About us
The Fellowship Foundation for Child and Youth Development (FCYD) is a local registered organization for child development in the Northeast Region of Thailand (or Esaan) with the mission of quality development for child education and health. In 2024, the FCYD Foundation completed a decade of dedication, growth, and invaluable contributions to the lives of children in the Esaan region. As a result of our successful performances, the FCYD Foundation was also certified as a charitable organization by the Ministry of Finance and received the National Leadership Award for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication from the Ministry of Interior, Thailand.
What is an Esaan region? Bordered by Laos and the Mekong River to the north and east and by Cambodia to the southeast, these 20 provinces in Thailand’s northeast have long been the country’s poorest and least fertile region. Agriculture in the region is extremely problematic. The climate is prone to drought, while the flat terrain of the plateau is often flooded in the rainy season, a fundamental cause of household poverty. Millions of Esaan people have migrated from homes to Bangkok and larger cities seeking work, filling the roles of construction workers, taxi drivers, cleaners, vendors, dishwashers, domestics, prostitutes, and other menial professions, often settling in shanty towns on the outskirts of the cities. Employment opportunities in rural Esaan villages are scarce. Because of this, many parents seek work in Bangkok and other cities, leaving their children in the care of their grandparents or relatives in the villages. As grandparents age and care for their farms, many village children are loosely supervised and are, as a result, more at risk of becoming involved in gangs, experimenting with drugs, and engaging in other risky behaviors.
Our vision is that every child in Esaan has the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential in life.
FCYD’s Core Values are:
Integrity – we always operate in a transparent, fair, compassionate and sensitive way recognizing the difficulties and traumas that a child may have suffered
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – we respect all people regardless of their background and needs. We treat every child and family fairly and with no judgment.
Collaboration – we feel empowered to make decisions and take action, and working well with all stakeholders and partners.
Social Cohesion – we work closely with all stakeholders to ensure ultimate goal of child development and well-relationship creativity among community members.
Our mission is to work in the best interests of disadvantaged children in Esaan region of Thailand by helping them access services and education to ensure their basic needs are met and they have the opportunity to continue to thrive. We do this in four ways:
- Supporting vulnerable children in immediate need to access basic services where there are child protection and safeguarding concerns. We ensure these children are moved to safety as soon as possible through our partnership networks. (Protection and Assistance to the Children living with Difficult Circumstances)
- Advocacy – FCYD speaks up for a child’s right to education and works to remove barriers to school especially in rural communities by liaising with schools, parents, local authorities and partner organizations. [Promotion the Right to Education (RTE) for underprivileged child and youth]
- Strategic partnerships – FCYD recognizes the importance of Thai children learning life skills and English language. We know that being able to have good life skills and speak English significantly increases a child’s life prospects in terms of access to higher education and future employment opportunities. We help children through strategic partnerships, and more specifically, the Teach Thai Student (TTS) programme which aims to recruit life skill mentors and English language teachers for Thai students in rural areas where there are teacher shortages.
- Education and sustainability – FCYD understand that in an ideal world, every child will have their basic and emotional needs met so that they grow into secure and capable adults. Sadly, in our uncertain world, this does not always happen in Esaan, there are real problems that prevent children from getting the start in life that they deserve. An important pillar of our work is to educate parents and schools on the importance of early intervention in relation to child development and in a way that is inclusive. We believe no child should be left behind regardless of their needs. According to our core values and on behalf of a certified social worker’s duty, we work with relevant local authorities and partners to ensure that all children, no matter what difficulties they face, from various disabilities to child abuse and domestic violence, would have a prompt response, protection, and prevention for their life resilience.
Due to societal changes, parenting approaches, imbalanced economy and insufficient discretion to be selective of positive values, safety and security remains a problem for Thai children and youth. Dangers and risks come from different sources; internal within families and communities and external ones from inappropriate living environments for example entertainment places (pubs & bars nearby educational institutes). These are all concerned contexts to the child and youth-related problems. We are committed to networking with all partners in order to ensure cooperation of efficient work approaches and methodologies. With the good cooperative works, it’s strongly believed that Our Mission would be managed and received successful performances and be able to upgrade and enrich the development works to meet higher standards.