Help Sexworkers in Thailand find a new life!

Hello everyone!

When I wrote the last update, we had just started the five-month long Tamar Vocational and Life Training. Now we are coming already towards the end of it and at the end of July the women will graduate. For us it was the first five-month long training that we did, and the women learned a lot more than before. They each learned all the basics of sewing, baking, cooking, hairdressing, working in the Hospitality industry, doing laundry and much more. Next to this they were involved in learning life skills and receiving counseling in a group and one-to-one setting. All the women are doing very well in this training, and we are very proud of them. For our staff the last months have been intense. We had never done a training course like this and so a lot of extra work was there to organize and coordinate the different training courses. It was tiring but also well worth it.

In the next weeks before graduation we will start talking with each of the women about their next steps, will offer them jobs at Tamar for the once that want to stay and if any want to leave will help them find good jobs somewhere else. Shortly after graduation there will be Mother’s Day in Thailand again and we are planning a big outreach for this day and want to invite Mother’s that are working in the bars to leave the bars behind, re-unite with their children and learn a skill so that they can support themselves in the future.

We are also happy that we had several teams visiting us and that today our restaurant was very busy with three different groups that came and visited. As it is often the case on days like these, we had not planned for the teams coming and had planned a day of cooking classes for the women in the training. It turned out to be hands on training! But everyone got their food, and they enjoyed it.

Our English classes have also filled up with women from the bars and during Outreach we are connecting with many new women again. Currently the rainy season has started here and there are very few tourists around and so we have more time to connect with the girls in the bars and hope to encourage some of them to come and join us at Tamar and to leave the bars behind.

Thank you for your continued support and for making it possible that we can offer shelter, vocational training and hope to the many women that are working in the bars but do not want to be there. We hope that many find the courage to step out from the bars and come and learn skills so that they will be able to support themselves. Thank you!

For the Tamar Family