Meeting Joe,
24, English
Execute,
plan, Co-ordinate on volunteer and community outreach programs. Provide training
for volunteers. He has been working with Starfish for the past 12 – 14 months
He is currently
working with the schools on prevention of human trafficking and English camps
for local community this school holidays.
In order to make my trip worthwhile, I also requested to talk to
the ground staff, understand their background and on the projects they were
doing, one staff I met is Joe. He is passionate on welfare and education
development. He has a clear vision of how the new dream house will be. It’s not
just to provide sanctuary to homeless children but also a learning center,
providing skills and knowledge for the children for them to earn a livelihood
in the future. It is like; don’t just give a man a fish but teach him how to
fish. An all in one center, where everyone feed on each other strength to develop
a self-sustain community.
I realize there are so much Starfish have done but none of these
good works is reflected in their website. I wish they could start archiving and
hopefully inspire more people to work for the same cause.
I have a wonderful conversation with him. I even share with him that
since last year, I’ve a dream to open a guesthouse in Sangklaburi. I realized there
are a lot of fancy resorts and hotels but none of them talks about the visible
issue of human trafficking in this town.
I wanted to build a guesthouse with the following agendas:
1) Educating tourist
or backpackers on human trafficking with
b. Thematic
room with statistic of human trafficking printed on the wall E.g India
Room or Africa room showing the statistic or the common kind of human
trafficking issues exists.
c. Merchandise –
Arty stationary with thought provoking slogans related to human trafficking,
Fashion accessories like tote bag or necklaces with chain of key that say FREE
ME
d. Tea house/Café
– renaming the drinks or food related to human trafficking issue, like Sex
slaves could be a curry or Masala Chai, originate in India, employ children at
the age of 5 to pick tea leaves 12 hours a day with little food. (Fictional)
2) It can be
also use as an operational/learning platform for locals, whom are interested in
Tourism, provide job opportunities.
3) Revenue can
be used to sustain or develop more local community projects
He did talk to me on the difficulties working in a foreign land
and things cannot move on as fast as he wants but I guess with his intention,
it’s good enough to stay longer and I also promise to guide him on the Thai
local temples, unfortunately the next few days, he was having migraine, and
perhaps my conversation with him is too intense.
After talking and sharing my “visions” to him, I’m inspired whether
to work full time in NGO. Nonetheless, I know the time is not ripe yet…
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