When a woman, who lived in the Prawet area of Bangkok with a three-year-old son, gave birth to a second baby, she gave the infant to her paternal grandmother to raise. When the boy was two, the mother became quite ill, so she had the child's father bring the boy to stay with her, in order to be close to him.

The woman, who was eight-months pregnant, regained her health. At this time, a Foundation staff member went to visit her upon receiving a report that she was cruelly abusing the boy, who had bruises on his face and scars from being scratched, pinched and pricked with a needle. When asked for the reason for her son's injuries, she said the boy had stumbled and fallen against the floor.

The staff member tricked the woman by saying that he already knew the whole truth from the police, whereupon she admitted injuring her son. She said it was because he would often call for her and bother her while she was under stress and in the late stage of pregnancy. She said she was not suited to raise baby boys that this child was interfering with her good fortune (literally, the stars).

She had left a former residence two months ago when she received the boy because the neighbors had called the police to have her arrested for abusing him. The staff member asked to take the boy to hospital for care. The child held the staff member's neck tightly, without daring to turn around to look at its mother.

While the staff member was carrying the child out, neighbors who had been observing the situation came out and surrounded them, expressing their happiness for the child. Some raised their hands in the traditional Thai sign for respect and cried, "Amen!"

Some had tears in their eyes while they expressed their happiness. Some said they felt as if they had fallen into hell when they saw the child being abused, that it was so cruel that they suspected that the baby wasn't really the child of this husband and wife.

Some said they managed to watch while the parents were cruelly mistreating the child. They reported that they saw the child being repeatedly swung and cast on the floor, hurled against the wall, and being hit on the head by water bowls, clothes hangers and cooking pots.

If the child cried while the mother was stringing flower garlands, they said she would hit his head and body with her stringing needle. When he was being hit, the child would always cover him mouth with his hands while his mother would be constantly threatening, "If you're not quiet, I'll hit you until you die."

Sometimes the boy was struck so hard you could hear him cry. Sometimes he was locked out of the house while his parents and sister were sleeping inside; he would stand and cry, trying to open the door, but his mother would refuse to open the door for him to come in. One could hear the boy's mother scold him, "How unlucky I am! Since your birth I have had nothing but trouble with you!"

The mother of a girl from Nahorn Province died with she was three and her father took her to live with relatives. She began living with an aunt and an uncle who was younger than her father. They were alcoholics and when she was 10, they began beating her with bamboo sticks and coat-hangers, hitting her with the dull side of a heavy kitchen knife or other utensils, and pinching and scratching her.

They said the beat her without reason because they were drunk. They did not allow her to sleep near other members of the family.

She had to wash dishes, do the laundry, take care of the younger children, and make the beds. She also had to cut, twist and weld metal, presumably for a small home business, normally working past 1 a.m.

Finally she fled to a friend's house where she phoned her father and asked him to come get her. Instead, her father called her uncle and she had to return to his home for more abuse.

Upon hearing of this situation, Foundation staff met with the girl's aunt who refused to cooperate. Staff members then negotiated an agreement with the aunt and uncle at the local police station. The girl had scars on her head where she was hit by a knife blade by her aunt, and there were wounds, scratches and marks on her arms and face made by a spatula as if her skin had been scraped.

The girl was quite willing to be taken in for care by the Project. Once at the Foundation home, she was well-behaved but performed at an average to poor level in school because of the effects of the abuse.

A couple in the Lard Krabang neighborhood of Bangkok alternatively farmed rice and worked in construction. The husband would take their earnings and spend it on gambling, drinking and nightlife. Sometimes his creditors pressured his wife to make payments on his debts, so she had to work in construction to pay off his debts and to support their five children.

At one point, the husband went to work in Saudi Arabia, where he took several additional wives. When at home, he would remove valuables from the house to sell, including the television and refrigerator. When his children and wife tried to prevent this, he would beat them, whipping them on the back and neck with an electric wire or cable, kick them into the nearby canal, etc. When all the family's property was gone, he never returned.

After the father had returned from working in Saudi Arabia, the eldest child, a daughter who had just finished secondary school, began working as a prostitute to help support her four younger siblings. Her customers were usually hired factory hands who lived in rented housing.

She would receive the equivalent of 40 to 80 cents for servicing them. Sometimes she would bring the men home to be with her, with her younger siblings regularly seeing this. She eventually married and left home.

