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. 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. Burmese 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.
Many of these children are not living in a safe, caring and protective environment. Being illegal and therefore 'invisible' has direct consequences; these children are being deprived of basic necessities and services that will keep them happy, healthy, educated and safe. These children are at high risk of being exploited, neglected, trafficked or abused. Indirectly their invisibility is violating their rights as children ans as human beings.
What we do today
ChildTRAC is now based in Thailand but officially registered in the Netherlands as an independent non-profit, non-government organisation and seeks to continue D-TRAC’s methodology of providing aid in the form of information as ChildTRAC works to improve the lives of all vulnerable children everywhere.
So far ChildTRAC has completed an Alternative Childcare project with UNICEF and David Tolfree and is currently focusing on our existing ChildTRAC Projects