Back to school

School has started once again in Phayao; the stores are full of uniforms and children can be seen once again riding to school on bikes and buses. At ELF we have begun our scholarship process for the year and are reviewing applications and beginning interviews. Also, we will be starting our after school program, ELF Club, soon so stay tuned for pictures and more!

School is out!

Here in Thailand we are on school break for the next month! Next week is the Thai New Year known as Songkran. Both the girls and the staff are enjoying a well-deserved holiday for time with family and friends. To celebrate, Thais pour water on one another as a sign of respect, but in today's time it has turned into a national water fight! Happy Songkran!

photo from here.

Here's a cute video of some students practicing saying "konichiwa" before the Japanese Rotarians arrived.


Practicing Konichiwa from constance dykhuizen on Vimeo.

Graduation Party Workshops

Workshops were a large part of our graduation party focused on different careers. The girls got to try hair styling, jewelry making and acted as nurses taking temperatures and listening to heartbeats.


Jewelry Making.


Nursing.


Hair Stylist.

Graduation Party 2009

ELF hosted its first ever graduation party today for girls in our program graduating grade 9. We had workshops, speakers and games all focusing on careers. Thanks to all our speakers and girls for participating!

Good news

UNIAP granted 130,000 Euros to tackle human trafficking in Thailand and Cambodia.

Book Club

If you are interested in learning more about the problems we at ELF face, there are many heartwrenching but inspiring books that illuminate the problem of the sex trade and sex trafficking. I recommend Somaly Mam's autobiographical tale of being sold into prostitution at the age of 16 in Cambodia. Cambodia is a neighbor to Thailand and there are many cultural similarities. Mam's tale is a story of redemption and hope. We at ELF hope that you will join us in the fight and commit to learning more about this horrible, wordwide industry of sex trafficking.

Trafficking in Iraq

Unfortunately, trafficking is a common occurrence in almost every country in the world. Due to instability and economic collapse, Iraq has seen a recent increase in sex trafficking as well. This Time magazine article reminds us at ELF that there are people like Hinda we can partner with all over the world:

"She goes by "Hinda," but that's not her real name. That's what she's called by the many Iraqi sex traffickers and pimps who contact her several times a week from across the country. They think she is one of them, a peddler of sexual slaves. Little do they know that the stocky, auburn-haired woman is an undercover human rights activist who has been quietly mapping out their murky underworld since 2006.

That underworld is a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000. "The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers haggle with agents over the price of their daughters..."
Nobody knows exactly how many Iraqi women and children have been sold into sexual slavery since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, and there are no official numbers because of the shadowy nature of the business. Baghdad-based activists like Hinda and others put the number in the tens of thousands. Still, it remains a hidden crime; one that the 2008 US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report says the Iraqi government is not combating. Baghdad, the report says, "offers no protection services to victims of trafficking, reported no efforts to prevent trafficking in persons and does not acknowledge trafficking to be a problem in the country.""

photo from time.com

Pafaksamakee Community School

When we were at the Pafaksamakee Community School, a Phayao secondary school, for the water project last month, many of the students were given cameras by the teachers to capture their own images from the ceremony. I thought I would share some of the great pictures and moments the kids caught with their cameras.

More of the ceremony

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