By Chris Morgan | Program Administratie Officer
Dear Friend,
Thank you for your continued support of The Freedom Story. Because of your generosity, we were able to accept 48 new students into our prevention programs, providing them with scholarships, activities, and mentorship that can reduce their vulnerability to trafficking.
The communities we work with in Nan and Chiang Rai differ greatly in how COVID impacted operations. In Nan, many students live very close to each other, while the community is relatively isolated from the outside. Thus, many activities we offer carried on as usual, despite COVID. In Chiang Rai, we have been expanding our geographic reach to serve children from even more remote areas, including a large percentage from stateless communities that are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. We now work with students from 10 different districts, a significant increase from the six districts we served last year. However, Chiang Rai has seen more COVID-19 outbreaks, and the subsequent restrictions curtailed our team’s ability to conduct much of our afterschool programming. Thankfully, Thailand has recently been able to ease regulations, opening up tourism and allowing large groups to meet in person. We were able to have a parents’ meeting in person for the first time since COVID began and resumed tutoring and our Saturday programming.
The parents’ meeting in May was a significant time for our students and their guardians, as many of them are new to The Freedom Story. It was an important opportunity to meet and inform them about our programs and procedures. They also learned about children’s rights and human trafficking. Last year’s parents’ meeting took place online, though some parents and students could not attend due to lack of internet access. This year, a total of 101 people attended, including 57 scholarship students and 44 parents or guardians.
As Sarunya Karalo (Pii Jane), The Freedom Story’s Education Manager, explains, “Having activities in person has been important for our scholarship students and their families as we are seeing an increased trust from guardians because they can see how we relate to their children. It also allows us to be better mentors and give more assistance in their education with tutoring help.” She was most excited to see the improvement in our scholarship students' mental health. “We know that the COVID pandemic has had a negative impact on mental health, especially among students, but since opening up our resource center, we have noticed a dramatic increase in the confidence of many of our students.” Having confidence and being surrounded by a good support system helps increase resiliency and reduce risk.
We are excited about the early outcomes of our recent in-person activities and even more about the coming months as we continue to implement new plans and ideas to meet these communities’ needs. Thank you for your support of these children and their families. Together we are breaking the cycle of trafficking at the source.
In Hope,
The Freedom Story
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