Desperate to escape poverty, parents in this village see only one solution: They send their girls away to earn money in the sex trade.
Hoping to protect our young sisters in Christ and their friends, our SEND team offered girls in the village educational scholarships. Now, instead of working as prostitutes, 17 young women have enrolled in high school.
These young scholars have exceeded our expectations. Despite coming from illiterate homes and having to learn Thai as a second language, many of the girls have earned high grade point averages, received top honors, and been chosen as valedictorians.
Now we have the opportunity to send seven of these young women on to universities in North Thailand. They will face discrimination for both their faith in Christ and their Shan ethnicity. But a university education will give them greater potential to earn a living (and even support their families) without turning to the sex trade and will open the door to possible Thai citizenship.
You can help send our scholars to university as they pursue their dreams to become accountants, chefs, translators, and doctors! Help send our girls to university so they can become role models in their village, break cycles of poverty, and witness for Christ wherever they go!
For a gift of $150 a month or $1,800 a year, you can help break cycles of generational poverty and involvement in the sex trade by sending an at-risk Shan scholar to university!
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