As the world celebrates the miraculous rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach, Thailand is going through issues.

It was found that three out of the twelve boys and their coach come from Thailand’s stateless minority group. These are a community or a group of people that were born within the Thailand and Myanmar border, in a town called Mae Sai.

Sumit Wophapho is the legal status and citizenship manager for Plan International Thailand, an organization aiming to help better the lives of the country's minorities. 

“The stateless children in Thailand are considered as migrants, which means they have limited basic rights to education, healthcare and employment. If they are not officially registered, they cannot get access to free healthcare. However, when it comes to education, the Thai government recognizes citizens and migrants as equal so anyone can have access to basic education regardless of their status," Sumit said.

Sumit himself comes from a village called Bo Kaew, where many are considered stateless. He has been working with stateless children in Thailand for the past 16 years.

As a teenager, Sumit saw the struggles and obstacles those children went through just to obtain basic rights. That led him to where he is today, constantly and actively advocating for the stateless community’s rights.

It’s difficult for stateless children to prove to the government that they were born in Thailand. The process parents, children and witnesses have to go through with the province and state government is long and arduous. However, Sumit said he has helped many of them to obtain birth certificates and will continue to do so in the future.

That’s not the only issue the extraordinary cave rescue has brought to light. Now, more than ever, safety is becoming a topic of conversation and schools across the province are starting to set up classes teaching basic survival skills.

Students at the Ban Pa Ko Dam community school are now being given a crash course in how to keep themselves alive if trapped inside a cave complex. Plan International Thailand’s Safe School Project was launched nationwide to educate students how to survive in disaster-prone areas. Chiang Rai province experienced a big earthquake three years ago, which destroyed parts of the school.

Prathinthip Saleesongsom has been teaching at the school for six years and recently joined to teach students the importance of safety, especially after the Tham Luang cave incident. 

“I want my students to know that disasters can happen to anyone at any time, it is not far away from them. Now, I’m teaching my students the importance of having an emergency bag when going inside places like the Tham Luang cave. Shortly after that incident, a boat sunk in Phuket too. I used that incident as an example in my classroom as well. I taught them how to tie a knot with a rope and help each other from drowning.” said Prathinthip.

The students use games and role-playing to simulate the situations, to make sure they understand the risks and vulnerabilities and are capable of finding them in their surroundings. 

“If I hadn’t learned about safety in the class, I wouldn’t know how to react in difficult situations. I would just panic and run away, but now I know what to do to help myself and my friends survive during disasters,” Chanya Kaentoraphat, a student at the school, said.

Around the world, the cave rescue has become a valuable lesson in hope but it has now also become an important reminder about safety.