Thailand

Well, this is where my body fell apart so I have nothing to report about the fantastic organizations that exist in Thailand, particularly those that are combating sex-tourism. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time in Thailand wrapped up in blankets staring at the ocean or meeting various doctors in Bangkok. I guess it just goes to show that we are holistic beings and there's only so much you can do before you have to tend and mend.

One morning, I was walking along the beach feeling not so great and a little lonely. At the very end of the strand of white sand, someone had written, "You will never walk alone."This proved to be a huge encouragement in the last few weeks as I struggled and continue to be challenged by figuring out what's wrong with my body. I know the doctors will figure it out and I will heal, but it helped a lot to know that even if there wasn't anyone around that I knew, I felt the presence and comfort of something bigger than me walking alongside me.

Today I fly home after 4 months of a very intense and very wonderful journey. I will never forget the people I met and the incredible stories of heart-break and redemption. I can't wait to see where this will lead, but in the meantime, there are heroes out there working hard and working smart to change things for those without a voice. There are second-chances springing up all over. But there is much, much work to be done. We as citizens of the world need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and insist that "standing by" is not okay. Daily, there are thousands of lives in jeopardy. Together, we can make a difference. So let's!

I will keep you posted as plans develop, in the meantime, thank you all for your support, your encouragement, your prayers, your shoulders and your emails. Thank you also to all those who opened up their lives, their homes and their hearts along the way. I will never forget you.

Soli Deo Gloria!

10.31.10 *FOUND | Innovation in Cambodia

There are so many interesting projects in Cambodia changing the tide for women, men and children in sex-work  in Cambodia. Organizations are dreaming up ideas to not only provide alternative income, but to nurture blossoming futures for the next generations of Cambodia.

Will elaborate as time allows, but in the meantime, check out the links below. Three cheers for social entrepreneurs!

Bloom // www.bloomasia.org/
Future Now Cambodia // www.futurenowcambodia.com/
Friends // www.friends-international.org
Justees // www.justees.org/
Bodia Spa // www.bodia-spa.com/
Daughters of Cambodia // www.daughterscambodia.org/
Goel Community // www.aac.org.kh/goel.html
Hagar // www.hagarinternational.org/
She Home // www.sherescuehome.org/
StopStart // www.stopstart.com.au/home

10.30.10 *FOUND | Wanderlust Cambodia

This is how it's done folks -- Elizabeth Kiester is my hero! Social entrepreneurial trail blazer.
Will write more details about the shop and the visit with Elizabeth. Check back soon.
Also, here's a great little blog about her story:
http://www.seedsandfruit.com/2010/01/elizabeth-kiester-wanderlust-fashion-designer-part-2/

10.29.10 *FOUND | Daughters of Cambodia

A wonderful experience... check back later for details.

Cambodia | history

Lots to write about here... check back soon.

Cambodia | Faces

Cambodia | Places

 

10.24.10 *FOUND | BlinkNow.org

When you are out in remote places of the world, you are always surprised to see/meet other foreigners. These are not tourist destinations. While we were sipping warm Cokes (out of glass bottles!) waiting for the news on the arrival of our delayed flight, we noticed another young woman also waiting for news on our return to Kathmandu. "Hi I'm Maggie." "Hey Maggie, what are you doing in Nepalgunj?" "Oh, I run an orphanage in Surkhet." Maggie told us her story and mentioned that she was flying to Amsterdam early the next morning for a conference for a few days. She didn't have a hotel to stay in so I invited her to the guesthouse I had been staying in, a welcoming place that I knew would help her out for the night. Of course Michelle and Prajan the inn owners welcomed us but sadly the inn was full. "Hey wait... I have 2 twins beds in my room, and I am only 1, Maggie just take the other bed." You do this when you are traveling. You make do and you make friends. But you never guess the people you meet will end up being heroes. As was the case with Maggie.

