Baan Dek Foundation (BDF) is a Thai-registered foundation with a mission to provide access to education, health, and safety services for vulnerable children living in urban slums and construction site camps in Thailand. BDF maintains and builds upon an extensive network of multi-sector partnerships that contribute to its operations. BDF forms innovative MOU partnerships with Thai real estate and construction companies to reach large numbers of vulnerable families in need of access to health, education, and safety services, and establishes relationships with public services to support these families (ex. public schools, health centers, shelters, and the Ministries of Health and Education). Today, BDF directly supports over 2,000 vulnerable children in Thailand every year thanks to the support of our generous donors. Additionally, BDF achieves systemic impact in the Thai construction sector by working with major property and construction companies to improve living conditions for labor migrants and their families. In March 2018, BDF launched a joint research publication with UNICEF Thailand entitled “Building Futures in Thailand: Support to Children Living in Construction Site Camps.” This research presents key findings and recommendations, entitled the “Chiang Mai Framework for Action (CMFA)”, for improving the lives of tens of thousands of children growing up in construction site camps throughout Thailand.

International , International Relief

We provide non-formal education, community empowerment, and child development programs.

Throughout recent decades, Thailand’s economic growth has struggled to include its disadvantaged populations. Migrant children are among the country’s most vulnerable groups: approximately 3.5 million migrant workers cross the borders for new opportunities in Thailand, and they often bring their children with them. Of those migrant children, tens of thousands live in construction site camps with slum-like conditions, representing one of the most vulnerable groups of migrants. These children are often left unattended in these severely hazardous living environments while their parents are at work on construction sites. They experience limited access to essential services and their fundamental rights, and are at high risk of neglect, abuse and exploitation. Children and families living in construction site camps in Thailand face many barriers to exercising their right to access public services such as health centers and public schools.

Thailand