Neighbours anxious for teenage mother
Residents in Pathum Thani are urging local authorities or charities to help an intellectually disabled 16-year-old girl who has just given birth and continues to live in a leaky, run-down shack with her 49-year-old father, who has the same condition.
The Nation on Wednesday found the teenager and her father Phot (last name withheld) in the Khlong 10 area in Thanyaburi district and discovered the building had no electricity or running water.
Neighbours had connected power and tap water for their temporary use out of pity for the 22-day-old baby girl.
Phot, who earns Bt200 a day from a delivery job, said he had been separated from the girl’s mother for almost a decade and stayed at this unregistered house after his dad.
His daughter said some people had taken advantage of due to her intellectual disability and a friend had raped her when she was just 13 years old.
She said she had previously worked in a restaurant and became pregnant to her boyfriend of just one month, with whom she lived at his aunt’s house.
He had repeatedly assaulted her during her pregnancy, she said, so she ran away to live with her dad. He had not visited her, nor given her any financial support, since she gave birth on August 8.
A neighbour, Phochana Meesriyong, said both the father and daughter were mentally challenged and she confirmed others had taken advantage of them.
Phochana said Bee was a kind girl who had helped run errands for her so her family had decided to help by connecting power and running water for them.
However, she was concerned that the baby might fall sick and be in urgent need of support, so she wanted the local authority or a charitable organisation to help take care of them.