‘Moving TLSDF Forward to the 24th Anniversary’
The Life Skills Development Foundation (TLSDF) was founded in 1998 as part of Save the Children USA’s transition strategy when it closed down its operational presence in Thailand. Our vision is to see every child in our impact areas enjoy their inherent rights and the overall mission is to empower and build the capacity of the individuals and groups responsible for ensuring the basic rights of children. At the program level, our mission is to promote child rights and life skill education with and for disenfranchised children, to enhance their fullest potential development, reducing risk behaviors and factors that may harm their quality of life.
The operations of TLSDF’s program in 2021, have been a challenging year continuing from the year 2020 in many aspects, especially the epidemic of coronavirus which made it necessary to revise several project work plans and methodologies of organizing activities according to the COVID-19 “Preventive Measures”. Most activities required the use of online channels to a combination of on-site activities with hybrid communication channels. Every staff had to make a lot of effort to adapt to the frequency of activities as online communication may not produce the same full participation as meetups. We have to increase our capacity, especially the skills to use new technologies, and seek ways to organize activities to achieve the project objectives while funding opportunities for ongoing and new projects are fewer. Our team is, therefore, able to get approval of only two new project proposals, one of them started to be implemented in late 2021 and the other one will be implemented in 2022. Other than that, they are continuation projects from 2020. Although there are ongoing efforts to raise funds for the organization’s programs and operation in response to the situation of children and young people who were affected by their living conditions due to the infringing of their rights. It is not enough to fully meet the need to help those children and families. Therefore, accepting donations through online channels and donation boxes from the public for living funds provision and COVID-19 preventative gear still needs to be carried out.
Without hesitation, TLSDF’s team committed and dedicated their full potential to the program operation according to our organization’s vision, ‘Rights for Every Child’, we envision that all children in our program impact areas proud of their life skills acquisition regarding their entitled rights and resilient though they are vulnerable and disadvantaged living in Upper Northern of Thailand. In 2021, we successfully ran the directed implementing programs in parallel with the child rights advocacy programs which collaborated with our child rights-focused networks at local, national, and international levels. Please review our 2021 achievement implementing 11 projects and tasks in the following.
1. Our ‘Pediatric and Family Cardiac Program’ (PFCP) continued its life-saving mission by providing financial assistance to 26 structural heart disease patients who lacked full healthcare coverage through the state’s Universal Health Insurance program. Thank you to EDWARDS Lifescience Foundation and Daiichi Sankyo (Thailand) Limited.
2. Our ‘Developing Migrant Adolescents through Community-Based Collaboration and Youth Leaders Participation’ made further progress in providing career advancement to 1034 ethnic and migrant adolescents with a strong effort of migrant youth leaders and community volunteers responding to reach for the unreached families who were impacted by COVID-19 outbreak since 2020 until present time. Thank you to 7 partnership schools and UNICEF Thailand for their dedication and support.
3. A year after the huge intervention of Migrant Community Volunteers (MCV) and Youth Leaders (MYL) working with and for their peers and families to mitigate impacts of COVID-19” in 2020, a group of MYL launched their campaign activities urging all relevant agencies to reach out to the unreached; migrant families, and high hill ethnic and indigenous communities, providing vaccines, psychosocial support, COVID-19 preventive gears such as masks, soap, and disinfectant gel including living fund, and financial support without discriminatory practices for all with concerned in particular the LGBTQI peoples. Thank you to Save the Children Thailand for its last-long partnership.
4. Our two-year pilot project on ‘Migrant Women Empowerment for Children’s Health Care and Development Promotion’ (MWEC) successfully formed 8 migrant women self-help groups comprised of 84 members who take care of 92 children. In 2022, with their bigger amount of savings funds, they are ready to look for a better livelihood for their families as well as their children’s health care and education. Thank you for the support by kinder not hilfe (KNH)
5. The project to support the development of teachers and children who are not able to access the educational system through the CSO’s area-based networks: Northern Thailand (Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces) which implemented by The Life Skills Development Foundation (TLSDF) or RakDek in Thai was completed, May 2020 – July 2021, and successfully reached out to 353 unreached early childhood care and development (aged 1-5 years) and 112 adolescents who never access to any state’s sponsor educational institutions. Among these numbers, 155 of them are stateless children. Thank you for the support of the Equity Education Fund (EEF) for this amazing project.
6. The project called ‘Think Global, Act Local for the Best Interest of the Child: Strengthening and Empowering the Sub-regional Child-rights Focused Organizations as a Network to Fulfill their Responsibilities for Child Rights Promotion and Protection’ was a strong wind beneath TLSDF’s wings to keep the momentum of current initiatives of the two child rights – focused networks in upper northern Thailand aiming to empower them to carry on their child rights campaigns, policy advocacy, training and strategic communication with their peer children, parents, duty bearers at the local community, and to national policymakers. Thank you, CRC Asia, for the technical and financial support to the in-country activity implemented by TLSDF.
7. ‘Build Back Better’: Empowering the Ethnic and Indigenous Youth Network and Child Rights-focused CSO Coalition in Upper Northern Thailand. Our new project started in October 2021, complimented our current initiatives of the two child rights-focused networks in upper northern Thailand; the ‘Ethnic and Indigenous Youth Network’ and the Child Rights Focused Civil Society Organizations called ‘Lanna CRC Coalition’ (LCRC). The project activities contributed to the two networks’ capacity-building, and campaigning activities on the Universal Children’s Day in 2021. We thank the Diakonia Thailand for their invaluable support to TLSDF.
