Situation
Numerous tribes, living in total isolation and deprivation. The children of these tribes are often victims of drugs, prostitution and AIDS. This situation is also found in Thai villages.
Due to lack of funding and teachers, schools are rare in these villages and surroundings. Difficult road conditions make it hard to travel the distance to the existing schools. Because there are so many different languages spoken, it is not easy to establish a national school system. As a result very few children of these tribes are educated. Drugs and AIDS have also devastating effects in the Thaï population.
Numerous children are forced into prostitution and end up on drugs. In some villages up to 70% of the 11-year-olds and older children are enslaved by the sex industry.
Action
Located near Chiang Rai, the centre of Le Sourire de Chiang Khong gives impoverished children from the northern tribes of Thailand education and schooling. It equips them to find jobs and live their future lives in dignity.
The centre also supports Thai children living in poor conditions in villages with existing adequate schools.
”Le Sourire de Chiang Khong” was founded in 1995 by Barbara Gautschi from Geneva, Switzerland and Prapapone Khotsanlee from Thailand. It was after working with victims of prostitution in Pattaya, a southern beach resort near Bankok, that they decided to address the very root of the problem – ignorance and poverty – in the northern regions of Thailand.