The Mekong Regional Indigenous Child Rights Home (MRICRH) is a community based support service and safe shelter. It incorporates a Half Way Home, a Child Protection and Rights (CPR) Centre for Hill Tribe Children and a twenty-four hour hotline. It is an independent NGO. However, it operates in conjunction with the Government Hill Tribe Development and Welfare Centre in Chiang Rai. We support and shelter trafficking victims and women and children in difficult circumstances. We offer protection and re-habilitation for women and children and their families. We also assist those who are at risk of being trafficked for prostitution or for other exploitative child labour situations.
We assist this group in the following ways:
- Offering emergency shelter for abused or abandoned children.
- Supporting and arranging repatriation for women and children who are victims of trafficking.
- Improving the material, social and spiritual quality of life for these children and their communities through education and vocational training opportunities.
- Teaching children to be proud of themselves, their cultures and customs through extracurricular activities which focus on self-esteem building. In doing so, children can make make positive life changes.
Women and children in local hill tribes and in the Upper Mekong Region are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and trafficking. This is often a consequence of cultural, societal and economical difficulties that these communities face in adjusting to the constant economic development which is going on around them.
The Objectives of the MRICRH are to:
- Support, protect and report on problems pertaining to children and youth in local hill tribes and in the Upper Mekong Region.
- Analyze development policies and plans of the four countries and their effects on the quality on the life of children. Our focus is particularly on problems related to labour, prostitution, drugs and health.
- Meet to exchange and build relationships with experts in the Upper Mekong Region.
- Exchange information about the situation of the problems of the children in each region.
- Build networks and co- operation to help support children and advocate for their rights.
Postal address:
Mekong Regional Indigenous Child Rights Home
Hilltribe Welfare and Development Centre
Chiang Rai Province
P.O Box 12
Mae Chan
Chiang Rai 57110
Fax number:
09 - 85 12 574
Phone number:
09 - 8508 339 (Hotline)
E-mail address:
halfwayhome@depdc.org
MRICRH is supported by Oxfam Novib (Netherlands) |
