Help Sexworkers in Thailand find a new life!

Hello everybody!

It is time for another update from Tamar Center. First, let me say a big THANK YOU to you all for your support of Tamar Center during this current time. Who would have expected a couple of months ago that the whole world would be in total crisis mode now? Thank you for supporting us and especially to those that helped with our emergency appeal.

Here at Tamar, everybody is safe. Since last week Friday, we are basically shutdown, as the local government shut all non-essential businesses and asked people to stay at home. We are following this. But in the days before, we were very busy with preparing and handing out food packages to women, men and ladyboys (transgenders) that lost their jobs. Here in Pattaya, the complete sex industry was shut down by the government which put tens of thousands of people out of a job. In the beginning, the women where still allowed to stay in the bars as most of them were living there on the top floors, but when the whole closure of all non-essential businesses was announced, the women had to leave and found themselves suddenly on the street.

The impact here is very big. Pattaya relies on the tourism industry for 80% of its income.. I put a link below to a local newspaper article that describes the knock-on effect that the closure on the bars has. Suddenly, we received a lot of calls from women that told us that they had nothing to eat anymore and asked for help. We first packed 20 bags and drove them out, but our car got totally overwhelmed by many women coming and standing in line. We switched gears and over the next days distributed 470 food packages to the people that needed it – each should last for about one week. – It was great teamwork and we enjoyed it, even though it was hard to see the desperation in the eyes of the women. While we are shut down, our team is still in contact with the women. All women who received the food packages, received our contact information and currently, we are working in partnership with some other NGO’s that are still distributing food. We have decided as Tamar Center to concentrate on the emotional support of the women and if they are hungry, send them to others that are providing food. At the same time, we are getting ready to continue our distribution as soon as the others stop, as we are think that this will not be over anytime soon. Many women left Pattaya as well and returned to their villages, but now travelling in Thailand is also very difficult as no buses or trains are running anymore.

While doing this, we also had to keep the women in our program safe. Not easy in this situation. We have many women with HIV, two pregnant ones and some with other health conditions which is part of why we shut down for now. We are evaluating how we can safely continue. Difficult times! Thank you for standing with us and for being concerned about the women here in Pattaya. We will keep you updated and if you would like more detailed information, please follow us on Facebook or contact us via Email.

For the Tamar Family

Links:

• Article about local situation in Pattaya

Hello everybody!

Greetings from Thailand. We trust that you had a great start into 2020 and hope that it will be an exciting year for you. Here at Tamar Center we had an amazing start into the new year with a day of reflection and goal setting on the 3^rd of January. But on the 8^th of January we got a special treat for everyone: We were able to visit the Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary with all our women. Most of them had never been close to an Elephant before and some were very scared but, in the end, everyone enjoyed it. We fed the elephants, showered them, walked through the jungle with them and even took a bath together. Great time of team building!

But looking back we are also very thankful for a great time of Christmas Celebrations and a good, needed break for everyone in between Christmas and the New Year. We had a nice Celebration at a local Hotel, and everyone enjoyed their gifts, the puppet show and the great food and games. December was a very busy month for everyone. We had many orders for our products and had several stands at local Christmas Markets where we were able to sell our products. Our Bakery had to do many hours of overtime, as more and more orders came in for our special Christmas cookies and cakes.

January will be a time of big change for everyone at Tamar. Four of our women are leaving us and starting a yearlong Hairdressing and Beauty school. We are very happy that they enrolled there, as we know this school very well and they will get some excellent education there. Two of our women have done this school last year, graduated in December and are now working in the Tamar Hair Salon in Soi 6 to reach out to women that are still trapped in the bars. Both have done very well at the school and we like to see their skills now put into practice – which has already brought in many new customers to our shop. Three other women are moving to Khon Kaen and will be participating in a six-month long school, they will return afterwards to us. Currently we also have two pregnant women will us, they are at similar stages of their pregnancies and so we will have two new babies with us at the end of March or early April. As you can see – many changes!

In February we are looking forward to several different teams coming to visit us and work with us, especially for our big Valentines Outreach where we hope to reach hundreds of women that are currently working in the bars. We will have the big Outreach on the 14^th and will follow up with a Party at a local Hotel on Monday the 17^th for all the women that are interested in joining Tamar.

Thank you for your support of our work and for making it possible for us to help the women and their children here in Pattaya.

Have a very special 2020!!!

Links:

• Items that are women learn to make!