UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child; they have spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. In Thailand, their Thai children donation project aims to provide every child with a fair chance to grow up in a safe, healthy and protective environment and reach their full potential.

UNICEF believes that all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential – to the benefit of a better world. UNICEF’s mission is simple: The world has changed, but children’s needs have not. UNICEF works day-in-day-out in the world’s toughest places to reach the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Why UNICEF?

Did you know that over 1.4 million children in Thailand still live in poverty? Since 1990, UNICEF has helped save more children’s lives (approx. 90 million) than any other humanitarian organization. UNICEF makes sure the world’s children are protected, fed, vaccinated and educated.

Not every child is born with equal opportunities. ​You can give hope to children​, from newborns to teenagers, by donating to UNICEF and becoming part of the solution. UNICEF provides long-term aid that addresses immediate needs and creates lasting change for the better across three dedicated age groups:

Newborns – UNICEF works closely with the local government to promote more breastfeeding and prevent mothers from seeing harmful infant formula commercials.

Early childhood – To help children grow up with healthy development, UNICEF works closely with parents and caretakers to better understand early childhood education.

School-age –Around 14% of Thai children do not attend school. UNICEF strives to bring education to kids in rural areas through various grassroots projects and initiatives.

Early Childhood Development

UNICEF’s Thai children donation project is mainly focused on early (0-5 years) childhood development. Why? Because the first months and years of life are the most critical in a child’s development, it’s a time of significant brain, language, social, emotional, sensory and motor development. It is when the foundation for lifelong learning is established.

Unfortunately, many young children in Thailand lack appropriate care and stimulation. Many parents do not engage in learning activities with their offspring and have few or no books in the home. To help at-risk children receive the early learning experiences they need to reach their full potential, UNICEF is undertaking a range of targeted grassroots initiatives across Thailand, here are some examples:

SwimSafe program

Drowning is a leading cause of death in children in Thailand, with approximately 1,250 children under 15 drowning each year. UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education and other partners to pilot the SwimSafe project at 20 schools in Thailand to help stop this preventable problem. To date, about 6,000 children have benefited from the first phase of the programme. ​

Mobile Library

More than 50% of children under five years old in Thailand live in a household with fewer than three children’s books​. To provide such children with greater reading opportunities, UNICEF and its partners have established a mobile library. Under the project, over 15,000 students at 135 UNICEF-supported public schools in remote hill tribe communities are benefiting.

Demonstration centres

Across 24 provinces, UNICEF has organised quality experiences for pre-primary children and engaged carers through parenting programmes at designed demonstration centres. These free centres provide much-needed support, guidance and resources for parents, guardians, grandparents and caretakers who are time and cash poor.

To learn more about UNICEF’s invaluable Thai children donation project, please check their website.

Brian and Karen Shaben are going all-in with humanitarian work as they prepare to move to Thailand from Canada.

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CHIANG RAI -Canadian’s Brian and Karen Shaben never had kids of their own, but, by next week, they’ll have 24 to look after.  “That’s just the ironic part, how do you go from zero kids to 24?” Brian said with a laugh.

The Canadian couple, founders of World Wide Life Humanitarian Partnership Society — a non-profit that partners with organizations to enhance living conditions for at-risk individuals in underdeveloped countries — will move to Thailand next week, having retired from full-time work in Canada to make careers of the humanitarian efforts they began in 2008.

They will start by partnering with Give Kids Hope Thailand, an organization that runs a children’s home in Mae Suai, Chiang Rai Province, home to 24 girls at risk of becoming involved in the sex trade in Thailand.

The Shaben’s will operate the home while helping in the development of a new training center that will emphasize vocational training and enhanced educational opportunities.

“It’s so rewarding for us,” Karen said.

“We think we’re going to help them and to bless them, but we’re actually the ones who get blessed — we really are.

“It’s amazing how wonderful these kids are and how creative they are and smart they are.

“The only difference between them and me is I was born here and I was given access to opportunities,” Karen said.

“Unless we do this, or people like us do this, they’re not given access to opportunity, especially some of the ones who live in these northern, remote areas.”

For the Shaben’s, the decision to move overseas and make full-time work of their humanitarian efforts has been a long time in the making.

Since their first hands-on experience nearly 10 years ago, the couple found their attention increasingly dominated by their work in Southeast Asia.

In October of 2014, they felt it their calling to move overseas and help — permanently.

“A lot of it came out of a bad situation I was in as a kid,” Brian said.

“I came from an abusive family background. My father was kind of abusive to the kids, very stern kind of guy.

“That kind of left an impression on me.”

The couple never had kids of their own, in part because of Brian’s upbringing.

“Earlier on, when we first got married, I wasn’t really wanting children because of my past — I wasn’t sure what kind of father I would be,” the 56-year-old said.

“I didn’t want to bring a child into the world if there was even a slim chance that my upbringing would make me a bad father.”

Brian’s youth, coupled with a horrific motorcycle accident in 1979 that stopped his heart and left him dead for minutes, made him feel there was a larger purpose to his life.

Despite never having kids of his own, his humanitarian efforts showed he had a knack for working with children.

“Brian’s living proof that you have a choice,” Karen, 49, said.

“He chooses not to be a victim.

“He has chosen to deal with the past, to get on with life and to take his experiences and make a difference for other people.”

The nature of the Shaben work will no doubt evolve during their time in Chiang Rai.

Brian said the country’s elderly and other orphanages may need help.

Regardless of what they end up doing, Brian and Karen will be making life better for those around them, which is all that matters.

“Making an impact on someone’s life in a positive way, when things look so bleak in the present, and then watching them develop and watching them come out of this thing called life on a positive note, knowing that you had a big part in that, it’s an exceptional feeling,” Brian said.

“You can leave this planet one day knowing that you’ve made a difference in the world — all the money in the world can’t buy you that.”

By Adam Williams

For more information on World Wide Life, go online to www.humanitarianpartnership.com

CHIANG MAI – Northern Thailand’s non-profit Anti-Trafficking Organisation Trafcord was awarded 77,000 euro (approximately Bt2.4 million) from the German Government to support their fight against human trafficking.