DEPDC

So I thought I should talk a little bit about the organization now that I have been here fore a week and know more about it. It's called DEPDC which stands for Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities. So a bit of history, it started 21 years ago by Khun Sompop Jantraka. He was hired by a Japanese journalist to do some research about the sex trade industry in Thailand. He felt compelled to do something about human trafficking after the research. He then went on to establish an educational fund project and one year later, he had 19 girls in his project. He selected girls that he thought were most vulnerable - stateless, orphans etc. The program that was started was like a kind of a free boarding school with primary and secondary school available.

The organization grew bigger and had a much more significant impact over the years. Currently, DEPDC has two sites. One site is where I am right now in Mae Sai, and the other site is in Chiang Khong. I visited the Chiang Khong site yesterday and talked to the director and she told me a little more about the sex industry. She said that people who are most vulnerable to trafficking are people of ethnic minorities (like tribes up in the mountains on the border of Northern Thailand, Myanmar and Laos), uneducated girls, orphans, or abandoned or abused children. These kids are most gullible. She told me the story of what one of the girls who had been rescued from the industry had told her. She said that one way that human trafficking works is that there would be "agents" that would hang out in the weekend market and ask these vulnerable, gullible girls about whether they'd like to go to Bangkok to work as a waitress or what not. They'd tell them how exciting the city life is and often times, the girls would be convinced. They would then be brought out in a van and eventually trafficked. The girls at Chiang Khong site are either in the at risk group, or have been trafficked, rescued, and are rehabilitating. These girls live and board at the site, go to school, and are taught many useful life skills such as cooking and weaving.

DEPDC also has many other excellent programs (I'm not going to list them all, because they have many. But I will list the ones that I have directly seen, or been involved with so far). They have a Half-Day School, which is a school that is absolutely free to children. The curriculum was developed by Khun Sompop. They also have an evening school that is open to the public. They teach things like computer skills, English, and Thai. They have a 24-hour Child Help Line call center. They have a radio station which transmits ~40km radius that plays a lot of popular music and holds talk programs that interest the people in the region. Instead of having ads on air, they spread out the words about the human trafficking industry and what DEPDC does about it. Another program that they have is Mekong Youth Net, which is a program that trains young people aged 15-25 to be leaders. All of these kids come from the Greater Mekong Sub-region, most of them belong to an ethic minority group. They go through an intense training course which educates them about issues such as HIV, drug abuse and human rights. They are also given training in leadership skills and other useful skills. After they finish, they return to their community and work for a cause, usually for a GO, or an NGO. In the past 3 days, I've had the opportunity to work with the kids that have graduated from the program, who have returned to work for DEPDC. Matt (another volunteer) and I held a workshop for them about how to make the Child Voice Newspaper, which is a project that they are trying to launch. The newspaper would be for the community which will contain many things of interest to the locals here, and in place of advertisement on the newspaper, it would educate readers about DEPDC and the issues of human trafficking that is present in the region.

I am beyond impressed with how the programs here at DEPDC is so empowering for the people in this community here. It seems to me that they are giving these kids something that will last forever - a cycle of education that hopefully is passed on to the younger generations to come. It is estimated that 96% of the 4000 children that have gone through any of the various programs at DEPDC since its inception is kept out of the whole human trafficking industry. It is not uncommon to find almost the reverse statistics in other schools in the region. Khun Sompop and DEPDC had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 4 times already, including this up coming one!

I feel so blessed to be part of such an empowering organization; to work with a team of people with hearts of gold who never cease to inspire and dazzle me with their love and determination; and to learn from the people who have so little but give so much. I am absolutely thrilled and grateful to be here.