Imagine being a parent growing up in poverty in a remote hilltribe village in northern Thailand. You love your child and want the best for them. A truck arrives in your village and a stranger offers to take your child away to a distant orphanage. You reluctantly agree, not really understanding what is going on, but desperately hoping this is best for your child! The next day, your child is gone! Imagine the emotional upheaval for you as a loving parent, and for your young child who just wants to stay with you!
For decades, this scenario has been a reality for thousands of well-meaning parents from hilltribe villages across northern Thailand. And that includes parents from the village of Pha Dang Luang, where BSF runs a family-strengthening-program with precious families. It is estimated by the village leader that at some point, nearly every one of the 80 families in this village have sent children away to 'orphanages' or 'children's homes' (residential & institutional care facilities).
Over ten years ago, in March 2013, I had the privilege of spending a week living in the village of Pha Dang Luang with some amazing Akha hilltribe families, where I conducted some research. It was such an eye-opening and humbling experience. I met with 20 'Heads of Households' to try to discover why they chose to send children away to institutions.
The same parent who told me about the truck incident also went on to say that one of the children actually jumped off the back of the truck as it was driving away to the orphanage. The child ran back to the village crying and tried to find their parents again. I was shocked to say the least! All of those who I interviewed told me the same thing, that none of their children wanted to go to a 'children's home' or leave their family, despite the challenges their family faced.
Meeting with the families in Pha Dang Luang during this research project helped us identify root causes for family separation and relinquishment in this village. As a result, we were able to develop, refine and contextualize, our existing family-strengthening model that has been used to great effect with hundreds of families for more than a decade now. While financial hardship and access to quality education were identified as two of the main reasons children were relinquished in Pha Dang Luang, there was also clear evidence to suggest that drug use and abuse was also an issue in this village.
More than 30 years ago, Pha Dang Luang was known for its poppy fields, but is now an emerging coffee-producing area. As the crow flies, the village is just 40km away from the Burma border. The history of this area and its involvement in opium production in earlier years may have had consequences for the current generations living in Pha Dang Luang. It was clear to me that if BSF was to truly support families in this village, we needed to work together to address family separation, which would include looking for solutions to the poverty issue, access to good education, and the drug problem.
In July 2024, after a lot of dreaming, researching, planning, and relationship building with leaders and families in the community, BSF began an 18-month family-strengthening program with eight at-risk families in the village. To date, those families have been supported with income generation assistance (including pig farms), education, health, empowering caregiver trainings, and fun family days. As soon as we began the program, we also started thinking and planning about how to address the drug issue.
In November 2024, all that planning and preparation came together and BSF was able to facilitate and launch, in partnership with thinkSMALL and the local church and school, an exciting child protection and drug prevention community event. Eighty-seven enthusiastic children attended the full day event which included an exciting clown show with TJ the Tiger, 'I Say No to Drugs' wrist bands, yummy snacks, and much more. As the kids decided to say 'no' to drugs, they each received a free wrist band from TJ to remind them of their commitment. The village, church, and school leaders all gave their full support and invited the community to unite behind this program and message for the long haul.
This special day for the children in the community, was followed up with a similar training for BSF families the following day where parents, caregivers and children also learned about child rights, child protection, and the dangers of drugs. There is a now a new awareness and a stronger commitment to keep children safe and protected in this beautiful mountainous community.
Here is what a couple of the beneficiaries had to say...
Ar Meeh said, "I had so much fun today during the shows. They made it so easy to understand why we need to say 'No' to drugs and protect ourselves."
In tears, Grandma Mee Tor said, "I am so glad that I can keep my granddaughter with me and raise her well. It was the right decision to keep her in our loving family (relatives suggested sending her to an orphanage after her parents split and abandoned the child) because we don't know what could happen to her if she wasn't with us, especially in a world with so many risks. I commit to do my best to keep protecting her from these dangers."
At BSF, our goal is to keep children in loving families in the village of Pha Dang Luang, and in all the communities where we work, preventing the relinquishment of children to orphanages. We believe the bonds of love and attachment between a young child and their loving parent/caregiver/grandparents in a family are worth fighting for and should be protected. Poverty or lack of access to education should not be a reason to separate a young child from a loving family. I believe we need to do more to prevent these types of relinquishments and separations. More than 120,000 children are living in orphanages and institutions in Thailand, and at least 90% of those have a parent or relative who could take care of them (“No Child Left Behind: No Less than 120,000 Children in Institutional Care in Thailand” Mahidol University, April 2023). Imagine how many of these children could be reunited with their loving families if they were able to be a part of a BSF family-strengthening program! I believe we need to spend our money to keep children in loving families and communities, rather than spending it to build more orphanages to take them out!
BSF is empowering families and building a greater awareness in the community of Pha Dang Luang, and in all of the seven communities where we work in Thailand. We are working to prevent more trucks from rolling into another village to load up children and take them to another unknown orphanage. We are doing all we can with the resources we have to help protect as many families as possible, to prevent abuse of all kinds, and to create happier and safer communities where children can flourish within a loving family.
There are so many more families and villages who need our help...including more than 100,000 children in Thailand who have families but are already institutionalized. Through your partnership, we can do so much more to reach our target of 500 families by 2029! Would you please consider making a Christmas gift donation so we can invite another loving, precious, at-risk family to join one of our family-strengthening programs next year? They will be empowered to remain together...what a gift that is to a poor family this Christmas! Thank you so much for your partnership with us in this vital family ministry.
BSF is a partner for project J1079 & J1102 with Australian NGO, Global Development Group (ABN 57 102 400 993). Donations to BSF through Global Development Group are tax deductible in Australia, NZ, and the USA.
Building Strong Families Foundation or มูลนิธิสร้างครอบครัวเข้มแข็ง is a registered foundation in Thailand (ชม770), approved by the Ministry of Interior.