Planeteers: Ready, Set, Action!
Just another WordPress.com weblogNovember 26, 2008 – A Recap of Pattaya, Thailand!
Pattaya is a town with a population of around 70,000 with about 20,000 being women in prostitution. Originally a small fishing village of only a hundred families, the Vietnam War brought discovery by the Western World and Pattaya soon became the official “R & R” center for American armed forces. Shops services, bars and hotels grew to meet the demand. The tourism boom followed and nowadays, Pattaya is a thriving resort destination. It is a town centered completely on sex tourism. I had never even heard of the term until I arrived here. At first glance you see loads of Western tourists but looking deeper you see the majority is all western men looking for the perfect Thai girl. By “girl,” I mean anywhere ranging from sometimes younger than 15 years old or could be a woman older than 50. Prostitution is what this city thrives on, but it is not who these women really are. They are so much more than what these men see them as.
Some girls are sent to Pattaya by their families in order to make money to support them. Some women choose to leave their loved ones in the provinces of Thailand and venture to Pattaya with the hope of making enough money to support those they left behind. Many of these women have multiple children and sometimes even husbands that they cannot be with because they have to provide financially for their family. These women believe that they have no hope and no other choices other than entering into a life of prostitution. But there is hope in Pattaya and there is hope for the bar girls.
The Tamar Center is a non-profit organization located in Pattaya that is a prostitution recovery facility. Tamar seeks to offer alternative employment to these women, giving them a skill and a chance to earn money while getting them off the streets and out of the bars. They have a chance to work in the card room at Tamar which provides employment and opportunity to Thai women by training them in the art of making hand-crafted, original Thai-style cards. At any given time, Tamar Cards employs between 10-20 women who primarily come from the northeast of Thailand, the country’s poorest and least developed region. Also, once a year they run a three month training course for girls who decide to leave prostitution. In this course, the girls are trained in hairdressing and baking. This is a place where women who want a second chance can come and learn real life skills and live in community with others leaving the life of a bar girl.
Tamar offers hope to Pattaya.
If you would like to purchase some of the Tamar cards please visit the following website: www.tamarcards.com/about.php. The holiday cards are my favorite! If you would like to donate towards the Tamara Center please visit this site: www.tamarcards.com/d.php.
