Background

Throughout Thailand , after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami hit, there was an estimated 2,300-2,500 Thai Tsunami orphans and an estimated 1,000 unrecorded migrant Tsunami orphans.   

​

In response to this UNICEF commissioned a report, to be written, entitled ‘The Situation Analysis of Alternative Child Care in the Six Tsunami-Affected Provinces in Southern Thailand’  and requested Child-TRAC's involvement to help instigate it's research. This project was intended to determine where and why gaps of information and action exist within alternative child care establishments. 

Our objective was to track each and every child orphaned by the December 2004 Tsunami and establish their current status.

 

Working with the Thai Social Department of Human Securities (SDHS), UNICEF, and other local partners, Child-TRAC located each child orphaned in the 2004 Tsunami.

​

After the child’s school, institution, residence or placement was located, we contacted their caregiver and/or teacher to arrange a time to interview both the child and relevant adults together and then separately. Specially trained staff were sent with our Speak Out Kit (SOK) assessment tool to help them determine the wellbeing of the child. Their findings were then compiled into a standardised database which was later sent to UNICEF to follow up on.

​

SOK Tool

The SOK tool was developed by Child-TRAC to enable children to communicate their status and feelings safely. During our research we soon realised that assessing each child's individual situation could be determined more efficiently when the questions for the children were asked in a game and viewed as play.

 

Child-TRAC worked in collaboration with UNICEF,  local educators and psychologists to design a tool which provided information about the child's wellbeing.  The  kit consists of places, and objects to represent the child s environment as well as people representing caretakers, family members,  neighbours, friends and teachers.  Emoticons are then used to determine feelings.

 

During the interview the children were asked to choose the feeling they experienced at the locations they visit and with the identified care-takers and adults in their lives. The children played out their day-to-day scenarios by telling their stories, expressing and explaining their feelings using the SOK.

With this tool we were able to collect necessary data from each and every child and ask probing questions without traumatising the child. 
The data collected was then matched and compared with the interview results of the caretaker. 

Our teams all participated in a specialist training before being trusted with the Speak Out Kit (SOK) as it had to be used in a very specific way for the tool to be effective and for the results to be accurate and comparable. 

The SOK tool was integrated into all out projects and tailored to each specific project. It was tweaked and adjusted when necessary to accommodate other cultures or languages.

The success of the SOK, above everything else, was the fun the children experienced, as for some it was the first time they had engaged in play, since losing their parents.

​

​

​