“At the school in MaeOnnok, a vegetable garden and a small chicken farm were recently started up to ensure that each child has a breakfast of rice, vegetables and eggs. – Susi Tonti, Thailand project contact person, explains. – The children themselves are involved in looking after the garden and the chickens and the work has become part of practical teaching. In the school in Maesot, we have started a school accompaniment project for refugees from the war. We try to do our work there with a united world at heart, and it is thanks to the partnership with AFN that we can work with certain standards to achieve our common goals.
The project is implemented in several communities in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Tak and Sakon Nakorn (Nabua) provinces, with the aim ofpromote the integral development of vulnerable children and provide support for their education and health, with attention to the family context in which they are placed.
Born from a series of actions undertaken in 1992 by a group belonging to the Bangkok Focolare Movement, the project, thanks to the collaboration with AFN, supports the children of the Yod Nam Hang Kwam Rak school for Burmese refugees in the city of Mae Sot, on the Thai-Myanmar border; of the Mae On Nok school in Chiang Rai;of the mission centres of Maepon, Phonsawan and Wiangpapaw which offer board and lodging to children living in remote and mountainous areas.
In addition, several groups living in the slums are supported through the distribution of aid to supplement family income. To date, a total of 232 children and 162 families have been reached by the project, in direct contact with the project staff and collaborators.
Various training activities and meetings are held on a regular basis to help their human, cultural, spiritual and ethical growth. There are also similar initiatives for parents where topics on couple life, parenting and the family in general are addressed.