THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SEX TRADE IN THAILAND
Slavery might sound like a problem of the past but in reality, it still occurs in almost every count
Thailand’s trafficking victims can be split into two main groups: economic migrants coming from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos and simply those unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some of Thailand’s economic migrants enter willingly, lured by the promise of better working opportunities, while those in the other group are often forcefully abducted and brought too far from their homes to ever hope to return.
According to The Safe Child report (2017), traffickers in Thailand predominantly target children from poor, rural backgrounds. Women are most commonly trafficked within the sex tourism industry, as prostitution is legal within Thailand, while men tend to be trafficked within the fishing industry.
The orchestrators of trafficking in Thailand tend to be fishermen or female Thai or Burmese nationals with links to organized crime gangs.
Each year, because of its laws on legalization, the Thai government makes upwards of $25 Billion dollars from the sex tourism industry, or, 13% of its GDP.
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Welcome to Arise Shine Foundation
Our Name
Our Mission
Our Vision
We have based our name and our calling on the following Scripture:
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you” Isaiah 60:1
We believe God wants to shine HIS light on the city of Pattaya, Thailand and rescue HIS women from lives of sexual enslavement.
Our Vision
Our Mission
Our Vision
To bring hope and transformation to those in need, especially women and children who have been exploited or marginalized.
Our Mission
Our Mission
Our Mission
Empowering Women: We focus on supporting sexually exploited women by providing life skills and job training, offering them an opportunity to rebuild their lives. Serving Children: We provide education and holistic development for vulnerable children, including orphans and those from underprivileged backgrounds, through a Christian centered school.
OUR PROGRAMS - in development phase
1st STAGE HOUSING
Young women start by exiting sexual exploitation and move into front-line housing. In this supportive context participants develop basic living skills. This unique house encourages independent living in a roommate environment. A volunteer house director lives in the home and provides supervision and direction, as the home is intended to be a place of healing for those committed to recovery. This phase of programming lasts 1-3 years.
RECOVERY PROGRAMS
The Recovery Program is designed to meet the specific recovery needs of sexually exploited/trafficked youth and women. This population faces very different recovery issues than others (i.e. domestic abuse). It is well known throughout the recovery industry that sexually exploited/trafficked youth and women have the highest amount of barriers to overcome. Such barriers include childhood abuse and abandonment, addictions, educational and employment gaps, learning disabilities, fetal alcohol syndrome/effect, and trauma experienced while in the sex trade (which has been assessed to be at the same level as soldiers returning from war). Programs are offered in a non-clinical atmosphere to facilitate the building of relationships and community – two components essential to connecting and integrating this population to the community at large.
The recovery program is provided to participants from Monday to Friday, 9AM to 4PM. All participants in the program are required to attend the program. The objectives of the program are that participants will be equipped to:
- Deal with their past issues of abuse
- Deal with any current addiction issues
- Learn to engage in healthy relationships
- Learn to deal with their emotions in a healthy, functioning manner
- Improve their quality of life
- Improve their quality of life
- Increase their level of self-esteem
- Learn to parent in a positive manner, breaking the cycle of abuse in the lives of their children
- Increase their level of education
- Learn employability skills to move forward with positive action in their lives
The day is divided into 2 segments:
Morning classes focus on Skill Development Levels I and II and include training in sewing, jewelry design, social media & marketing, computers, employment readiness and academics. A training grant for program participants is paid for this portion of learning.
Afternoon classes are focused on recovery and healing through courses such as relapse prevention, practicing the 12-steps, self-esteem, parenting, anger management, etc. This is accomplished through delivery of recovery curriculum in short, interactive classes and recreational and educational outings.
JOB TRAINING
Freedom involves more than escaping harm, it means access to education, it means economic empowerment and it means the ability for her to be able to consistently provide for her family. This is true freedom!
Our Job Training Program offers each participant a unique training platform, where they get to develop transferable and practical life skills towards their economic stability and freedom. This is essential for each woman to succeed in seeing their life rewritten.
Once participants have demonstrated competency in basic skills to be promoted to Phase II Job Training, their program focus will shift. They should no longer be part of the recovery programming, except to continue working on their 12-Step program and working with the Program Director on their future goals, etc.
When they are in Phase II they are more considered an ‘employee’ versus a participant, with the understanding that they could still have some employability skills to work out. Phase II is the bridge between recovery and the outside world and our goal is to set them up for success.
In this phase, they will be paid a fair wage for the work that they produce. This pay should reflect their level of training and responsibility. They may also begin pursuing educational upgrading.
EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN - Currently Operating
We provide an Education and Prevention Program for Children that provides quality education and spiritual growth in need.