ELF Scholarship Ceremony 2009

Today was the best day of ELF's year! We gave scholarships to a brand new group of 130 seventh grade students. Combined with the continuing students from years past, we gave out a record 357 scholarships. Thanks to our staff and donors for making this day possible. Many of our high school girls helped with the event and our ELF CLUB group from Baan Ka put on a traditional Thai dance. It was a great day to connect with students, teachers and the community.

Kim and a high school scholarhip recipient and volunteer

Our distinguished speakers including founders Michael and Panit and Phayao's Vice Governor

ELF Club girls!

Constance excited about scholarships

Michael really wanted to take care of this little girl

excited about scholarships!

Hiding from the camera

These students are an exception to our age requirement; they are all HIV+

ELF Staff

Empowering Women and Girls

New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof wrote a book about how the empowerment of women is not only beneficial for women but is also vital to the world's security and economy. Here at ELF our programs are designed to do exactly that; to empower Thai girls through funding and education to make sure that they can live safe, productive lives. Here is a quote from the book:

"IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.

Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater. “Women hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that’s mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. That’s why foreign aid is increasingly directed to women. The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they’re the solution."

You can read an excerpt from the book here.

Scholarships

We are getting ready for our annual scholarship ceremony a week from today on August 26. This year we will be giving out our highest number ever- 357! People often want to know how our scholarships are spent. Here are a few examples of how students from Baan Rong Yang and Baan Pra Nangdin spent their scholarships:

Student 1

• School Bag (X2)
  
• Contributed to Class Party
• Field Trip Fee
• Notebook
• Pair of Shoes

Student 2

• School Bag (x2)
  
• Shoes (X2)
• Field Trip Fee

Student 3

• Athletic Shoes
• School Bag
• Sports equipment
• Uniform

ELF Club- Baan Ka

We're still in our series on careers in ELF club. Here are a few scenes from this week:

Baan Ka School

Kim and Linda

Nook didn't want to smile

Reviewing Career Options

MTV Exit Short Film

We partnered with MTV Exit a few months ago for an event. They have recently produced an anime-style short film that we will be using to show students the dangers of trafficking but in a relevant, engaging format. I encourage you to watch it here. There are both English and Thai versions.

Cut-a-thon: the talent

Thanks to all the stylists and entertainers for keeping people coming to check us out!