2021 Year-in-Review

Thanks to our partners and supporters, UNICEF has been delivering results for children’s rights and well-being in Thailand and around the world for decades. Seventy-five years on, our work for children continues.

Responding to COVID-19

In the second year of the pandemic, we recognized that supporting and reaching the most vulnerable children and families was more important than ever. During the third and worst wave of COVID-19 in Thailand, we transformed our office into an emergency supply packing station where volunteers, staff and celebrities helped pack 22,000 hygiene and learning kits for Bangkok’s crowded, low-income communities, and later distributed a series of informational booklets on COVID-19 to over 29,000 children and adults in Klongtoey.

With our partners, we delivered hygiene supplies to almost 300,000 children and families in communities. These include those in schools, early childhood development centres, residential care facilities,  juvenile detention centres, migrant shelters, residential care homes and learning centres, as well as in the slum areas of Bangkok, construction camps, markets and high-risk areas in nearby and remote provinces.

As the pandemic continued to disrupt vital healthcare access, we supported children and families accessing basic services during the pandemic and provided 550 life-saving oxygen concentrators to hospitals and mobilized donations through our Box of Life campaign and emergency appeal to send life-saving support to children in need.

Continuing our mission for every child

In 2021 we rose to meet the challenges of COVID-19 disruption facing children and young people – by working with them, growing volunteer power and moving some of our activity online.

In tough times of daycare centre closures and halted learning, we gave over 10,000 young children from low-income and migrant families a reason to smile again with UNICEF Magic Box and Magic Bag sets of books and toys. We helped students return safely to the classroom this year by advocating to prioritize teachers for vaccination and sharing safe school guidance; with a focus on monitoring and mitigating learning losses, and deploying distance and blended learning strategies. Our virtual A Book A Week campaign with national education authorities reignited children’s imaginations and love for reading during school disruptions.

We provided young people and their families with practical information and tips to help them put mental health first through our Every Day is Mind Day and promoted mothers’ milk as best for babies’ health amid COVID-19. To help shape better policies for children’s well-being, we released survey findings by the National Statistical Office that revealed that children living in the far south of Thailand remain more disadvantaged in key areas such as nutrition, immunization, availability of books at home, basic learning skills and secondary school attendance.

We advocated for children’s right to grow up in a family environment for those without parental care and worked to help prevent family separation due to COVID-19 isolation measures. UNICEF also helped provide 8,193 online counselling sessions for psychological first aid and child protection support through Childline Thailand hotlines.

Our video explainers with StartDee made learning about child rights fun and accessible, and our storybook with InSkru and a psychologist helped teachers transform classrooms into safe spaces.

We supported children's right to be heard and promoted opportunities for 177,128 young people to actively engage in their homes, schools and society and amid protests and in the digital space. We elevated young voices from all over Thailand by forming our Young People Advisory Board to create a meaningful platform for the systematic engagement of young people in the work of UNICEF and partners, while also providing our second cohort of 12 I Am UNICEF Volunteer Leaders with tools to transform their passion into action in their community projects.

UNICEF along with our committed partners and supporters will continue our work in the years to come, so that every child can survive and thrive. Join us in 2022 and more by subscribing to our newsletter.