there' on TV, radio, newspapers... but perhaps most importantly, being shared on social media.
It's been a 10-year journey to get Thailand to this point, and we couldn't have done it without you!
On behalf of the children we serve together, and from all of us at Care for Children, thank you so much!
Links:
With the COVID pandemic still ever present, 2021 gave Care for Children’s Thai team lots of opportunities to learn new skills and become more flexible. Due to restrictions the team was unable to travel around Thailand to train staff from all 77 government Shelters for Children and Families. Instead it was decided to conduct the training online via Zoom, finding ways to persevere through power cuts, weak internet connections and other teething problems! The team missed the deeper connections that face-to-face training affords but were so grateful that hundreds of shelter staff across the country were still able to learn how to run a family care programme. Between September and November 2021, we were delighted to learn that thirteen shelters were able to place 83 children into 76 foster families!
The phrase, ‘All children in Thailand belong in safe and nurturing families’, not only became the banner to mark the occasion of World Children’s Day 2021 and the anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, but also the focus for 2022. Partnering with four Child Welfare Homes, sixteen shelters and two like-minded NGOs, this year saw the return of in-person training via 29 workshops to take an even deeper dive into creating mechanisms to ensure that children are afforded every opportunity to grow up and thrive in loving families.
We now know that the outcome of our work in Thailand to see orphans and vulnerable children placed into local, loving families will long outlive our presence in the country!
Thank you for your support and for staying connected to our work.
We recently caught up with one of the social workers that Care for Children has trained in Southeast Thailand. She told us about a very special foster family that she visited.
“Mrs Mon* is a retired teacher and is currently fostering two young brothers, Tong* who is 10, and Ti* who is 9. As their case worker I can see such a change in the boys since they have been with their foster family. They used to be children who couldn’t speak up for themselves, were scared of strangers and never dared to question anyone or let anyone know their needs. But the love and care the boys have received from Mrs Mon is evident, and they are now confident, speak well, and take responsibility with their schoolwork.
“Talking to Mrs Mon about her future and raising the children, she told me: ‘If the boys’ birth family are not able to take them back, I’m here for them and happy to be their long-term family. My goal is to give them every opportunity while they are part of my family.’
“When I visit her, she loves to pull out her phone and show me photos of the boys and the activities they have been doing. She also recounts the mischief they have been up to, but she tells it with a laugh and a smile. I'm drawn to this dear woman and her love for these boys.”
It's true, love in action is attractive, and often a blessing to be around! We wish Mrs Mon all the very best as she gives up her home and her time to care for vulnerable children in her community.
Thank you for your support and for staying connected to our work.
* Names changed to protect anonymity.
We are delighted to annouce that we have just signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Thai government, signalling the start of a very exciting stage of the project.
MoUs are key to the success of all our projects. They set out what it is expected of all key stakeholders and demonstrate a commitment from everybody involved to see orphans and vulnerable children growing up in families rather than in institutional care.
In line with a new government policy in Thailand, this MoU includes a commitment to see all children under 6 living in family-based care. In 2022, Care for Children will develop a national model of best-practice collaboration between Emergency Shelters for Children, Child Welfare Homes (commonly known as orphanages), community leaders and local network partners, to reduce the unnecessary placement of children into orphanages, and prioritise family-based care for children already in institutions, especially those under 6.
We just heard about a great example of how an Emergency Shelter recently helped prevent the unnecessary placement of two siblings into an orphanage by keeping a family together.
Recently the Shelter, located in Eastern Thailand, was contacted by grandparents whose daughter had sadly passed away while delivering her second child. The grandfather is unable to work as he suffers from diabetes, which leaves the grandmother as the sole breadwinner for the family. On her current salary she couldn’t see how she was going to cover the household expenses and provide for her two grandchildren.
The first thing the Shelter did was look into any benefits that the family might be entitled to. A child support subsidy of 600 baht a month might not sound like a lot, but every little bit contributes towards keeping the family together. Their next step was to assess the grandparents as to their suitability to be kinship carers.
The 9-year-old grandson is now doing well, helping his grandparents with chores, helping with the care of his new baby brother and thriving in the care of his grandparents.
We know that a nurturing family is the best place for children and the benefits these two siblings receive by being able to stay with their grandparents can’t be understated. The grandparents will now receive a foster care allowance each month and the Shelter will follow-up and monitor their progress.
Thank you for your support and staying connected to our work.
As you may know, Care for Children has been delivering training to Thailand’s ‘Shelters for children and families’. These emergency shelters are often the first point of contact for children when they enter the care system and provide a vital service for children in moments when they're desperate for support
Having already trained six shelters in foster care, as part of an initial pilot, this project aimed to deliver training to the remaining 71 shelters, giving them the knowledge and skills required to set-up and run their own foster care programmes. This would mean that, rather than moving them into a more permanent orphanage, the shelter could refer the children for foster care directly.
Between February and October 2021, the Care for Children team delivered 30 workshops over 83 days. With restrictions reintroduced at the start of the year due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in Thailand, this training took place via Zoom.
In response to the pandemic, and specifically its impact on children, the government invited Care for Children to deliver additional training to the shelters. This training, which took place in August, aimed to build the capacity of the shelters in providing emergency support to children who had lost their primary caregivers due to the pandemic, whether it be kinship care or foster care.
Here are some quotes from the trainees:
“The case studies that were used in the training really helped me to understand the material and I now have a clear picture of what we should do.”
“I love that you break us into groups and we have to work on a case that you have created for us. It is a great way to learn.”
“The training has helped me to understand the process of preparing children, preparing the foster family and the community. I have a much clearer picture now and I’m going to put it into practice.”
“If the practitioners understand all that we have been taught today it will really reduce the amount of time that children need to spend in an emergency shelter.”
“Today’s topic of understanding trauma will really help us to understand children more because every child that comes through has experienced trauma in one form or another. The training was really easy to understand and will be really useful.
"This has really helped me learn and understand the role of foster parents and the importance of the relationship between children and their birth parents too."
The shelters can now place children directly into foster care, rather than moving them into orphanages prior to being referred for foster care. The shelters are now able to recruit potential foster parents and will be part of a team that will assess applicants for their suitability to be foster parents.
During 2021, and particularly the third COVID wave, thirteen shelters were able to assess families for their suitability to foster and 76 families are now fostering 83 children. This was extremely positive as it meant that children who had been impacted by COVID were able to be supported to remain with relatives rather than have to go to an orphanage. While the bulk of the 76 families were kin or people known to the children in need, the shelter staff had to follow the process and procedures taught to them during the training and outlined in the ‘Operations Manual for Foster Care’. It is the shelters who are responsible for the support and monitoring of the foster families.
This pandemic reminds us all that children are far better off in safe, secure and loving family environments.
Thank you for your support and staying connected to our work.
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