| Description:
As the year 1996 is the 50th anniversary
of His Majesty the King Accession to the
Throne, BPW-Bangkok had aimed to build a
professional training center for young women
as a tribute to this auspicious occasion.
BPW-Bangkok had considered several projects
with Department of Social Welfare and chose
a Professional Training project for young
women in Prae Province.
Problem:
The
problems facing many young women in poverty-ridden
rural area in Thailand are the inadequate
access to education. To earn a living, many
of them migrate to Bangkok and fall pray
to people who turned them into prostitutes.
Department of Social Welfare addressed this
problem by establishing Training center
to conduct professional trainings for these
women. The trainings help them to acquire
skills to have careers in their own province.
Objective:
The
objective is to help promote the distribution
of quality laborers to be employed in the
rural area. This also prevents major migration
of young women into Bangkok – a practice
which often led to illegal employment. .
Approaches:
For
Prae province, ththe department of social
welfare was in need of funding 300,000 baht
(approximately US$12,000 in 1996) fund to
cover construction cost of a one story Training
Center. BPW-Bangkok offers to help raise
such funding. But a visit to Prae province
revealed yet another problems. The problem
is the lack of continuity in attending training
courses for women from the hill tribes area.
Their villeges are far away from the community
area. Transportation to these villages is
often hazardous, especially in the raining
season.
To
address the problem, BPW-Bangkok proposed
instead to build a two-stories Training
Center. The first floor is for variety of
training as originally intended. The second
floor includes boarding room for young women
to stay during the training. BPW-Bangkok
pledged to raise fund to cover the construction
cost, which has increased to 500,000 baht
(approximately US$20,000 in 1996).
Activities:
Fund raising activities
by BPW-Bangkok cover the following activities:
|
BPW-Bangkok
coorperated with Credit Center at
Siam Commercial Bank and Imperial
Hotel to host an exhibit of paintings
by National Artist, Sawat Tantisuk,
along with other teachers’ and
students’ paintings from 5 art
institutions. |
|
BPW-Bangkok coorperated
with Amarin Plaza Shopping Center
to host a Trade Exhibit. |
|
BPW-Bangkok coorperated
with Credit Center at Siam Commercial
Bank to host the art work of two national
artists: Sawat Tantisuk and Professor
Prayad Pongdum, along with works of
other freelances. |
|
BPW-Bangkok coorperated
with Credit Center at Siam Commercial
Bank to host the show of Thai merchandises
under the slogan “Rom Jai Ruk
– Samak Jai Sui” (Join
our hearts and buy volunteerly). |
|
BPW-Bangkok coorperated
with The Rainbow Journal to host a
fashion show gala dinner “The
night of the beautiful rainbow”. |
The
project completion: On Saturday 22 February
1997, BPW-Bangkok held a hand-over ceremony
to give the buiding to the Training center
at Prae Province. Along with the building,
members of BPW-Bangkok also gave refrigurator,
television set, VCR, fan, chairs, bed, mattress,
blankets, medicine cabinet etc.
Results:
As
of March 1999, department of social welfare
had used the Training Center building at
Prae Province to board and train 120 women
to learn how to work as tailors. The center
also accepts jobs from clothes factories
to make both ready-made clothes and undergarment
in order to pass the work along to women
who already finished their training. As
the result, these women went from earning
no income to earning the average income
of 150 baht a day (or about 3,300 bahts
a month). More important, they stay in their
province and did not fall pray to prostitution.
Project Team:
During , the project
team include:
Under the Royal Patronage
of H.M. the Queen (BPW-Bangkok)
Mrs. Maleeratna Plumchitchom (President)
Young BPW participation:
- |
Krongthip Treesart,
Managing Director of Cr. Bureau International
Co., Ltd. |
- |
Jeeranun Fakphunphai,
Chairperson of YCW in BPW-Bangkok (1998-2000) |
Evidence:
Submitted
with this paper is the photographs taken
at the Professional Training Center’s
building at Prae at the day of the hand-over
ceremony, the photographs taken from the
fund raising activities, and the photographs
from the training activities at this building.
These photographs will also be available
at www.nectec.or.th/sll/Beyond2000.
Other
evidence, as far as official letters from
government are in Thai. So they are not
present here. However, they can be made
available upon request.
Contact:
Mrs. Maleeratna Plumchitchom
(President)
Tel. (662) 256-2899
Last update: year 2000
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