Accepting Diversity, Valuing Human Dignity For All RS Group Organized “Zero Tolerance of Bullying” Activity For Youths In Chatuchak

Accepting Diversity, Valuing Human Dignity For All

RS Group Organized “Zero Tolerance of Bullying” Activity For Youths In Chatuchak District

To Better Equip With Skills & Tools For Bullying Prevention

Recently, RS Public Company Limited or RS Group announced ‘RS Diversity’ policy to establish diversity welfare that outlines days of leaves for both same- and opposite-sex marriages and 45-day leave for gender affirmation surgery which is equal to maternity leave. RS Group is more than ready to put our Diversity policy into practice and is committed to manage our corporate diversity, while campaigning for diversity acceptance by respecting basic human rights, providing equal opportunities and treatment, and eliminating discriminatory action and harassment in every form.

The Board of Directors of the company agreed to set forth policies and guidelines for all directors, executives, and employees of RS Group, as follows:

1. Encourage equal treatment, respect diversity, accept personal differences, and do not accept discriminatory action towards internal staffs of RS Group as well as others in the communities;
2. Build RS Group culture as a model for social diversity, acceptance, and respect;
3. Encourage and support partners and business partners in the business value chain, suppliers, contractors, and joint ventures to operate their businesses ethically with respect towards everyone according to this policy.

The key pillars of the policies and guidelines are

1. Culture – to create an inclusive culture when collaborating to realize benefits from diversity and differences or our employees
2. Society – to work and collaborate with the society and different business partners throughout the value chain
3. Innovation – to always take into account of the different needs of our customers to deliver our products and services via multiple distribution channels.

Nonetheless, while people are diverse, the ability to accept this diversity also varies; the inability to accept differences often leads to discrimination and harassment towards those whom are viewed as different or who are in different environment from the perpetrator. Discriminatory action and harassment come in many forms – from verbal jokes to physical violation, where the perpetrator can be legally charged, based on the severity of the offence.

To further its support in diversity and inclusion, RS Group and its employee volunteers put their ‘RS Diversity’ agenda to work, in collaboration with Chatuchak District Office and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute (CAMRI), organizing ‘Zero Tolerance of Bullying: Zeroing bullying’ activity for more than 200 youths at Senanikom School and Mathayomprachaniwet School to learn, understand, and accept diversity, while readying themselves to handle bullying effectively. Speakers included Tanon Tanakornprapa, Dr.Suthra Auapisathwong and Koen-Pataradaai Setsuwan.

Nitikan Chitcharoen, Head of Brand & Corporate Communications, RS Public Company Limited, revealed, “’Zero Tolerance of Bullying: Zeroing bullying’ activity is part of RS Diversity project, where we worked internally and externally to promote diversity. Within our organization, we proactively empowered everyone to showcase their capabilities at work and developed the diversity welfare scheme for our staffs. At the same time, we would like to work with the surrounding communities on the cause. For this activity, we are focused on educating youths and helping them understand themselves and diversity around them, whether it is diversity in sexuality, body, lifestyle, and personal taste, and ultimately accept them. RS Group organized this activity with an intention to reach today’s youths and instill them with the knowledge and understanding to respect each other. While everyone has the rights to express their opinions and themselves, such expression has its own time and place and must be exercised with empathy. We hope that our activity will empower youths to change their behaviors and put an end to bullying both physically and mentally and both online and offline.

Tanon Tanakornprapa, Head of 4^th Apple, a subsidiary of RS Group that has an expertise in creating digital content and implementing digital marketing, talked about online bullying in Thailand, that “Global statistics indicated that Thailand was ranked second for students being bullied at school, which suggested that both the bullied and bullies are prevalent, as bullying always has two sides. Nevertheless, we now live in the world that need more mercy and empathy than ever. Sometimes, we became bullies unintentionally, because social media enabled us to easily say or post anything without seeing the counterparty. We want everyone to think before posting anything. At the very least, think of yourself, because everything we post on social media will be our digital footprint forever. Today, you may be the big bully, but one day you may become the victim of your own action in the past.”

On the other hand, Dr.Suthra Auapisathwong, medical specialist at Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Health Rajanagarindra Institute (CAMRI), explained the skills required when being bullied that, “The first mantra is to ignore the people or online messages that aim to hurt us. Ignoring them is the first thing you can do. If it becomes more aggressive and disturbs us, we must protect ourselves. This does not mean retaliation, because retaliation only creates a cycle of bullying. Protecting ourselves is to show the counterparty that you dislike their actions with assertive words. If the bullying still persists, you need to ask for help – which is very important. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of bravery to ask for help from those we trust and can help us from the bullies.”

Chumsri Paiboonkunkon, Director of Senanikom School, one of the participating schools, said, “We must admit that the middle schoolers just became adolescents; they have their own clique, want to learn, and love social media. Sometimes, they have no idea that they are bullying. They just say it to get along with their peers without considering the consequences. Today’s activity certainly gave the youths the opportunity to pause and think, while helping them to understand themselves better. Everyone has the freedom to express their opinions and be themselves, however, the expression should be well-mannered and should not hurt others. Everyone should consider for a moment if their opinions would hurt anybody.”

Rachenee Mekrsee, the representative of participating youths, said, “I have experienced bullying myself, both as the bully and the bullied. The cycle never stops. Most of the time, I was being bullied verbally. I am very active at school, participating in many activities and having some strong traits. I am very self-confident. Sometimes, I forgot to even consider if what I say could hurt someone unintentionally. Today’s activity is very good. We appreciate the organizations who helped organize this activity. It is definitely relevant to our lives. It helped me open up and talk about the actual problems. I have learned a lot and will apply what I learned to my daily lives.”