By Heather Askew | Project Director
I moved to Thailand in 2011 to work in an after school program for what I thought would be one year. Clearly, God had other plans. Six years later, I’m still here and in 2016, I co-founded Jojo’s Sanctuary. I was compelled to start this program with my Thai colleagues because Chiang Mai has no short-term family based foster care system for children in crisis. After seeing more than one child be left on their own after their single mom was arrested for a petty crime, I realized kids like that are at high risk of trafficking or other forms of exploitation. They need a loving family to support them through this trauma, not a massive orphanage with no time for one-on-one attention. I started thinking: What if we could be a part of engaging families in Thailand to open their homes to kids in crisis? And what if we could equip families in the kids’ home communities with the skills to protect all the kids in the community from abuse, exploitation and trafficking? Think of the impact such a program could have! I have had the desire to work in foster care for years, I just never thought I’d be working with a foreign government and other NGOs to help build a system from the ground up. I’m excited to see how far the ripples can go with our Child Empowerment Program and Foster Care Family Outreach.
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