8. Another collaborating project with CRC Asia; ‘Thailand In – Country Children and Youth Consultation’, Children and Youth Consultations and Regional Virtual Forum on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific’. TLSDF and World Vision Foundation Thailand have organized face-to-face consultations with children and youth in Chiang Mai through five online consultations from January to April 2021. These consultations allowed us to learn what consequences the stateless children have encountered when they have problems with civil registration systems and major gaps of government services on CRVS and depicted the picture of many stateless children in Thailand who are struggling for a better life, however without proper and effective civil registration system, they get turned down or are left behind without reasoning.
The obtained information from these consultations widened the TLSDF team’s perspective, as ‘we are striving to work with and for migrant children, as well as the youths or ‘children on the move’ as one of four child’s rights themes. Ending all violence against children, creating online child protection, promoting child rights in a healthy environment, and protecting the rights of migrant children is a goal that TLSDF is committed to accomplish.
9. In 2021, we were continuing our first ever humanitarian response program in regarding to COVID-19 outbreak as in 2020; Distributing protective tools; soap bar, hands washing gel, face masks, etc., and relief kits worth 700 Th.B. for the most affected children and families in particular the migrant people. We reached for another 1000+ ethnic and migrant populations in 2021. Our appreciation for public awareness and donation made through TLSDF, together we are paving way forward to the post COVID-19 era.
10. TLSDF’s living fund and safety home building maintained its operation and provided support to the urgently needy children with support from public donation boxes and private gift through TLSDF’s online account.
11. TLSDF’s six scholarships provided to 6 junior high school students helping them to walk across the bridge of compulsory education as counted for 23 years.
On behalf of the Life Skills Development Foundation (TLSDF), my indeed appreciation for the network of all partners, every organization, every agency from government sector, private sector, business, Community Leaders and Community Volunteers including the youth leaders in all TLSDF’s impact areas who support, cooperate and participate in the foundation’s program activities throughout the fiscal year 2021, and I would like to thank the organizations and agencies that provided academic and budget support for our program operation, namely UNICEF Thailand, Save the Children Thailand, Edwards LifeSciences Foundation and Daiichi Sankyo Thailand, limited, CRC Asia, Kinder Not Hilfe, Diakonia Thailand, and the Education Equality Fund (EEF) including all people who donated to TLSDF’s donation boxes and online account with K-Bank.
For the fiscal year 2022, TLSDF or RakDek in Thai will continue and striving our works for the rights of children in the changing situation in Thai and global society which may infringe their entitled rights and will affect the welfare and quality of their lives, such as acts of violence against children in all forms and places, natural environment that causes various disasters, living in a risky digital environment that must be consciously adjusted, and the living conditions, health care and education of children who have to migrate both within the country and across the country which create vulnerabilities and risks in order to survive, to be safe and to grow up to be global citizens with the same qualities as other children.
With faith and commitment in Child Rights Promotion and Protection
Kreangkrai Chaimuangdee
Executive Director and General Secretary
มูลนิธิรักษ์เด็ก
Chiang Mai, Thailand.
TLSDF’s program in 2022; ‘Moving TLSDF Forward to the 24th Anniversary’
In 2022, TLSDF will continue implementing our 6 projects as listed below.
1. The ‘Pediatric and Family Cardiac Program’ (PFCP) support by Edwards Lifescience Foundation and Daiichi Sankyo company
2. The ‘Developing Migrant Adolescents through Community-Based Collaboration and Youth Leaders Participation’ support by UNICEF Thailand
3. The ‘Migrant Women Empowerment for Children’s Health Care and Development Promotion’ (MWEC) support by kinder not hilfe (KNH)
4. The ‘Build Back Better’: Empowering the Ethnic and Indigenous Youth Network and Child Rights-focused CSO Coalition in Upper Northern Thailand support by Diakonia Thailand.
5. TLSDF’s living fund and safety home building support by public donation boxes and private gift through TLSDF’s online account.
6. TLSDF’s scholarships support by TLSDF’s capital fund’s benefit.
There are three TLSDF’s project proposals are under development.
7. Organize In-Country consultation on Climate Justice for Children, Youth and Future Generations support by CRC Asia
8. Creating an Advanced Transformation of Civil Society Environment for Resilience Building in Multi-Hazard Settings; A Regional Partnership Project of Plan International Asia Regional Hub and Child Rights Coalition Asia
9. ‘Put Everyone in the Picture’: Empowering Stateless Children and Their Families, Teachers and Local Volunteers Claiming for their Rights for Civil Registration. A proposal by The Life Skills Development Foundation (TLSDF) submitted to U.S. Embassy Julia Taft Fund 2022.
10. “Empowering Migrant Community Volunteers (MCV) and Migrant Youth Leaders (MYL) to work with and for their peers and families mitigating impacts of COVID-19”. A concept note is ready for fund raising with Give2Asia, 100CAMERAs, and CAF America.
มูลนิธิรักษ์เด็ก (TLSDF)
159/114 Anusarn Villa T.Padeat A.Mueang Chiang Mai 50100 Thailand.
Tel: +66 53 212 757 Fax: +66 53 212 758
Email: tlsdfrd2021@gmail.com www.rakdek.org
