How we Started

ChildTRAC was originally conceived as a project at the Disaster Tracking Recovery Assistance Center (D-TRAC).

D-TRAC was founded after the 2004 tsunami in Phang Nga province, Southern Thailand, after it became obvious that the hundreds of aid organizations and thousands of volunteers who arrived from all over the world to help in this area were not coordinating, communicating or sharing information amongst themselves. D-TRAC was a unique type of relief agency because it provided aid in the form of information instead of material or monetary assistance.

 

Why we started

December 26, 2004, after the tsunami occurred, thousands of children were displaced and separated from their families and / or caregivers. One year later the placement and well-being of many of these children was still unknown.

 

Responding to this, ChildTRAC teamed up with UNICEF, with the support of the Ministry of Social Development and Humanitarian Security in Thailand, to start the project 'Children of the tsunami, where are they now?' ChildTRAC was able to trace, locate and screen the placements and well-being of almost 2,000 tsunami orphans in the six tsunami-affected provinces in the South of Thailand.

Whilst collaborating with UNICEF and Save the Children to examine the living conditions and well-being of Thai children affected by the Tsunami, ChildTRAC also looked in to the state of Burmese refugee camps to research how migrant children were being cared for. During the research for this project ChildTRAC discovered that children without birth registration documents or formal identification are technically 'invisible' in the system and go unrecorded in official statistics. Migrant children are of particular concern as they are usually either refugees or displaced children living in a Thai society that refuses to see or acknowledge them.
 
ChildTRAC was also commissioned to conduct various research projects, or share their findings, with the following stakeholders: USAID, Thailand PLAN, Save the Children UK and Sweden, UNICEF, the American Red Cross, the Finnish Red Cross and the Thai government. These projects eventually outgrew the objectives of D-TRAC and so a new independent organisation was created...ChildTRAC.
 

What we do today

ChildTRAC is both based in Thailand and the Netherlands. Officially registered in the Netherlands as an independent non-profit, non-government organisation. ChildTRAC seeks to continue their work  in Thailand and by developing more methodologyies of providing taining , research aid and care , ChildTRAC works to improve the lives of all vulnerable children regardless of religion, colour, race or social background.