Bid to help southern widows
The ongoing violence in the deep South has seen the number of widows and orphans rise to 919 and 1,740 respectively in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla provinces, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry said yesterday.
The ministry's permanent secretary Wallop Ploytaptim said the violence in the region had affected people in all walks of life and many families had lost their leading members. A June 5 report found that 919 women in the four southern provinces had lost their husbands and 1,740 children (896 girls and 844 boys) had been orphaned, Wallop said. The ministry has been assigned by the government to help rehabilitate these widows and orphans, and has joined the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre to organise a "women help women" programme, he said. The programme has invited 130 southern women to the central provinces of Nonthaburi, Ayutthaya, Chon Buri and Bangkok from June 25 to July 1 to learn about different lifestyles. The programme also aims to enhance their role in bringing peace. The Nation
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