Background

The economic recovery from the tsunami has been slow and demanding; increasingly, more and more families felt increasing pressures to place their children into institutional care homes while they focused on re-building their lives. These alternative childcare establishments, included, (but were not limited to), group homes, orphanages, temporary residential care (foster care) and boarding schools.

 

Main concerns

The main concerns of the research project were:

  • To discover how the organisations were being regulated and coordinated
  • To determine whether there were legal provisions for children without parental care, family or community based care
  • To establish the organisational roles in terms of alternative childcare, and the responsible government authorities operating within the childcare sector
Due to the indeterminable status of children affected by the tsunami, UNICEF was supporting the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security to develop a policy on alternative care arrangements to promote family and community-based care.

 

Project overview

UNICEF commissioned a report, to be written by David Tolfree, an independent consultant, entitled and requested ChildTRAC's involvement to help instigate the necessary research. This project was intended to determine where and why gaps of information and action exist within alternative childcare establishments and our findings were summarised in our Alternative Childcare Evaluation Report

 

Methodology

ChildTRAC assisted the primary researcher (David Tolfree), by facilitating a series of interviews with caregivers and children within institutions, shelters, welfare homes and boarding schools. Our researchers used the ChildTRAC Speak out Kit (SOK) tool to interview the children in a non-confrontational manner and determine their well-being. ChildTRAC also collected information on the Thai legal system relating to childcare, government and private institutions, shelters, welfare homes and NGO’s.

 

Geographical scope

Information was gathered in the 6 tsunami-affected provinces in Southern Thailand: Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket, Satun, Trang, and Krabi. Additional information was also gathered from institutions located in neighbouring provinces to create a base for comparison between established institutions and those which were created post-tsunami. Additional provinces included Surathani, Na Kon Si Thamarat, Songkla, Yahla and Na Ti Wat.

 

Findings

All detailed findings are documented in David Tolfree’s ‘The Situation Analysis of Alternative Child Care in the Six Tsunami-Affected Provinces in Southern Thailand’ Report to which was published by UNICEF.