No pulling on heart strings.....just the honest truth

This is a glimpse into the day and the life as a social entrepreneur, we are going to answer a few common questions we get and give you a peek into our journey.  

We often get asked why Bangkok? Why not people closer by?  It’s because we were there, we saw the need and we just said let’s do something here and now where we know we can do something. It certainly doesn’t keep us from the realities of issues in our own communities and country, this is just where we started and hope to move into other areas closer to home as well.  Bangkok is where our journey began but we all know that where we begin is often nowhere close to the unexpected destination to which we are taken.

We have not been given the dummies guide on how to start a business that helps woman formerly trafficked or exploited and make it sustainable and successful. I will not sugar coat what this looks like and make it seem seamless, smooth, or glamorous, what I will do is be honest. Every day is a new opportunity to learn something new, also known as the daily moment where we say to ourselves what the heck do we do now? But miraculously we put my creative brain and Andrew’s business brain together and maneuver through the situation that gets us just an inch further. All this to say that the challenges and struggles are real, but its REAL, not a story tweaked just right to pull on heart strings or manipulated to help inspire. What we hope for is that we can inspire through truth and through the reality of what it takes to be a part of change.

The truth is that I could write a long letter to you about one of the woman’s stories and hope to capture you through that. But what I would be in danger of is this, this woman could potentially feel once again exploited and feel like what she has to offer is the painful story of her past with no value for her skill set. Secondly portraying that this woman is poor and pathetic …. thank goodness we have come to save her, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If I walk away learning one thing it is that these women are strong, smart and capable and if given the opportunity to allow those parts of them to thrive and grow they will become some of the most powerful woman I know and I would be doing such a disservice to them by squelching that with the story of their past and making that who they are.  I also believe that it is their story to tell not mine, and when they see fit to do so they will tell it. 

In all this I will say that human to human we all need help sometimes and some people more than others and our job is to offer one another our strengths. In danger of being cliché I will say that I believe I will learn just as much from these woman as they will from me and in the end, I hope we can all say we are better for the time together because we used one another’s strengths to learn and to grow. This is what is most important and it doesn’t really matter whether it’s here in Steamboat or half way across the world, it just matters if we are doing it.