A few days later, I opened up the International Herald Tribune— there was smiling Maggie surrounded by her Nepali kids. Maggie is 23 and Nicholas Kristof wanted the world to know about her story too:

"After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child. As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home. In the spring of 2010, another one of my dreams came true: Kopila Valley Primary School. Our new school (built out of locally harvested bamboo) is gorgeous and bustling with over 230 children from Surkhet and surrounding regions—many of our students are the first to ever attend school in their families. Beyond education the students are provided health care and a daily nutritious meal. I am fortunate to work with and amongst some of the finest people I have ever known: 23 Nepali faculty and staff who make-up the Kopila team. The children are thriving. I truly believe that if every child in the world is provided with their most basic needs and rights—a safe home, medical care, an education, and love, they will grow to be leaders and end cycles of poverty and violence in our world. I have grown and learned more in these past years than I could have ever imagined and created The BlinkNow Foundation to share my ideas with other young people, especially children in the U.S. I believe that in the blink of an eye, we can all make a difference. We are all truly limitless!"

To read more about Maggie's organization BlinkNow.org, please visit www.blinknow.org.
To read the full New York Times story, visit: www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/24/magazine/nepal-aid.html
After meeting people like Maggie out in the field, you think to yourself, okay faith can indeed move mountains and the world is going to be okay. You inspire me sister! Beauty found.

10.16.10 *FOUND | Maiti Nepal

Nepalgunj is the saddest place on earth. It's the sort of place that should be a ghost-town. It's filthy, it's desolate and it's desperately poor. It's like a village full of broken things that no one fixes, with starving dogs that roam sewered streets, not beyond eating their own or anything else for that matter. It stinks, its insufferably hot and... our flight was delayed. This is not the sort of place you want to stay one second longer than you have to.

Due to it's proximity to the Indian border, Nepalgunj is a primary target for human trafficking. This is the place where "Officials" turn a blind eye with a pocket full of bribes to let pimps push their merchandise of flesh over the border to sell at market. Their "merchandise" being young women and children from the hill tribes which live to the north of the border, an area with very few roads or infrastructure. Because Nepal is an incredibly rural country with very few "big" cities, many of its citizens walk for days to get anywhere. School is out of the question, medical care is often what the local witch-doctor prescribes. I venture to say that in many of these remote locations, things haven't changed in years. In some situations, you think, well it shouldn't change! It should be fine as it. But is it? No it's not. If there is famine or floods, the people do not eat, they lose their livelihood, they lose their homes. How can that be helped? Should NGOs always meddle? If children are starving and people are dying from diseases that can be simply avoided, then yes, help should be provided. A government should see that all have access to clean water, to adequate food supply, to education and to roads that can connect them to greater needs. There is very little infrastructure which makes human relief work nearly impossible. Nepal relies heavily on human relief organizations—without them, there would be even more lives lost. So, when you have pimps crawling up in to these hills with talk of nice jobs in the big city—wouldn't your ears perk up? Desperation and misinformation lend themselves to wrangling the poor in to naively believing there is someone nice enough to provide a way out. And the next thing they know, they are jammed in to a brothel with twenty other girls somewhere in India. That's how the systems works. Tragically, 5,000-7,000 girls a year get "traded" right out of Nepal through places like this. 

There are several organizations that are pushing back and standing guard in places like Nepalgunj. Maiti Nepal is an epic organization making massive progress in the fight against human trafficking. Founder Ms. Anuradha Koirala has just been nominated as one of CNN Top 10 Heroes of the Year for her relentless work in standing up to the ugly reality of flesh trade. This is an organization which understands the second-place women and children have in their society making them excruciatingly volatile to exploitive labour and domestic violence.

Maiti Nepal, led by the feisty Ms. Koirala has grown in to an organization that is no longer ignored by the authorities in Nepal or India but rather counted on for the training watch-groups seeking to stop traffickers crossing borders. There are interception zones, rescue operations and transit homes along the major "flesh-trading" routes which are instigated and maintained by Maiti Nepal. There are also many who trek up in to the hills to provide awareness information for villages who don't know that their females are at risk. As a result, thousands of girls are saved from ending up in Indian brothels. The work of Maiti is a massive, ongoing undertaking with rehabilitation homes, schools, micro-business workshops, and HIV/AIDS help. Many lives have been spared as a result of one woman saying, "One day we will really stop it, the trafficking will end." I believe you!

To read at length about the work of Maiti Nepal, please visit: www.maitinepal.org

10.15.10 *FOUND | Apple of God's Eye

Made by Survivors founder, Sarah Symons told me before I went to visit Apple of God's Eye (which she graciously coordinated) that I was "going to fall head over heels in love with Apple. I'm warning you, your life will never be the same. They are my heart. They are family. I would do anything for them."

