Campaign uses education to improve the lot of girls

Despite her stateless status, she could attend Thesabal Wat Paknam School, where she studies in Prathom 6. “No one at school mocks me about my stateless status and I am going to continue my Mathayom 1 education,” the hopeful girl said.

Liangheng is among many children who joined the school’s “Young Entrepreneur” project, funded by Plan International Organisation (Thailand) and Citibank. She learned how to make and sell sushi every day after class, as the school project provided each student a Bt100 share per week. “I deposit my earnings from the project into the school’s bank so I can eventually buy a pair of gym shoes and stationery, without having to ask for money from my parents,” the girl said.

Liangheng’s teacher, Budsayamas Ansaen, said 80 per cent of the school’s pupils were poor, as most parents worked in fisheries or rubber plantations, while about half of the pupils were Thai-Cambodian and a few were stateless persons. Most kids here were able to study Mathayom 1 and then they – boys and girls alike – slipped out of the school system because the community didn’t give much importance to education. 

“Some girls aged 17-18 are already sending their kids to kindergarten class,” she said, adding the school tried its best to educate kids but it eventually was up to each kid whether he or she wants to stay on the right track. “Some kids just go astray,” she added.

Liangheng’s project was part of the “Because I am a girl” international campaign, which has been run for the fifth consecutive year by Plan International (Thailand) and the business sector to promote education and elevate the life quality and vocational skills of girls.

On Friday, country director Maja Cubarrubia told a Bangkok seminar held to mark the October 11 International Day of the Girl Child that stateless girls had to labour for Bt120-Bt200 daily wage, while some worked at karaoke bars and restaurants, which put them at risk of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Providing them educational opportunities would help them get better jobs and a better life, she said.

Another speaker, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, Darren N Buckley, said two-thirds of global women were labourers who still couldn’t access all rights equally as their male counterparts, while millions of women slipped out of the education system due to poverty. If women were provided with education and jobs, it would enable the economy to develop by 90 per cent hence the business sector should participate in providing support to girls, he urged. 

Earlier, new data revealed by Unicef showed the magnitude of violence against adolescent girls worldwide and the alarming attitudes that perpetuate such abuse. The key statistics include: 

_ Almost a quarter of girls aged 15 to 19 (about 70 million) report being victims of some form of physical violence from age 15. 

_ Around 120 million girls under the age of 20 (about 1 in 10) have experienced forced sexual acts, and one in three married adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (84 million) have been victims of emotional, physical or sexual violence committed by their partners. 

_ In some countries, as many as seven in 10 girls aged 15 to 19 who had been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse had never sought help: Many said they did not think it was abuse or did not see it as a problem.

_ Worldwide more than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. More than one in three (about 250 million) entered into union before age 15.