NGO updates - NightLight
The rough cut for our documentary is in and seeing some of the interviews again made us miss the people who were kind enough to share their time and insights with us during our research trip. Happy to say we were able to reconnect with everyone in a few days. Annie with Night Light, Michelle with CARE and Peninah with Safe Spaces replied almost immediately to our email asking for a quick update.
Not surprising, all have struggled to raise money this past year. The economy has hit everyone hard but has been especially difficult for non-profit and NGO organizations. Despite these challenges, I’m happy to say that all three of these organizations are surviving and continuing their efforts on behalf of women and girls in their communities. They’ve all been quite busy, so I’m going to break this into three blogs/posts. Let’s start with:
Annie and Night Light
Annie is an amazing woman who started Night Light, an organization that assists women and girls involved in the sex trade industry in Thailand. She and her staff make weekly visits to the girls in Bangkok’s red light district offering friendship, advice, counseling and alternate employment opportunities to those seeking a way out. In the past year, they’ve added a paper flower business to compliment their jewelry company and in February they hope to start construction on a coffee shop that would occupy the bottom floor of their building thus allowing them to employ even more women. If that wasn’t enough, Annie spent a lot of time last year traveling, building partnerships and speaking about trafficking. It seems that the trafficking of women and girls into China is increasing. Her organization has offered assistance to women from Columbia and Uganda that found their way to Bangkok after being trafficked into China. She said it was “a pattern that is becoming too common here”.
Her stories can be heartbreaking but like so many of the people we met, her work and commitment to those she helps never waivers.
To learn more and offer support, please visit her site at:
http://www.nightlightinternational.com
