Thailand: fighting HIV/AIDS and lifting families out of extreme poverty
FXB was very active in Thailand from 1990 to 2012, running numerous programs to combat poverty, build the capacities of vulnerable communities and families, and prevent HIV/AIDS. Ad hoc education-related programs continue to be run, on a voluntary basis, by the committee members of its small local branch.
Our work in Thailand
1. FXB emergency shelter
In 1990, FXB opened two FXB Emergency Shelters in Bangkok, in partnership with CPCR and MSF, to take in girls who had escaped from brothels or been evacuated by the police. A third FXB Home was soon opened in Chiang Mai and a fourth in Chiang Rai. The program has since been taken over by a local NGO.
In 1992, FXB opened 4 FXB Homes for orphans, HIV-positive children and AIDS patients in Chiang Mai province. They offer much more than medical care, they are based on the concept of Tender Loving Care: the conviction that these children will have a better and longer life if they are welcomed into a family setting, surrounded by tenderness and benefiting from attentive care (FXB has also implemented this Tender Loving Care concept in Colombia, Brazil and the United States).
The opening of these Houses also represents a significant step forward in the fight against stigmatization and discrimination against these children, and provides an alternative means of access to palliative care for the young residents. As soon as antiretroviral drugs became available in the region, FXB's strategy was - as with all FXB Houses - to hand over this project to a local NGO, in this case the Support for Children Foundation, so that it could devote itself fully to other development projects in Thailand.
2. Prevention programs
Also in 1990, FXB set up HIV/AIDS prevention, education and human and children's rights awareness programs in Bangkok, Buriram province and, through a local radio station, in the mountainous regions where the Akha people live.
3. Palliative care hospice for AIDS patients
From 1993 to 1995, FXB - in partnership with the monk Ahra Alingar (PRA ALONGOT ) - supported the launch of a pioneering hospice in the Buddhist temple of Lopburi, dedicated to caring for AIDS patients at the end of their lives. This hospice, offering medical and spiritual support to help patients live and die with AIDS, is today run by the Dhammaraksanives Foundation.
4. Rescue operation for prostitutes
In 1994, a national committee - made up of representatives of the Thai government, NGOs (including FXB) and bodies such asUNICEF, theInternational Labour Organization (ILO ) and theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM ) - was formed to launch a comprehensive national action plan to combat prostitution and human trafficking in Thailand.
This committee was set up following the rescue operation launched in 1992 by Albina du Boisrouvray, FXB's President and Founder, and Senator Saisuree Chutikul, then Advisor to the Thai Prime Minister on the Status of Women and Child Prostitution. In July 1992, the Association received a call for help from girls working on the Thai-Burmese border. These young women were subjected to sexual slavery, beaten, malnourished and at high risk of HIV/AIDS. Albina du Boisrouvray alerted Saisuree Chutikul. The police carried out a raid and freed 153 women and girls, including 95 young Burmese girls. Aged between 14 and 20, 50% of them were HIV-positive. They were repatriated to their country of origin a few months later. In September 1993, FXB opened a pilot project there, offering individualized reintegration based on the aspirations and aptitudes of each of the young women, and on Myanmar's economic market opportunities.
5. Tsunami reconstruction
In 2005, following the tsunami of December 2004, FXB became involved in a project to rebuild boats for "Mokens" fishermen, and for over a year organized psychosocial support sessions in schools in Phuket and Phangnga.
6. Fighting the multidimensional causes of poverty: 5 economic and community development projects VillageFXB
With the spread of the AIDS pandemic restricting the ability of families and communities to take in more orphans and children affected by the disease, FXB has also decided to replicate its VillageFXB poverty-reduction model in Thailand, which has had very positive results in Africa.
From 2006 to 2012, FXB ran 5 VillageFXB programs in the provinces of Buriram and Maha Sarakham. These programs have enabled more than 2,000 children and adults to achieve economic and social autonomy, have a positive impact on their communities and live a dignified life in their homeland. In particular, they have enabled vulnerable grandparents to protect and raise AIDS and tsunami orphans they have taken in.
Our impact in Thailand
were carried out in the provinces of Buriram and Maha Sarakham from 2006 to 2012.
have achieved economic and social autonomy, making a positive impact on their communities and living a dignified life in their own country.
Through its interventions, FXB also helped pave the way for an improvement in Thai national legislation with the "Act on the Prevention and Punishment of Trafficking in Women and Children" (1997).