Send 70 At-risk Children to School in Thailand

I wish we we’re able to begin this update a little differently than our last but sadly - for the safety of all students, staff, and community and to comply with governmental regulations - HDS has once again closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Covid-19 has spread to all areas of Mae Sai with case numbers and cluster outbreaks continuing to rise. All the schools in the area have temporarily closed including HDS which closed on August 20th.

As education is an integral piece of our mission to prevent human trafficking of vulnerable youth, the staff and teachers at DEPDC have been creative in their methods to continue educating students at HDS. Each week, the teachers prepare lessons, assignments, and homework for the students to complete. Many of the students are able to make a weekly trip to HDS to drop off the past week’s lesson and pick up the new week’s lesson. In cases where it is not possible for the students to come to HDS, teachers and staff drop off and pick up lessons from their homes.

Some of the student’s families are within vulnerable communities and have been quarantined at home for 14 days, leaving them with inadequate supplies of food, sanitizer, face masks, and medicine. In order to support the students of HDS and their families, DEPDC and HDS prepared survival bags and delivered them to the student’s homes. Survival bags included a variety of different foods to ensure food security during these difficult times as well as safety supplies of sanitizer, masks, and some medicine.

We sincerely hope that our next report includes the celebration of the reopening of HDS. Until then, to all our past, present, and future donors we would like to thank you for your continued support in keeping this program running. Education is at the core of DEPDC’s mission to prevent the trafficking of vulnerable youth and thanks to your donations we are able to do just that.