More of the ceremony

Below is a rough video of highlights from the ceremony. Enjoy!

The problem part III

ELF was founded as an anti-trafficking, pro-education foundation. But things have changed in the last decade. Few girls are actually trafficked from Phayao. This sounds like great news, but the problem is now that many girls are now going to work in dance clubs and brothels willingly as a way out of their lives of poverty and little opportunity. So now the problem is we have to present girls with the CHOICE to go to school, the choice to get a decent job and hope they take it.

Additionally, many of the girls in our programs are the daughters of prostitutes. Some of the women who went to work in brothels a decade ago have returned home (prostitutes cannot work for very long) and had children. The sad fact is many of these women have contracted HIV and already died from the disease, leaving their children, some of the HIV positive, to fend for themselves. We are now facing a second generation of children affected by the tragedy that of the sex trade. What seems like a good way to make an income is really a way to enslave generations to the cycles of disease and poverty. Prostitution is not a way out of poverty. It's a way to make sure that your children will be poor and suffer as well.

Water ceremony

After the scholarship ceremony, we went to two schools to cut the ribbon and open clean water projects at each school. The Rotarians were kind enough to bring footballs (soccer balls) and much needed pens for the students too.

(ribbon cutting)

(Michael demonstrating the water filtration)

(happy boys with footballs)

Introducing... Ton!

Ton helps manage one of our sponsor companies, Beautyline, in Bangkok. She came up for the ceremony and we could not have done it without her! Ton is a great hostess and an invaluable part of our team.

The scholarship ceremony

When we arrived at Phayao City Hall, we were greeted with traditional Thai dancing from some students:


there were 277 students all waiting for their scholarship


and their teachers


and about 30 Rotarians.


The governor of Phayao Province spoke


and the water tank was presented to the schools to symbolize the 29 schools that have received clean water thanks to the Japanese Rotarians.



And the scholarships were presented!

Yao Central Rotary Club

Arigato Rotarians!

This week ELF hosted representatives from the Japanese Rotary Clubs District 2660. We had a cermeony for all of our scholarship students and their teachers as well as ribbon cutting ceremonies for water projects at two Phayao-area schools. Thank you so much for coming and for providing clean water for the children of Phayao. Above is a speech made by an ELF scholarship recipient thanking the Rotarians. More pictures to come!

The problem, part II

Unfortunately, there are many stories to be told about the problems of sex trafficking and sex workers in Southeast Asia.

Nick Kristof wrote a couple of articles on the work of the Somaly Mam foundation in Cambodia trying to rehabilitate girls sold into prostitution. In this article, he explains how girls forced into prostitution are electrocuted and beaten to be coerced into entertaining customers. In another heartbreaking article, he explains the problem of sex trade as modern day slavery:

"Pross was 13 and hadn’t even had her first period when a young woman kidnapped her and sold her to a brothel in Phnom Penh. The brothel owner, a woman as is typical, beat Pross and tortured her with electric current until finally the girl acquiesced.

She was kept locked deep inside the brothel, her hands tied behind her back at all times except when with customers.

Brothel owners can charge large sums for sex with a virgin, and like many girls, Pross was painfully stitched up so she could be resold as a virgin. In all, the brothel owner sold her virginity four times."

In a seemingly unrelated article about prostitution during the Korean War, I was reminded that the sex trade in Asia/Southeast Asia exploded during the World War II/Vietnam/Korean War era due to the scores of American men on Asian soil. Before we are ever tempted to look as Westerners upon the Asian sex trade as an Asian problem, we must remember that it was the Western and American presence here that made the sex trade so profitable. Thailand's sex trade in particular is tied to the presence of troops here during the Vietnam War. There are echoes of that still today as you walk the streets of Bangkok and see old white men holding hands with young, impossibly small girls.

The problem of the sex trade here was created by people, encouraged by governments and the responsibility is on all of them, all of us to make it right.

The problem

ELF was founded 10 years ago to counteract the problem of girls being trafficked from Phayao Province in Northern Thailand to become sex workers in and around Bangkok. "Trafficked" is a convenient political buzzword that, in this instance, to the girls of Phayao, really means being forced or coerced into leaving home and being exploited for the purposes of commercial sex. The idea for ELF began when Michael, the founder, was visiting Phayao and saw a van of girls leave for Bangkok for "work." Suspicious of the intent, he frantically followed the van the whole way from Phayao to Bangkok (9 hours), calling policemen and politicians. When they arrived in Bangkok, to Michael's dismay, all of the girls stayed with the woman they called their auntie because they had been told to obey her and she would take care of them. Michael knew that these girls were headed for a life they could not imagine, one that would lead to violence, disease and possibly death.

Girls or parents may be tricked into thinking the work they're going to will be house or factory work. Other times the parents know full well the life they are selling their daughter into. Parents or guardians who sell their daughters receive money upfront and can also earn a monthly income, which has proven to be an enticing prospect for poor families with little education. Girls are seen as commodities. Whatever the situation is, we at ELF believe girls should never be sold. Michael founded ELF to keep girls in school and protect them from trafficking because he believes, he knows, that these girls can be so much more, and are worth so much more than the price traffickers are willing to pay.

The SOLD Project has put together a beautiful movie explaining the problem in Thailand best. Here's the trailer:

education for life is...

Linda is the coordinator for all things ELF. She works on fundraising and program development in the Bangkok office. Linda has also never met a chocolate cake she didn't like.







Nong can usually be found driving all around Phayao to go to schools to interview scholarship candidates and check up on the water filtration tanks. He has maintained the water project since he joined the foundation last March. Nong lives with his beautiful wife and two young boys in Phayao.




Constance and her husband Phillip moved to Thailand in September to help ELF fundraise and develop programs. They are the only farangs working at ELF and so far the only ones living in Phayao. Their favorite things about Thailand are the green curry and driving around taking in the beautiful mountains and spectacular clouds.



Kim began working for the foundation as the general secretary in October. Kim has a one year old son, Jim, who she says is very naughty but we think is cute. In addition to handling the administrative side of ELF, Kim also very patiently helps Constance with Thai.

Our new blog!

Welcome to the new blog for Education for Life! ELF is a Thai foundation that began in 1997 to help educate girls in Phayao Province and keep them from being sold into prostitution. Since then, ELF has given over 1,000 scholarships to girls (and some boys) in desperate need of support. While the children attend public school, the scholarships pay for the necessary expenses (shoes, bags, food) and ELF guardianship helps protect girls from being sold into prostitution.

On our blog you will find profiles of our scholarship recipients, stories from life in Phayao and hopefully learn more about our organization.