Beyond the Reports: Seeing Peuan Peuan in Action 

written by Frances Tish, Head of Partnerships and Strategic Engagement

I’d read about the work of Peuan Peuan in reports and budget lines, so I was thrilled to finally see what the team does when I visited Pattaya and Bangkok earlier this month.

The first stop was Pattaya, where I joined our social workers for night outreach. This is some of the harder-to-talk-about work we do as our team works with people at risk of exploitation in and around the red-light district.

What I saw was a team that has clearly done this hundreds of times. They ran short, easy games designed to get people thinking about next steps, handed out information on job referrals and vocational training opportunities, and stopped along the way to check in with a few ChildSafe Agents, ordinary shopkeepers and tuk tuk drivers trained to spot when something’s off and connect people to help fast. At one point, a ChildSafe Agent phoned in a tip about someone new begging nearby and walked us over to make the introduction himself.

The stop that stuck with me was at a small tailor shop owned by a woman who’s run the shop for decades, long before the area became known for anything else. She is an active ChildSafe Agent who has watched the whole neighborhood change around her and still calls our team when she notices something wrong. We’ve worked with her to train other community members to help protect the children around them.

A few days later I visited the new drop-in center in the heart of Bangkok. The drop in center is not only for kids. Parents, guardians, and caretakers come through too, for the same reason: education and recreation on one side, guidance and referrals on the other. I’ve been told that even some local cats stop by! In the late afternoon, our social workers walk the neighborhood inviting kids to come by for games and homework help, and letting parents know about the employment services available just down the road. Despite the language barrier (my Thai starts and ends at “thank you”), every interaction I watched was inspiring, clear, and respectful.

I didn’t end my trip with a story about a superhero, dramatic rescue, or a before-and-after instant success story. What I came back with is a much better sense of what the words “dedicated” and “professional” mean when I read them in a report. I’d read those words a dozen times, and now I’ve watched what they look like at Peuan Peuan, on the ground, in Pattaya and in Bangkok.

Your support lets us keep this work going. Donate here to support our life saving work here: https://donate.stripe.com/14AcN4cqc62d17n4idfrW04