Each year thousands of women and girls from poor towns and villages in Thailand flock to cities like Bangkok and Pattaya to work in bars, gogo bars, brothels and massage parlors. Some are sold outright by their families as slaves where they may end up locked in closed brothels. Others are sent by their families to work in the lucrative tourist sex trade and return the majority of their income back home. Some have children whom they are hoping to give a better life.  But in far too many cases, that dream never comes true.

Our team partnered with an organization called The Well, which provides counseling, job training, skills development, and educational assistance to Thai bar girls and sex workers seeking a new life apart from the sex industry. While there we helped with educational tutoring, played games and taught conversational English, loved on the kids at the center, and generally helped The Well build relationship with current sex workers who don’t yet know there are alternatives and people to help and care.

We also explored a partnership with the Free Burma Rangers and visited a Burmese refugee camp (on the Thailand side) to see the plight and learn about the crisis, as an effort to lay the groundwork for potential involvement in the future.