2024, The Year We Turned 30!
2024, the thirtieth year of Friends-International, is drawing to a close. Let’s spend just a little time scratching the surface of the incredible activities of our #everydayheroes over the past twelve months!
Our year began with fruitful news from Siem Reap, plus the sound of drums under the canopy at Mith Samlanh.
February brought us two stories of young women at risk who were supported by our programs. One young mum’s journey away from the streets of Phnom Penh, and another young Laotian woman rescued from trafficking through our cross border initiatives.
On into March, where celebrated Women’s Day with a great video compilation. We also talked about child protection advocacy and responsible volunteering with overseas students.
April started out with an exchange visit between Thailand and Cambodia, and we also met young Adi. We learned how support from our Jakarta team was turning things around for him.
During May we caught up on the great work of the Peuan Peuan Pattaya team, and our Thailand team also had a royal opportunity to share their fantastic work! We saw vocational training in action in Laos, then onto June and training time in child protection for ChildSafe partners. Plus a special campaign in partnership with France Volontaires was launched!
In July, Laos hosted a very special visitor to their program, and our #everydayheroes in Thailand ensured a good outcome for a mum and baby.
So to August, and the start of one year of celebrations as Friends turned 30! This post showed us how experience counts! Moving into September, we caught up with student volunteers in Indonesia.
In October, there was lot’s going on! It was time to reopen businesses, for an award for the Thailand team, a celebration of ‘back to school’ plus a special article on our 30-year journey!
November, and Friends Cup highlights were shared of this fantastic community event, plus some amazing reconnections with those we’ve worked with were recognized.
Then to December, where we learned of one former student’s journey to becoming a trainer, and celebrated impact and achievement along with our Kaliyan Mith team!
As we mentioned, this is just a tiny nutshell of the range of work we do at Friends-International. Please visit all our social media sites (links can be found on the friends-international.org homepage) to learn more about our day-to-day work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Laos. There are also our global ChildSafe Movement and 3PC International programs, our F3 and Futures projects and our amazing supporter projects in France, Switzerland, Germany and the USA!
Huge thanks to all who have supported our work since 1994 – there is still much to do, please come with us ‘Together, building futures’ into 2025!
Happy New Year!
(support our work at friends-international.org/donate)
