Set up by two Swedish Volunteers in 2000 to help children in need in the Chiang Mai province whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS, Kids Ark is now a non-profit organization under the royal patronage by the Queen Silvia of Sweden.
A group of teenagers in Chiang Mai’s Sansai district spend time after school, sewing and making clothes for themselves. They also make greeting cards to sell and earn extra money.
Most of children here have parents who are infected with HIV. Although they are not infected with the deadly disease themselves, their lives are difficult.
Luckily, they receive assistance from the Kids Ark foundation which offers them scholarships and vocational training.
Now under the patronage of Queen Silvia of Sweden, the foundation helps children affected by HIV in several northern provinces in addition to Chiang Mai.
Besides these children, the foundation plans to extend its aid to non citizen children in Chiang Mai’s Mae Ai district. ‘Invisible’ in the Thai legal system, these children are not entitled to fundamental rights.
