Characteristics and Impact of Support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Northern Thailand: A Secondary Analysis of Thailand Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2006

Abstract

In Thailand, among families that have taken in orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), 78.6 percent of these families received no support at all. Children whose families receive any support (medical, emotional and psychological, material, social or educational) account for 21.4 percent. The percentage of OVC whose households have received all five types of support is only 0.1 percent. This research selected six provinces in Northern Thailand to study, intended to find out the association between household’s characteristics, care taker’s characteristics, OVC’s characteristics, type of support being received and OVC’s educational and health status. Supporting OVC needs steady effort at government level as well as family and community level. The research results would provide useful information for policy makers to develop better social welfare mechanism for OVC. Families and communities which have OVC may also benefit from this research by receiving new knowledge. The research found that there is a significant positive association between household’s wealth index quintiles (P-value=0.010), mother’s education (P-value=0.000), and early child development program attendance. There is a significant positive association between mother is a teenager (P-value=0.027), OVC is disabled (P-value=0.020) and underweight. Among all the OVC, double orphans, maternal orphans and disabled OVC are most vulnerable. It is suggested that Thailand needs better social welfare mechanism which can provide more support to OVC, especially medical, material and educational support, for their well-being. Further study is encouraged to focus on other parts of the country in order to present the whole picture of OVC in Thailand.