SHALOM HOUSE

A home in Chiang Rai for abused or at risk teenagers from surrounding villages. The program is run by a local church and houses the girls, enrols them in the local high school and provides support and parenting until they reach adulthood. 

One girl, Miyo, had completed primary school in the village and her parents sent her to Chiang Rai to study high school. She lived in a dorm but suffered sexual abuse there. A relative found out about this and approached Shalom house to see if they could lodge her. She has now been at the home for a couple of years and is thriving with her peers and new family at the church.

Nah spent several years in the home while she finished high school and then went on to study social work before getting a job with a local organisation where she is now employed to support and work with other families in poverty.

History

Shalom house was started in 2009 by Ay and Jit Janee in Chiang Rai in response to hearing that a girl in the community was being abused and needed a place to stay so she could escape it.

So Ay and Jit brought these girls into their own home, not officially adopting them, but unofficially raising them as their own teenage children through high school and into university. In a short period of time, one became two, became three and eventually 5! Running now for 15 years, this strategy has been a huge success with 6 girls already graduating high school and several going onto graduate university also!

The girls tell us that they were in a loving, supporting family and keep in touch often even after graduating. In 2023 there was a reunion with past graduates of the home, 4 of them coming back and sharing to the girls currently in the program what their lives have become now.

Now in 2024, there are 4 girls in a separate home with an older “program graduate” living with them. The house is located in a safe area and Ay and Jit visit a few times a week.

Need and Risk

Chiang Rai is a town in the north of Thailand similar in size to Bathurst. The surrounding area has many smaller towns which people live, however there is limited work, limited health care and high school education. Drugs, sex and abuse is rampant in these smaller villages, compounded by poverty and adults working long hours which leaves children on their own for extended periods of time.

Human trafficking is also common in this area with “recruiters” from the cities and tourist areas often visiting looking to find young teenage girls they can lure into the fast easy money of bar and or sex work. It might start out as bar work for the first week, but when offered large bonuses it quickly becomes much more.

Budget

The home was started by locals in faith that God would provide the resources for it and He has continued to provide year after the year. It still runs on a simple budget with the girls living similar to their peers in the city. Shalom provides for their full time care while they are at high school – shelter, food, transport, school supplies and equipment.

The current cost is $900 per month, or $180 per girl.