Apple of God's Eye (AoGE) was started in 2000 by Silvio, Rose and David Silva and Dr. Jose Rodrigues after hearing stories of young girls being left for dead in the red light districts in India. Considered "unclean" as prostitutes, even in their death, they are treated as garbage and only the trash truck will take the body away. "She's just another Nepali prostitute." There are thousands of Nepali women and girls that are trafficked in to India, may whose life will end as previously described. Unwilling to accept this reality, Silvio and his family stepped out on "faith and a dream". Ten years later, they have five homes filled with almost 200 lives! "Eating clean and healthy food, sleeping in a warm bed, and going to school. We have girls and boys with their dignity restored, dreaming and knowing that God is a real God of love who loves and rescues and presents new opportunities when everything seems hopeless."

I have to write about my first impression because it's important to pay attention to what your gut tells you. In this journey of meeting new people every day, many whose language you cannot speak, well, you learn a lot from body language. So, let me tell you, when you meet the family of AoGE, you are embraced and there are immediately warm eyes and smiles that surround you. These are not just shelters, these are full-fledged homes where there is a mother, a father, a couple of dogs, and many sisters in one house—the older ones looking out for the younger ones. I remember the first time I met the women at Ashagram in India on my first journey to the east. It was that same feeling—how can one suffer the abuse you have and as the result of healing, come out with so much joy? If ever I've seen lives that are truly reborn it's these beautiful women. If you ask the founder and those that are hard at work really shepherding these young people, you will hear them say that for them it is just that they are there for them. They also attribute their life-change to something that happens internally on a spiritual level, and for them this is the healing love of Jesus Christ shown tangibly to them by those house parents who step in and show them what it means to be loved, cared for and nurtured. For many it is the first time they have felt this way. To take someone at their word, to believe that when they say they will be there for them tomorrow, they will in fact be there. They start to dream again. The word "flourish" is the best description for what I saw behind doors flung wide open to show me what it looks like to live a life that's loved. The shelter homes are beautiful and bright and each resident shares a room with several of her "sisters"— all of the rooms have big windows that look out in to Kathmandu Valley where the late October sun shines in and the future looks bright. "You are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

In additional to physical, mental and spiritual rehabilitation, Apple of God's Eye is very education focused. The want all their participants to attend the best schools possible and go on to receive higher education. Silvio is from Brazil and much of their funding comes from Brazil—so most of these young people, learn to speak Portuguese and English as well! They are also very focused on bringing up leaders within their own organization. Many of the house-parents came through the program and can therefore empathize with those that are welcomed in to their homes. Everything seems to work right here. I can't explain it... I know there is a lot of hard work that happens here, a tremendous amount of dedication from all involved, but there is something bigger at work here, something that not even the best therapists could orchestrate. I think this is a bigger kind of Love.

In addition to education, vocation is a big push for AoGE. They have a big studio set-up for carpet-weaving. The looms are quite large and those that are "masters" at the loom carefully follow patterns for custom designs. Each of these are made to order for local customers or exported overseas. Apple of God's Eye is very interested in nurturing growth in their vocational training programs. These are very, very capable young people that live in a country with very few income opportunities. Let's support organizations like this one that are clearly making a difference and life-change is apparent. Let's uphold this as the standard for after-care, where lives aren't just rescued, but lifted up and given wings to fly.

On a breezy, warm afternoon in October, Meena and her husband and I sat on the porch eating big bowls of noodles, sipping tea, watching the kids take their turn on the bamboo Dashein swing. Meena shared her story with me and her hopes for the future. Her and her husband are newly weds and they are full of dreams. They know how hard life can be in Nepal, but they are full of faith as they have seen their lives changed by God's love and by people who believe in a second chance. I will hold that afternoon's tea and noodles conversation near to me when I think back on favorite moments of this journey. Thank you Meena and Apple of God's Eye for showing me life on "faith and a dream". Beauty found!

To support their work, read their stories, view their photos and learn more about Apple of God's Eye, visit: www.theappleofgodseyes.com
To order a hand-made rug, visit Made By Survivors, if they don't have the design you are looking for, they can further your request on for a custom creation.