Beauthong and Wilaiphon were born in Huay Chom Poo village in Chiang Rai prov-ince, Northern Thailand. The girls were born to a Lahu hill tribe family. They have a lot in common. Their ages are the same, their parents are poor famers and they both belong to big families. But the most important thing they’ve shared is they both did not have Thai citizenship.

Beauthong and Wilaiphon are now studying in grade 4 at a local public school. They are allowed to study at the school but they aren’t permitted to receive a diploma nor will they earn any certificate that qualifies them for a specific skill or enables them to work in a decent job after they graduate from high school in the future. They’re also not permitted to travel out of the city, they can’t own properties and their rights are limited. Beauthong and Wilaiphon were born in Thailand and should have the right to citizenship but they don’t know who or where they can ask for help.

Integrated Area Development Project or IADP works to improve the lives of the vil-lagers in Chiang Rai by developing water systems, establishing micro finance institutions, upgrading sanitation, improving health, advocating for land rights and training in youth leadership development, life skills, alternative income generation, hygiene and finally citizenship assistance.

The IADP staff went to Huay Chom Poo to help the villagers receive citizenship. When Beauthong’s father learned that ADRA staff were coming to his village, he went to the staff members asking for help with his family’s situation. Beauthong lives with her parents and nine sisters and brothers, of which no one has citizenship. For Wilaiphon, her parents have Thai citizenship but they did not register her birth certificate which caused her not to have certifiable citizenship.

After the staff collected all the related documents, they went to the government office to process the citizenship for the families of these two girls and at the begging of this year, both Beauthong and Wilai-phon were registered to be Thai citizens. “ADRA staff helped my dad and my family get the required proof of citizenship,” said Beau-thong.

Beauthong’s family have finally received their proof of citizenship. Her sister immediately went to work in Bangkok and she has since sent some remittance to help with the family’s expenses. Armed with his citizenship ID, her father has just bought land for growing rice.

“Because I got citizenship, the school offered me a scholarship to study. I am very happy. Now I would like to be a teacher when I grow up, I want to teach children to be good people and be educated,” said Beauthong. “I too want to be a teacher,” Wilaiphon added, “I want to teach math, like my favourite teacher”. Both girls now have that chance.