Thailand
The Rural Thailand Micro Enterprise Loan Fund project aims to improve the lives of the “hill tribes” people who live along the Thai-Myanmar border. The project addresses the needs of these disadvantaged communities by providing low interest micro-enterprise loans to stimulate income generating activities.
These loans enable farmers to repay them more easily as well as providing the opportunity to be more economically competitive in the marketplace. Loans are given to people who are in accountability groups, providing incentives to repay the loans back. If one person defaults, none of the others members are eligible for further loans. New loan recipients have to be approved by members of these groups. This ensures that the project is in the best interests of the whole community, not just the individual, leading to broader community participation and support.
Through on-going support from the project, loan beneficiaries develop new skills in business management, budgeting, farming and other vocational skills (tailoring, etc), which benefit themselves and their whole community.
The Klong Toey Community Centre is a community development project aimed at improving the lives of people living in the Klong Toey slum. Klong Toey is the largest slum community in Bangkok with some 80,000 residents.
Unemployment, poor housing conditions, over-crowding, flooding, drugs, gang violence, AIDS and other health problems are just some of the difficulties faced by this impoverished community. Many families in the slum cannot afford to send their children to school. Some children are orphaned and are in the care of relatives. These children are at high risk of being involved in drugs, crime and prostitution.
A multi-purpose community centre, which provides education and training, recreation, and community development, is a lifeline of support to families residing in the slum. The Foundation is currently supporting the pre-school education program, which is providing learning opportunities for 40 'children at risk' from the slum. The program runs five days a week and is focussed on assisting children with special needs, especially those with mild disabilities, troubled backgrounds, AIDS, or learning difficulties.
Located in the north-eastern plains of Thailand, the Child Help Community Development initiative is a grass roots rural development program which seeks to improve the lives of the rural poor who have either been abused, at risk, abandoned or living on the streets by providing viable training and employment alternatives.
The project will also reduce the drift of wage earners and economic resources to the cities and preserve the family unit, where children and parents can remain united. To break the cycle of poverty and abuse, the initiative aims to provide vocational training and facilitate access to quality education programs for participants and their dependents. The project is also working towards sustainability by introducing mix crop agricultural programs which will also provide employment for beneficiaries.
Located in North-East Thailand in Mahasarakham province, Samuel’s House is a holistic care development project aimed at providing a better life for “at risk” abandoned/orphaned children.
Samuel House encompasses a vision to educate and empower the children to reach their full potential in life and provides a loving family environment with academic opportunity, literacy classes, and medical care.
The project is also expanding into micro-financing to empower the local community members, giving them a chance to break the poverty cycle. This micro-financing project comes in the form of pig farming, which is progressing well. The project is starting to generate income to support Samuel’s House.
This project seeks to provide support for children and families assisting them to acquire the skills to become self reliant and productive members of the community. This is being achieved by providing: opportunity for education to needy individuals:
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emergency aid to those deemed to be at risk
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skills training and financial support to individuals desiring to start their own business
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job skill trainings to beneficiaries within the program.
