Thai migrant learning centres; a lifeline for Burmese youth
Saturday, 24 December 2011 10:00
Teerapap Pengjun
Download Under Thai government policy, all children, regardless of their status in the country, can attend school for free, but many of the hundreds of thousands of migrant children from neighboring Burma do not.
For many it’s because they can’t speak Thai or they have to work to support their families.
There are more than 2 million migrants who live and work in Thailand and less than half are officially registered making it hard for NGOs and the government to reach their children and put them in schools.
Migrant learning centres run by local NGOs and supported by the Thai Ministry of Education are providing a much needed alternative.
Teerapap Pengjun went to visit one such centre, the Wat Pa Pao Learning Centre in Chiang Mai.
Saturday, 26 November 2011 13:30
Zoe Daniel Radio Australia
Download Thailand is a centre for high-tech manufacturing and massive flooding in the past month has inundated industrial estates around Bangkok which make computer, camera and automotive parts.
Now, leading manufacturers such as Toshiba and Western Digital are predicting sharp price rises after more than a quarter of the world's hard drive production was wiped out.
It will take months to repair the damage.
Zoe Daniel, South-East Asia correspondent for Radio Australia reports.
Saturday, 05 November 2011 14:12
Zoe Daniel Radio Australia
Download The good news for Bangkok is that the city centre seems to have avoided the massive flooding that has crippled outlying areas of the Thai capital.
The bad news is that it could be more than a month before the floodwaters recede.
Some residents are angry about the way authorities have handled flood protection and prevention and they want flood barriers opened up to release the water.
Influential Burmese monk refuses to be silenced: Burma has recently been thrust into the international spotlight. Following the landslide victory of the National League for Democracy in the April by-election and Aung San Suu Kyi finally taking a seat in parliament – Burma is being hailed as Asia’s newest democracy. But the government continues to limit the public, and sometimes political, activities of Burma’s Buddhist monks. Prominent monk Ashin Pyinnyar Thiha is banned from giving any speeches and was recently evicted from his monastery in Rangoon. Citra Dyah Prastuti travels to Hmaw-Bi Township on the outskirts of Rangoon to meet him.
Single Mothers Fight Prejudice in South Korea: In many parts of the world, May is the month for mothers. But in South Korea, there’s also a special day for single mothers, unwed women who raise their children solo. Being a single mom is tough – but in South Korea it brings shame upon the entire family. Many children born out of wedlock are kept secret and adopted overseas. But the adoptees are now returning home to find their birth mothers and are working to curb the prejudice single mothers still face. Jason Strother has the story from Seoul.