I have heard Phuket described as the Vegas of Thailand. Their are many differences, but it is not far from it. I will say Vegas is more flashy, you know what goes on but it mostly behind closed doors. Here it is more in your face and not as covered in glam and glitter.
My first night here, a few of us ventured down town and to have a look about. To be honest it was hard to see, but I felt removed from it all. Until the end of the night when I saw an older, white male walking up the steps of a hotel with a Thai girl and approaching the front desk. The girl looked young, probably no more than 17. I wanted to run up to her and through my arms around her and take her away. Something else happened to me that I did not expect. My heart broke for the man, too. The thought of what these men are doing usually angers me and makes me sick, but my heart felt overwhelmed with his loneliness and pain. To have to pay someone to “love” you. Not that this excuses this in anyway, it just overwhelmed me with how both are broken people looking for someone to fill a void in their lives. Just going about filling it in a twisted way.
SHE (Self Help and Empowerment) is a charity committed to helping women and children at risk in Thailand, many of whom are trapped in the commercial sex trade. SHE is dedicated to providing employment, vocational training and counseling for women who want to help themselves out of this industry. This is a new ministry, but they already have four girls working in their shop making jewelry and cards. All proceeds go directly to helping them find employment, community, friendship, restoration, and above all restoration of their own value. The only requirement to work at the shop is that they quit working at the bar. This may seem like an easy decision, but for most it is very hard choice. For many it is all they know. For others they have family to support and are mainly working to send money home. In Thai culture it is customary for girls to help support their families as soon as they turn 18, boys are not expected to help. Bar owners usually provide free housing for the girls; it becomes another incentive to stay. Coming out of that life means a serous pay cut. I was talking with one girl who used to be an accountant. She said that she made 10,000 baht (about 300 USD) a year with that job. Working at the bar she now makes three times that. In a country with extreme poverty, it may seem like an “easy” and accepted solution to work in the bars. Most girls hope that a rich Western customer will fall in love with them and whisk them away as they take care of all their financial burdens.
Each bar here works differently. In most the bar girls make a commission off of the drinks she sells, in addition to the money they get if they get a “customer.” If a customer wants to take one of the girls for a night, he must pay a bar fine to the owner of the bar for talking his bar tender away (usually about 200 – 300 baht, or about 6 – 9 US dollars) and then he works something out with the girl. So when we go into the bars we order a coke or another non-alcoholic beverage, the girls get their commission and we get a conversation. After establishing relationships the girls know we are there to be there friend. We do not force conversations about what we are doing, it usually comes up naturally. We also invite them to come to the shop for lunch or to go to the beach with us.
Mark and Sharon Biddell, are the founders of SHE. They absolutely amaze me. During the day they are in the shop with the girls, then about 3 times a week they go out to the bars to build relationships and spread the word about what they are doing to new girls. They also work quite regularly with Burmese refugee camps and help to meet there physical and spiritual needs.
A couple of things that surprised me:
*The majority (about 70%) of the customers soliciting sex are Thai men.
*Most girls go for about 300 baht a night – which is about $9 USD.
*Most customers who are visitors usually hire a girl for a couple of days or a week as a companion.
We are currently working on helping SHE set up a web sight and e-bay store, but for more info and also finding out how you can buy some of the jewelry and support this ministry go to: www.SHEThailand.org. All the jewelry is really beautiful and well made, I recommend checking it out.
