In collaboration with Pianist San Jittakarn, Steinway Thailand is presenting a Charity Concert for the Suwannimit Foundation and Mao Tao Clinic’s Children’s Development Centre’s (CDC) Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre, which aims to provide children from marginalized communities along the Thai-Burma order a great start towards lifelong learning.
Mozart Sonata in F major, K. 332: I. Allegro
Debussy Arabesque No. 2 in G major
Chopin Etude in G-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 6
Liszt Grandes Études de Paganini, S.141, No. 3 in G-Sharp minor “La campanella”
Schubert Sonata in A major, D. 664: I. Allegro moderato
Chopin Etude in E minor, Op. 25 No. 5
Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004
Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22
Chopin Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 50 No. 3
Mazurka in F-sharp minor, Op. 59 No. 3
Brahms Variations on Theme of Paganini, Op. 35
‘Eat, Play, Love’: An Early Childhood Development Center for marginalized children along the Thailand-Burma border
Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) has been providing essential health, education and protection services to marginalized populations along the Thai-Burma border since 1989. In 1995, Mae Tao Clinic founded Children’s Development Center (CDC), to provide the opportunity for displaced children to access basic education. All MTC programs are aimed at caring for vulnerable populations and take child protection and human rights into account, however programs have not been registered so far. With the founding of Suwannimit Foundation (SNF) in 2010, MTC’s Thai-registered partner, programs have become better connected with Thai institutions and aligned with Thai laws and regulations. Suwannimit Foundation continuously seeks opportunities to register MTC’s programs and embed them in Thai systems as much as possible.
Early childhood (0-7 years) is the most important period of development in a person’s life, a period when the brain develops language, social, emotional and motor skills. Thailand’s ‘Educational for All’ policy has opened the opportunity to all children residing in Thailand including non-Thai citizens to access free education services for 12 years, from pre-schooling up to compulsory education. Thailand has determined Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS) with corresponding indicators to measure children’s physical, social, emotional, cognitive, language, creative, and moral development.
Since Early Childhood Development (ECD) sets the foundation for lifelong learning, MTC and SNF wish to make this valuable contribution to children’s lives by starting an ECD center/kindergarten and officially embed it in the social service systems along the border. The project is expected to start in 2023-2024 academic year.
Displaced people from Burma along the Thai-Burma border have limited access to essential services due to several barriers, including high out-of-pocket expenses, language difficulties and lack of legal documentation. Situations of perpetual conflicts, economic insecurity and stress causes higher risks to these displaced children’s well-being, and severely affects the capacity of their brains to develop up to full potential. Risks associated with poverty (poor sanitation and nutrition) may lead to developmental delays. Further the post-traumatic stress disorder due to the recent armed conflicts among children are a growing concern in the region that should be addressed.
The majority of migrant, displaced and stateless parents are hesitant to enroll their children in the Thai education system due to fear of discrimination, cultural and language barriers. Migrant Learning Centers such as MTC’s CDC complement Thailand’s formal education system and help overcoming current barriers for migrant and stateless children to enroll into Thai Formal Government Schools.
This project aims to build and register CDC’s ECD Center under Thailand MoE’s private education. Hence, although registered ECD Center is compulsory to use Thai as main language we will also ensure children’s mother-tongue languages and their culture are incorporated well into daily teaching activities using Thai teachers and Burmese teaching assistants. Having Burmese teaching assistants is a major benefit to this project and a great predictor of project’s success, since evidence shows that children learn best when their mother language is available in the first years at school.
Our ECD Center will provide children from marginalized communities to have a great start towards lifelong learning, with better results on 4 key domains of early childhood development: literacy and numeracy; and social emotional development; physical development and learning/cognition. Research in Thailand has shown that children attending an ECD program have higher scores on these 4 domains than those who are not attending (94% versus 77%). Furthermore, if migrant students attending our ECD Center choose to continue their elementary level in Thai schools they would have higher chances of integrating and succeeding in the Thai education system. In addition, migrant or stateless children attending in official Thai schools are eligible to receive State recognition status from Thailand’s Ministry of Interior. The ECD center/Kindergarten under Thailand Ministry of Education, fostering the sustainability of the ECD program through eligibility for subsidy application.
This project aims for marginalized children along the Thai-Burma border to thrive and live up to their full potential, by setting the basis for lifelong learning at an ECD Center. Our ECD center will focus on education for children aged between 3 and 7 years; corresponding with the current CDC classes of nursery, KG 1 and KG 2.
Children will start learning Thai at an early age, supported by Burmese teaching assistants, fostering their integration into the Thai education system. An estimated 140-200 children will have access to these services per year. The outcome is to provide quality ECD services and in protective and nurturing family environments at a registered education facility. In order to achieve this goal, this project serves to meet the following objectives:
- To complete construction of an education facility following Thai National ECD Center standards
- To strengthen the capacity and tools of ECD professionals and caregivers under CDC to support the holistic development (physical, social, emotional, cognitive) of young migrant children in according to Thai Ministry of Education’s approach.
- To register ECD Center as private kindergarten under Thailand’s Ministry of Education under operational management of Suwannimit Foundation
- To provide children aged from 3 to 7 years with literacy and numeracy; and social emotional development; physical development and learning/cognition following the ECD Behavioral Competencies
 Tyrosvoutis, G. 2019 ‘Bridges. Participatory Action Research on the Future of Migrant Education in Thailand’ https://helpwithoutfrontiers.org/sites/helpwithoutfrontiers.org/files/resources-docs/eng_full_report_bridges.pdf
 UNICEF Thailand, 2017: https://au.eventscloud.com/file_uploads/da0380571f6e47b91fd183d90f5db471_HughDelaney.UNICEFECDinThailand_ARNEC_23Feb17.pdf
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