dance like no one's watching

I just got an email update from the Garden of Hope, and I am so happy that they were able to open the children's center that they had been needing! I have had the site over on the side in case anyone would like to pray for or support their efforts. At our church, we had a lady talk about this place that helps women who have been abused and basically forced into prostitution in Tailand. I love what they are doing here! If you would like to read more, here is the site: http://www.justfoodinc.org/

Here is a little about the women that they help:

Human-trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by the means of threat, force, deception, or abuse of power for the purpose of exploitation including prostitution, sexual exploitation, labor, slavery, removal of organs, adoption, or marriage.
In the Mekong sub-region, estimates indicate that anywhere from a few thousand to 200,000 individuals are trafficked each year. Trafficked victims are typically females who come from minority, rural, economically disadvantaged backgrounds and have low levels of educational attainment. These women are often trafficked into prostitution. In Thailand, the expectation that female children are to provide income for their parents is one of the contributors to the high number of women who are trafficked.

Now they are helping children in this area too through a center for them:

The Garden of Hope's Children's Drop in Center (CDIC) provides Christian care and protection to exploited and at-risk children in the red-light district of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In the past 5 years, The Garden of Hope (TGOH) has built relationships with over 100 of these children. As representatives of TGOH have secured their trust, the children have come to us with their problems, including teenage pregnancy, troubles at school, physical abuse, and being approached by strangers for sex. In April 2008, TGOH opened the CDIC, to respond to the needs of the children for a safe place to rest, study, eat, learn, and grow. On an average night we have between 30 - 50 children who come to the CDIC for a safe and fun place to be a kid. The Garden of Hope is also working with parents to raise awareness about child labor, with the goal that the children can be kids and not have to work. Since the opening of the center, many of the children are no longer selling flowers in the red-light district.