Protecting children – and fighting bullying – in Thailand

In Thailand the CWS child safeguarding team is working to support The Church of Christ in Thailand as it mobilizes its communities – schools, orphanages, churches and hospitals – to understand and embrace its 2016 Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct. Recently, the team surveyed young students about their feelings about safety and, more broadly, their happiness (satisfaction) with their school and home lives.

Three schools – Sri Thammarat Suksa School in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Sajja Pittaya School in Bangkok and Dara Academy in Chiang Mai Province – were included in the most recent surveys, where more than 650 students completed surveys to share their feelings and ideas about feeling safe and protected, or not. Once the survey results are compiled and analyzed, results will be shared with key leaders and duty bearers, and some student leaders, during a Child Safeguarding School Network Conference.

In addition to their important learning about Thai children’s safety concerns in formal surveys and follow-up, the team also led “Bullying Awareness” sessions in the three school so the Church can raise awareness about this issue among students. Office of Child Protection colleagues were interested to support the awareness-raising because national Department of Mental Health information shows that Thailand ranks second in the world for high prevalence of school bullying. During the session students learned about many kinds of bullying and how to respond if they are bullied or see another child bullied. Most important, the team tried to emphasize that violence is never the right response to any kind of bullying: verbal or physical.