In recent years, the Chaipattana Foundation had implemented royally-initiated restoration projects in response to natural disasters, including the 2004 tsunami in the south, the 2006 mudslide in the north, and the 2010 floods.

The main purpose of these projects was to provide support to the victims to re-establish their social and economic structures in the aftermath of the disasters.

Concerned about the suffering of the people caused by the current flood crisis, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, as the Executive Chairperson, requested last week that the Chaipattana Foundation Aid and Restoration Centers be established in Wang Noi and Lat Bua Luang districts of severely-affected Ayutthaya province to provide assistance and shelter flood victims evacuated from their homes.

Located in Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, a public Buddhist university, the Wang Noi Center is currently accommodating more than 400 evacuees. Her Royal Highness also requested that medical services from Phramongkutklao and Chulalongkorn Hospitals be available here for the victims.

In Lat Bua Luang, the Center has been set up in the area of the Chaipattana Foundation Rice Mill and is now housing a mobile kitchen sponsored by Her Royal Highness, the Thai Red Cross Society, and the Thai Airways.

As the flood situation has deteriorated, Her Royal Highness recently requested further that the Chaipattana Foundation Aid and Restoration Centers be set up in the First Army Air Defense Operation in Wang Noi district of Ayutthaya province as well as in Narai Suksa School in Muang district of Lop Buri province. Both Centers have been feeding and sheltering more than 100 evacuees.

The Chaipattana Foundation Aid and Restoration Centers have now been operated around the clock by staff members assigned from the Chaipattana Foundation’s central office in Bangkok.

Supported by the Royal Thai Army and the Department of Fisheries, aid workers and the official staff have also traveled by boat on a daily basis from the Centers to distribute royally-granted survival kits and other donated necessities to affected local residents who are unable to be evacuated from their flooded homes.

Meanwhile, financial and material donations have been pouring in from individuals, private and public agencies, who wish to distribute help to flood-affected Thais through the royal development foundation.

In addition to money donations in cash and via bank transfer, all official staff in Bangkok have been preoccupied with collection and preparation of donated materials to be delivered to the Aid and Restoration Centers.

Currently occupied with dry food, drinking water, clothes, first-aid kits, and other necessities, the Office of the Chaipattana Foundation on Si Ayutthaya Road has been unprecedentedly turned into an emergency relief center.

Overwhelming donations made to the Chaipattana Foundation to assist its flood relief efforts has stemmed from the Thai and foreign generosity. They also reflect the relevant role of the Chaipattana Foundation in mobilizing support from public and private agencies to assist the government in serving the nation.

As the flood crisis is threatening local residents of Nakhorn Pathom province, Her Royal Highness has already granted permission to the Chaipattana Foundation to consider setting up another flood relief center at its Vocational Park Project in Mueang district to assist flood victims.