Champions of change bangkokpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bangkokpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With the sole purpose of empowerment, the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) is a regional centre for people with disabilities. The centre is managed by the APCD Foundation, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
On an unusually cool and crisp afternoon, a group of children are sitting outside in a perfectly manicured garden, learning English. Sunlight reflects off the hulking, eggshell-white walls and holy basil-green shutters of the 122-year-old Bangkok 1899 building in the Nang Loeng district, framing the children and their teacher. Far removed from the city’s tortuous warrens of concrete and chaos, the setting makes you question if only for a moment whether you’ve found paradise.
“You see the young girl sitting over there? She’s nine. Her mom is 17 years old and in jail, again,” he says.
Despite Thailand dubbing itself “the land of smiles,” the country’s sunny facade often masks darker issues: a problematic relationship with refugees, an overwhelming number of at-risk youth, and the taboo topic of disability discrimination.