Housing for Women leaving the Sex Industry

Hello everyone and greetings from Thailand!

Thank you for your support of our Housing program. This program is very helpful for the women that want to leave the work in the sex industry behind and are looking for a new steppingstone. For example, in March we received a phone call in the middle of the night from a woman that was hiding in the bathroom of her Bar because she did not want to go with customer that was looking for her. She was really distressed and had heard about us and called for help. We were able to talk to her and after a while she told us that she was fine now, that the customer was gone and that she would come to us in the morning. The next day, she showed up in our Center with all her bags and our Staff was able to talk to her. Together we called her Family in the North of Thailand, and they were very happy to hear from her and told her that she should come home and that they missed her. After staying for two nights with us she decided to go back to her family for now, but she wants to come back in May and join the Tamar Vocational and Life Training to learn job skills to be able to find a normal job for herself. This is just one example of many that we have from the last months. Many young women are coming currently to our city, looking for easy money. Some are getting tricked with wrong information and many promises but when they find themselves working in the sex industry, many of them are not happy with that and want to find a way out. We had several coming to us as a steppingstone to connect back with their families and go home. Some stayed 1 night, some 2, some a week and we currently already have six women that came to join the Tamar Vocational and Life Training. All of them, together with the women that have already been with us for a while are staying in the housing that you help us provide for them! Thank you, that are you are giving them a chance for a new life!

We purchased some bean bag sofas for the Tamar Nursery a while back. The kids loved this bean bag chairs that look like a real sofa but are small enough for the kids. When our women saw them, they spent more and more time in the Nursery sitting on them and so we decided with the money that you donated to purchase one of these for each of the rooms of the women. There were many smiling faces when we distributed them to each of them and now some of the women even sleep in them… We are also thankful that we received a big Couch from some Expats that are leaving Thailand to go back home, we put this one in one of the houses and as we currently have holidays in Thailand and the big Songkran Holiday is coming up, we are preparing this House has a hang-out space for everyone during the holidays: we have the nice couch, the women bring their new chairs, we have a projector for movies, different board and card games and more. The women cook together, eat together and enjoy to spent time together!

Thank you for your help in providing these basic amenities for them that give them safety and a place to feel at home.

Dear supporters and friends!

The year 2024 is ending and we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to you all for your support, friendship and help in the last year. 2024 was not the easiest year for us here in Pattaya. We had many highlights – like celebration 25 years of Tamar Center in early October and accepting a high number of new women from the bars into our programs. We also finally finished the renovations of our building with an updated electric set up and the repair and renovation of our roof and card room. On the other side, we experienced some demanding situations with our women, we heard many tragic stories and sadly we see the bars in Pattaya filling up with younger and younger women that come from the villages in the hope to earn easy money!

We are thankful for several Volunteers that have come and joined us in reaching out to these women, in offering daily English Classes and an open ear to listen to the needs and stories of the women. We are thankful for a great vocational training program that we were able to run for three-months in the middle of this year, for a Barista Training Course that we run for 4 people from our team in August, three women that successfully made their driving licenses and two women that finished a course in Gel Nails making. We are grateful for our team of women that works in our Bakery, Restaurant, Beauty Salon and Guesthouse, who learn new skills and serve our customers. The children of our women are well taken care off by our Team of Nursery Teachers and our new women are working in the card room to learn how to make beautiful products.

All of the above things we can only accomplish with your help, your support, your encouragement through messages or visits. Thank you for making it possible for us to serve the women and their children in Pattaya and to offer them vocational training, counselling and a chance of a new life!

Please enjoy the pictures that show you some snapshots from some of our many Christmas activities from this year.

We want to wish you a blessed Christmas season with your family and friends and an incredibly happy New Year 2025!