On 5 September, the United Nations International Day of Charity is commemorated each year. It was declared by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2012. Its main purpose is to raise awareness and provide a common platform for charity-related activities around the world for individuals, charitable, philanthropic and volunteer organizations on local, national, regional and international levels.

Just four years ago, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. This ambitious plan attempts to eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable development everywhere in the world by the year 2030. As the UN website declares:

We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.

The Thammasat University Library own several books about charity and international charitable organizations.

They include Charity fund-raising and the public interest: an Anglo-American legal perspective by Peter Luxton; Charity, philanthropy, and civility in American history edited by Lawrence J. Friedman and Mark D. McGarvie; Disquieting gifts: humanitarianism in New Delhi by Erica Bornstein; Handbook of the economics of giving, altruism and reciprocity edited by Serge-Christophe Kolm and Jean Mercier Ythier; International taxation of philanthropy: removing tax obstacles for international charities by Ineke Alien Koele; Managing in the voluntary sector: a handbook for managers in charitable and non-profit organizations edited by Stephen P. Osborne and many others.

The TU Library also owns many books about sustainable development. The UN plan features 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in six categories: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership:

People

We are determined to end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.

Planet

We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.

Prosperity

We are determined to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature.

Peace

We are determined to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence. There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development.

Partnership

We are determined to mobilize the means required to implement this Agenda through a revitalised Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity, focussed in particular on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and with the participation of all countries, all stakeholders and all people.

The interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realised. If we realize our ambitions across the full extent of the Agenda, the lives of all will be profoundly improved and our world will be transformed for the better.

Thai charities leading the way

TU students seeking internships and volunteer opportunities may find it informative to consult the Giving Back Association (GBA) website.

The association notes:

We help individual and corporate donors to find information on charities and foundations in the Greater Mekong region that most fit their philanthropic goals as well as information on their governance, financial efficiency and transparency. We aim to bring together in one location, information regarding all of the charities and non-profit groups that are non-political and not solely for religious purposes, that operate in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. We aim to make it easy for you to find useful information on charities or non-profit groups that you would like to support.  The more information available to the public on the charities, the more confident and informed donors can be in supporting them, increasing the overall support for well-run charities and non-profits.

Among its services are ratings for charities by financial, governance, and combined aspects. Top ratings are given to, among others, the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women (APSW), the Emergency Home of which has provided assistance to almost 50,000 women and children from all regions of the Kingdom, with an average of 140 women and children sheltered daily.

Another highly rated organization is the Camillian Home for Children Living with Disabilities located in Latkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand, a branch of St. Camillus Foundation of Thailand, a registered not-for-profit children’s charity. Also under the auspices of the St. Camillus Foundation of Thailand is the Camillian Social Center Chiangrai supporting children of patients from remote regions as well as those who are poor, orphaned or living with physical and learning difficulties and the Camillian Social Center Rayong.

The Child’s Dream Foundation, also ranked highly by the GBA, is described as supporting

the educational development of disadvantaged children who often do not have access to government schooling or adequate schooling due to their living in marginalised and undeveloped areas. Those areas are predominantly, border areas in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.   Child’s Dream is addressing these issues via its three Focus Areas: Health, Basic Education and Higher Education.

TU students may have heard of the Community Children Foundation (CCF) under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, which mobilizes social engagement in child and youth development to enable them to grow up to be qualified adults. The CCF has improved educational facilities and hygienic water supply systems for over 25,000 students from nearly 100 schools in 32 provinces nation-wide.

Helping to make education in the Kingdom more accessible, The SET Foundation (previously the Students’ Education Trust) awards scholarships to needy Thai students at high school, vocational college and university.  All SET scholarships are long-term and support the student all the way through their current studies and to the next level or levels.

Another organization that grants educational scholarships efficiently is the Thai Pestalozzi Foundation to give disadvantaged students with good academic records an opportunity to continue their studies at a higher level. Currently 100 students receive scholarships for the disadvantaged and over 300 students have graduated with bachelor’s degrees through the help of the Thai Pestalozzi Foundation. And the TMB Foundation focuses on Thai youngsters aged between 12 and 17, considering them to have the highest potential for development and responding to educational culture, to learn and improve their communities.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)