Building Safer Schools: Student-Led Networks Challenging Bullying in Thailand

While many schools strive to provide supportive learning environments, some students continue to face barriers to feeling fully included. For those navigating diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, expressions, or sex characteristics (SOGIESC), daily life often brings a heavy pressure to conform. They grapple with deep feelings of isolation, wondering who they can turn to when their gender identity is rejected or misunderstood by the surrounding school culture.  

These experiences are far from isolated incidents, they represent a systemic and multi-layered pattern of exclusion. Bullying, for example, manifests through verbal harassment, physical intimidation, and online persecution; reinforced by institutional barriers like rigid school uniforms, strict hairstyle regulations, and gender-specific school activities or requirements—such as separate scouting designated for boys or girls—that can limit students' ability to express themselves freely. This unyielding external pressure directly translates into an invisible mental health crisis, characterized by acute anxiety, stress, and severe depression.  UNESCO has highlighted that LGBTIQ+ learners are disproportionately affected by bullying, discrimination, and exclusion in and around schools, with significant consequences for their mental health, well-being, and educational outcomes.This trauma is worsened by a widespread lack of reporting mechanisms, a culture of institutional silence, and a shortage of trusted adult support figures, which damages student confidence, classroom participation, and learning.  

To combat this systemic crisis, local implementing partner Mindventure co-founded the youth-led initiative Pride Youth Leader in 2024. “Young people’s mental health and the quality of society are connected,” noted Kang-Som, Co-founder and CEO of Mindventure. “If young people feel accepted and have good mental health, society as a whole will also be better. That is why this is an important and urgent issue.”

To address these deep-rooted challenges, a global partnership between UNESCO and donor Christian Dior Couture launched a five-year regional initiative (2021–2026), Enhancing LGBTIQ+ inclusive learning spaces in Asia through youth-led transformative actions and partnerships in the education sector, dedicated to advancing gender equality and safe learning environments. In Thailand, Mindventure committed to this vision by rejecting top-down mandates, opting instead to place students directly in the driver’s seat of institutional change.

Through the project, Mindventure designed and rolled out interactive training camps, mentoring circles, and the regional Gen Z Trainer framework. Instead of trying to alter the complex school environment directly, they focused on establishing student-led club networks within schools, capaciting students themselves to be the drive of the change. These clubs foster peer education and local advocacy, utilizing customized methodologies like the UNESCO Gender Norms Analysis (GNA) Training Manual which was translated into Thai to contextualize the local roots.  

Youth leadership is uniquely effective in transforming school environments because they seek safety among their peers who understand and go through similar struggles. This peer-to-peer approach creates such rapid and immediate transformations in school dynamics through peer solidarity and shared safe spaces. Before the intervention, a student wanting to break out of rigid gender roles (such as a student assigned female at birth wishing to join historically male-dominated territorial defense training) faced intense social discomfort. Through Mindventure's network, the student receives immediate peer-to-peer validation and support from friends. This collective solidarity empowers the student to participate safely, transforming them from an isolated individual into an active, visible member of the campus community.  

The journey of these young advocates reveals a powerful ripple effect: when trusted with authentic leadership, young people respond with immense dedication and create resilience from shared support. Witnessing a peer speak openly about diversity and self-acceptance dismantles the culture of silence encouraging surrounding students to shed their fear of exclusion and step forward. This dynamic proves that truly safe educational climates are built from the ground up through consistent peer support, reduction of isolation, and institutional openness. Small, daily acts of solidarity gradually shift the broader school culture, markedly improving student well-being and academic engagement. Furthermore, the program successfully integrated teachers who serve as club advisors. Having a trusted adult embedded within these youth networks provides an indispensable safety net that reinforces student-led actions.

The project also opened up possibilities on integrating cultures in creating safe spaces. Instead of seeing culture as a divisive factor, Mindventure learned what kinds of practices can help young people feel safe in different settings, and what common challenges are shared by diverse groups of youth. “When young people saw both the similarities and differences in each person’s context, they learned from one another. […] This gave us hope, because we saw that many young people care deeply about this issue and are committed to carrying out the project seriously, both for themselves and for their friends at school,” noted Kang-Som.
As the initiative marches toward its formal completion, the focus has firmly shifted toward sustaining this collective momentum. UNESCO's structural and catalytic backing has significantly strengthened the capacities and long-term resilience of local grassroots organizing in Thailand.  

Looking ahead, concrete future actions center on establishing a continuous, intergenerational "pass-on" network. The vision is to ensure that the initial cohorts of trained youth leaders are systematically integrated into future training cycles, acting as permanent mentors to guide incoming classes of student advocates. Sustaining this movement requires ongoing, multi-dimensional collaboration between students, educators, local communities, and international institutions.

“Large-scale social change requires collaboration from many sectors and takes a long time,” Kang-Som shared her remark. “But that does not mean that one small event, or one small action they take every day, has no meaning. It is very meaningful. It may help someone smile a little wider, love themselves a little more, or make this world a more beautiful place.”

True beauty of this journey lies in the immediate transformation of the students' inner worlds. As they learn to accept themselves, cultivate empathy, and build emotional resilience, they prove that every small event can make the world a kinder, safer, and more beautiful place.