Our mission this month is to offer another way of life to the girls working as prostitutes along Bangla Road. We are working with an amazing organization called SHE, which stands for Self Help and Empowerment.
SHE was started in 2006 when a couple recognized the needs Phuket held for the many women working in the bars and clubs.SHE works with women and children, with the majority working in the bars and commercial sex industry of Patong. Many of these young women travel to Patong from the poorer rural areas of Thailand to seek employment to provide income for their families. SHE is helping women at risk by operating a centre which offers a safe environment, vocational training, counseling, rehabilitation and sustainable employment opportunities. It is a place to learn new skills, form relationships, experience the grace of God and above all realize their own worth and value.
Living in this place for the past two weeks, I just think how could a person possibly turn down such an amazing opportunity for a new beginning? Most of these women come to Patong in search of money. Well here this organization is offering paid jobs, and education. I thought as soon as we got down to the streets of Patong the women would be so excited to hear that their freedom was here, that they might just walk out of the bar with us and come home that night.
However these women do not have the same life experiences as me. They have been mistreated, abused, lied to, raped, abandoned, and found no one to rely on. When we give these women the good news about a change of life, it is not easy to make this change. This is sometimes all they have known, and when luck comes their way they seem a bit weary.
I was out with the other girls on Thursday night when on our way back to the bus I saw a long line of women just lining the street. I thought wow these must be the girls that can’t even get bar jobs because they are just offering themselves as straight up prostitutes. I was determined that they should have every opportunity to know that there is an alter
native for their life, and so I walked up to one of them.
I asked her if she “worked here” because I had to make sure she really was on the job, so when she said “yes”, I started telling her about another way of life she could have. The other girls around here were all listening in and so I told them all they just had to give us a call. I gave her a phone number and told her that anytime she wanted she was welcome as well as her ‘friends’.
The next night I went back to the same row of women. The one I spoke with the night before wasn’t there so I tried the same thing with another girl. This time she was a little older, so in my mind I thought for sure she was tired of this life and would want something else. So I explained about who I was and why I was here and the things SHE could offer her and she straight up said “No, thanks”. I thought she might have not understood so I told her if she wants to think about it she can take this phone number and once again she said “No – I like my job” and then she started to tell me how much she enjoyed her work and couldn’t care less about learning anything new.
I was so shocked to hear that, as we had spoken with many women over the past two weeks that al hated their jobs and couldn’t wait to get out.
So I left that woman standing there, waiting for her next customer. I pray that just that conversation will begin to soften her heart to think about something else. When this is all you have known in your life, it’s hard to change, change brings the unknown, and the unknown is usually scary to women who have been abused their whole life.
I pray that this women will again be offered many times to think about change in vocation, for she needs to understand that she is worth far more than what she sells herself for night after night.
