Paveena seeks more ways to help widows and orphans of the south violenceLAMPHAI INTATHEPYALA: Being injured in an explosion in a downtown of Yala province, a woman who was almost seven-month pregnancy luckily survived a blast to know that her child was born with cerebral palsy (CP).Chanakan Kiewya, 41, recalled that she lost consciousness for several days and nearly lost her baby in a miscarriage as a fetus was not moving due to a blast in the year 2005."Luckily, the fetus resumes moving and I give birth to a boy baby. He is like a normal baby until he is six-month old. It is strange that he is unable to make eye contact and hold his head up. Then, a doctor tells me that my child has abnormalities in the brain_suffers from CP," she reminded."That shocks me a lot and I start questioning whether the blast is a cause of my child misfortune. But the doctor hesitates to guarantee that my child's disorder is a result of the explosion," she said.She decided to take a Chromosome testing which shown that no abnormalities were found in her child."It is obvious that he is born with CP because of that bombing," she said in tears. She named her child 'Dung' which meant loud to remind her of the incident which warned her to live life with more carefulness.Therefore, she has received a compensation for the southern violence victims, worth about 130,000 baht per year for now three consecutive years from the government agencies."I do not moan to my fate but do my best to raise my unlucky youngest child. However, I am worried about one thing when I am gone, who will take care of my child instead of me?" she added.Wannee Thongkham, 57, became a widow due to the continuing violence.In the past eight years, her husband was shot, beheaded and then burnt during his way to a rubber plant."My elder son has to be a head of the family since then. I feel worried and anxious every time he goes out for rubber tapping to raise the family instead of his father. I pray that such kind of tragedy would not happen to my family again or others," she said.She added that the current situation seemed to be improved; however, her family has always lived a cautious life.The two were among victims of the on-going violence in the three restive southern border provinces. Until now, the southern turbulence has produced 2,093, 2,013 and 1,918 orphans in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwas respectively and over 2,000 widows.Last Saturday, Paveena Hongsakul, minister of Social Development and Human Security, visited Yala to seek more ways to compensate and rehabilitate widows and orphans who were victims of the insurgency, even though the government's compensation and assistance have been provided to them."Beside financial compensation, we should mainly focus on creating job for them in order to get them back on their feet," she said.Sarah Binyor, assistant to secretary-general to the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC), pointed out that another big problem of widows was they had to take on debts of their husband."Some are in debt for up to a million baht and some are in debt to shark loans that we have to help negotiate with their creditors on a case-by-case basis," she said.In addition, Pol Col Thawee Sodsong, secretary-general to the SBPAC, proposed an idea that another Children's Day should be recognised especially for children who fell the violence's victims as they needed more special care.According to the ministry's record of July 31, 2013, there had 2,705 widows who were received 500,000 baht compensation and job training, 5,398 orphans who were offered scholarships from the education ministry and 1,000-2,500 baht monthly subsidies from the social ministry, and 454 people with disabilities who were provided 1,000-3,000 baht monthly subsidy. ----------------------End----------------------Photo: Chanakan Kiewya with her child born with cerebral palsy due to the bombing.Sent from my iPad