There are over 200 bars on Bangla Road in Patong Beach. About 1,200 girls work in these bars each night. They can be bought for a mere 300 Baht (about 9 US Dollars) for the night.
SHE (Self Help and Empowerment) is dedicated to providing employment, vocational training and counseling for women who want to help themselves out of the prostitution industry. Each night, we go into the bars, and build relationships with the girls by playing games (jinga, connect four, and banging nails into a block of wood), and taking an interest in their lives. We invite them to SHE, where they can meet the girls already working there, learning their new trade in jewelry or chocolate making. Giving these girls who generally don’t want to be working in the industry an alternative is uplifting and encouraging. In just the short week we’ve been here we’ve already grown to love many of the girls on Bangla Road.
It can be heartbreaking though. To go to a bar and ask for your favorite girl only to find out she’s with a “customer” at the moment is one of the hardest things I’ve had to face here. My immediate reaction is anger. Customers buy things and this girl isn’t a thing but a friend who I’ve grown to love and care about. But to the men here, they are just things to be bought, and put back on display for someone else to play with. When I see man hanging all over these girls I want to yell out “Hey jerk, that’s my friend! Back off!”Still, for some reason God has allowed me to see hope for these girls. There are girls at two particular bars that we’ve built relationships with and they wait for us to come every night. Joy lights up their faces when we walk in They know the have a friend; someone safe who loves them.
We still have two more weeks here so pray for continued relationships and that our hearts will break for these girls even more. These girls have a father who loves them and we desire for them to know that.