When the next eldest child, also a daughter, finished secondary school, she also became a prostitute to help support the three younger siblings. The father, who was gone by this time, and the mother, who had taken a new husband, took no interest in the way their children were living. All the while, they were living in the home of the father's parents, who also looked on without intervening and did not want to be responsible for the children.

When the third eldest child, again a girl, was 12-years-old and in her final year of secondary school, she sold sexual services to factory workers in rental housing to support the youngest brother and sister, who were now in their third year of elementary school. She received the equivalent of 30 to 40 cents for her services.

Forced to be responsible for herself and her two younger siblings made her angry. Usually after studying, she and her brother and sister would paddle a boat over to the home of relatives to watch TV.

One day, her brother and sister paddled the boat back home by themselves. When she got back to her home, she became angry at them for leaving without her. She grabbed the youngest one and tied his hands with a rope a beat him with a piece of wood, causing injuries around his neck and one eye.

The youngest daughter usually had to cook, wash clothes, sweep the house, set-up mosquito nets for sleeping etc. When her teacher heard this, she began getting food for all three children. The teachers of the remaining three children noticed that the parents were taking almost no interest in them, which is when they came to the attention of the Foundation, which took in all three children.

A school principal in Trang project began sexually abusing a girl in the fifth-grade, paying her the equivalent of US$2 each time. The first time it hurt, and she was bleeding.

The principal threatened her, telling her that if she told anyone, she would receive failing grades in her tests. He also told her that his actions were out of love for her, as if she were his child, niece or granddaughter.

The principal abused a second girl, also aged 12. She said that he would have two students at a time come in to clean his room at school. When they entered the room, he would walk behind them, squeezing their necks so they wouldn't speak, and kiss them on the cheeks.

The girls told other students and their families about this. One member of the community, who lived behind the principal's room, witnesses his abuse of the girls, and other community residents said is was unlikely that teachers in the school were unaware of the situation.

Finally, one day, the first girl's aunt and uncle, who took care of her, noticed that she was bleeding. They brought her to the doctor and notified the police. However, the officer on duty told them to "talk it over first," discouraging any speedy action. Eventually, Foundation staff members joined with community leaders to intervene.

A young girl went to live with her maternal grandparents when her parents separated. (The father went back to his former residence, and the mother took the rest of the children with her when she went to work in Hong Kong.)

In the second grade, her grandmother took her to stay with her aunt in Samut Prakarn Province because she didn't have time to look after the girl. Her aunt regularly slapped and hit her. The aunt's own children like to blame things on this girl, so that her aunt would punish her in various ways.

In third grade, her aunt began forcing her to have sex with one or more relatives of her grandmother almost every Saturday and Sunday. The grandmother would cooperate, opening the room for the child to enter and then letting the perpetrator go in the room and find her.

If the girl didn't cooperate, her aunt would slap and hit her. The girl received 40 to 80 cents each time, while her aunt received about $80 to $120.

This continued for two years. Each time her aunt would bring the girl to meet her abuser, she would tell the neighbors.

A child's mother left the family when she was two. She then lived with her father in Saraburi Province, who began sexually abusing her when she was in the sixth grade and about 12-years-old. He often was drunk.

Whenever, she was abused, the girl would stay at home for two or three days. Her situation became known to other students in her school when a fifth-grade boy at her school secretly observed her father abusing her.

The school principal and the other residents of the girls village became aware of the situation, but did not help the girl. Finally, somebody made an anonymous phone tip to Project staff, who intervened.

A 12-year-old girl in Surin Province was raped several times by her teacher over a two-year period while she was in fifth and sixth grade. He would tell the girl to come to work at the school on a holiday, or to come and work at his house. After having intercourse, the teacher would warn her not to tell anyone about it.

The girl eventually told an aunt. The girl's relatives subsequently went to talk to the teacher about the situation. He agreed to pay 200,000 baht (then about US$8000) in compensation, both begging and threatening until the girl's mother and other relatives agreed to accept this sum.

The teacher eventually brought about $6000 to the mother instead of the full amount agreed to. The villagers who knew about the situation planned to drive the teacher out of the village and have him expelled from teaching.

But this group of villagers was warned not to take any action by a group of teachers from the school. Some of them prevented the villagers from taking action by dividing the village into areas in which they could be alert for any attempts to speak out or demonstrate.

The residents and leaders of the villages where the teacher and the girl lived knew and understood what was happening. Porject staff intervened and persuaded the mother and child to file charges against the teacher.