Vittaya Yoondorn
Welfare officials reviewed successful examples of
intervention to help homeless and endangered children as Pattaya’s
Subcommittee on Children Protection held its first meeting.
Deputy Mayor Wutisak
Rermkitkarn presides over the child-protection committee’s 1st meeting.
Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn, the panel’s chairman,
told executives from area orphanages, shelters, public health offices and
police stations about the rescue of a year-old Thai-German girl being
neglected by her mentally ill mother and alcoholic father. The child was
moved into protective care by social worker Arunrassamee Bunkerd of the
Pattaya Social Welfare Department to the Chonburi Children and Family Home.
The deputy mayor also updated attendees on the case of
homeless woman Manee Sunklang, 32, and her 9-year-old child. She was picked
up again wandering Pattaya Beach and moved to the Hand to Hand Foundation
shelter.
The meeting concluded with a report about the
Experimental Classroom Management for Personal Status project, which seeks
to give homeless people proof of citizenship so they can qualify for health
and welfare services.
From October 2011 to August, 14 homeless individuals were
approved and certified as Thai nationals while three who could not produce
proper documentation were denied. One female applicant is still waiting for
approval and 12 people are undergoing DNA testing. Five died while waiting
for their paperwork to go through.
